Another points giveaway! This will be easier in some ways than writing an article -- you certainly don't need to write with supergood grammar/diction, but you just need to be comprehensive. I will even split the award if you want to work with others.
The idea of this assignment is fairly easy -- to ensure that the site still works after I add new features. To this, we need tests. Not like the tests you take in school or the needle & cough tests, but software test scripts. It's actually pretty easy to do; it's just a set of a step-by-step instructions designed to test functionality of the site.
Regression Test
A regression test is an exhaustive test of the entire site. It should test every feature, from rating a game and leaving a comment to adding a random variable restriction in the advanced editor. The steps should be organized by section (Forums, Classic Editor, ADV editor, etc). Here's what the steps for testing the NEW USER module would look like:
1. From the front page, click on the LOGON button
--> Shoudl take to logon page with no error
2. If logged on, logg off and click CREATE NEW ACCOUNT.
--> should take to create new account page with no error
3. Fill in all fields, with a username of testYYMMDD (where YY is year, MM is month, DD is day)
--> should create new account and take to MY STUFF page
4. Go to PROFILE & ACCOUNT and verify that the data you entered in step #3 appears correctly
--> data should be the same
5. Go MAG Points and verify that that 15 mag points are set for creating the account
Note how each step has an instruction and an expected result. Format it how ever you'd like. I'd highly advise using MS Word because you get spelcheck and can save the document.
Smoke Test
A smoke test is a quick test to make sure the major things work. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to complete, and should include the stuff like Creating a New Game, Posting a message, that sorta stuff. The format should be the same: set of instructions and expected results. However, these would be much higher level, for example:
- Create A New Game (Classic Game)
- Add 5 pages to game
- Convert to Advanced Game
- Add chapter ... add link to that chapter .. publish game ... etc ...
If you have any questions, please ask before trying to write these. I don't know if it makes any sense or not. Also, if you plan to do write this, please post and say so, so there are no collisions with ppl working on it as well. Oh, and please don't do the whole thing at once -- my instructions probably aren't very clear, so maybe just do a section of the Regression test and post it here for some feedback to see if you know where I'm going.
