This blog intents to help you understand the difference between Test Plan and Case. The definition of a Test Plan and a Test Case will be given first, followed by their benefits. The final section of this blog will compare the two terms in detail so you can understand how each one works for your project needs.
What is a Test Plan?
It is a document that describes the scope, approach, resources, and schedule of planned testing activities. A document that describes an input (such as user name), action or event (logging in), and expected response (to verify that the login was successful) is known as Test Plan.
Test plans also contain information about what types of testing are planned:
- Unit testing is done by developers or testers at an early stage when individual modules or classes are tested separately from other codes.
- Integration testing verifies that separate parts of a system work together properly by connecting them physically or logically. This can be done manually or automatically with tools.
- System/acceptance/functional testing verifies actual business requirements and specifications stated in use cases against an application under development.
What is a Test Case?
A test case is a bunch of steps to execute a business process. Test cases are used to validate that the requirements have been met, to test the product against the requirements, and verify that the product is working as per the requirement.
Test cases are usually automated with tools like Jmeter, Selenium, etc., which simulate user actions on applications by performing various tasks such as searching for information, filling out forms, submitting data, etc.
Benefits of Test Plan
Test plans to describe testing—the scope, approach, and deliverables. Test plans help to identify the features that need to be tested; define the test parameters; set the test environment; define timeframes.
Test Plan helps to identify what needs to be tested. The test plan describes how software or hardware will be tested and how results will be reported. A good test plan will include a list of items that need to be tested and a summary of each item’s purpose for your organization’s goals.
Benefits of Test Case
The test case is a document that provides the steps to verify a software product’s functionality. It is a document that describes the approach of the software development cycle.
A test strategy is a document that provides an overview of the software development process and its testing activities. A test case is a document that provides the steps to be performed to verify the functionality of a software product.
Comparison between Test Plan and Test Case
| Key Attributes | Test Plan | Test Case |
|---|---|---|
| General | A large detailed document that covers management aspects in the entire testing project. | Particular document for a particular testing feature that covers only testing aspects. |
| Intended | Testers, test leaders, managers, stakeholders, and other departments need to be updated about the testing process. | Only testing teams and test leaders. |
| Sections | Both testing and project managing aspects like scheduling, scope, potential risks, staff responsibilities, bugs reporting, and more. | Only testing aspects such as test steps, test data, test environment, intended test results, real test results, test status, etc. |
| Duration | Till the end of the whole testing project. | Till the end of the particular testing process. |
Conclusion
The difference between a Test Plan and Case is that the former describes what needs to be done. At the same time, the latter provides details on how each specific instance should be tested based on input values and expected outcomes for each input value set against an expected success scenario outcome or failure scenario outcome result value set.
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