I was presented with a PNG screen capture of an application some time ago and asked to brainstorm test ideas based on the static representation of a limited section of the application UI.
I think I acquitted myself reasonably well at the time, but I've been thinking about the situation since then, because there is an interesting aspect to this particular application: if this software has defects, the repercussions of such defects could have a drastic effect on the physical health of users.
Assume that this application exists in order to tell the difference between snakes, so as to warn people if they are dealing with one that is poisonous or not. This is a very far-fetched analogy, but it serves to make my point. Right now, the development is in early stages, and the software is able to tell the difference between rattlesnakes, cobras, and coral snakes. Tests for those are easy: rattlesnakes have rattles, cobras have hoods, coral snakes are red, yellow, and black.
But someday we're going to want to add more snakes, like a scarlet king snake. Before we go on, take a look.
I don't have any requirement right now to add a scarlet king snake to the system, nor will I know any time soon if there ever will be such a requirement. However, the risk of confusing the two snakes is so incredibly high that I feel compelled to mitigate that risk with a test.
The appropriate test, of course, is to add a record for the scarlet king snake anyway, and to make sure regardless of the state of development of the app that the app never, ever confuses the coral snake record with the scarlet king snake record.
But the snakes are incredibly similar. How to design the test? We have to do enough research to find the 100% distinguishing feature:
Red next to Black - is safe for Jack;I put a test into my regression suite saying that regardless of any other criteria (which could change anytime: my app is under development) if red-is-next-to-yellow: always choose "coral snake"; if red-is-next-to-black: always choose "scarlet king snake".
Red next to Yellow - will kill any fellow.
I'd probably want to add a couple of other bellwether tests as well, for instance, to distinguish between cottonmouth water moccasins and other water snakes.
If these tests ever break, then my users' health is at risk, and my company is at risk for serious litigation.