Figure: You need a common language to communicate in

Acceptance Criteria (from the Product Owner) define the exact requirements that must be met for the story to be completed. They answer the question, "How will I know when I' m done with the story?"

Figure: A User Story with Acceptance Criteria (MSF Agile Template)​

When I enter ‘Adam’ in the search box and click 'Search' I will see all entries starting with 'Adam' in the grid.

Positive Test -When I enter ‘Adam’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see all entries starting with Adam in the Grid
Negative Test - When I enter ‘zzz’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see *no* entries in the Grid

Positive Test -When I enter ‘Adam’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see all entries starting with Adam in the Grid
Negative Test - When I enter ‘zzz’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see *no* entries in the Grid
Gold Plating - If no results are retuned show a message box ‘No results found’
Gold Plating – Validation: If no search text is entered, the ‘Search’ button should be disabled
Gold Plating – Right-clicking on a column header should provide ‘Sort’ functionality
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned, display pagination with page numbers and ‘Prev’, ‘Next’ links

For tiny stories, you can omit acceptance criteria. Sometimes you just need a screenshot, or even better a video.

See screenshot and video.
Screenshot – see PDF
Video - http://ww w.youtube.com/watch?v=M3FH4D9QuzU

Figure: Bad Example – Only create 1 test plan that you use for all milestones. Add test suites and tests as you progress. This is bad because f you use this approach, you do not have historical data for your test pass rates for previous milestones

Figure: Good Example - Create test plans based on your testing goals for a specific sprint

By creating test plans for each sprint, you can see when a sprint is complete, based on your testing goals. You can also prepare the test plan for the next sprint while you complete your testing for the current sprint.
By using this approach, you can track your testing progress for each of your test plans and see that the quality of your application is improving.

Tip:If you add both manual and automated tests to your test suites, you can view the overall quality based on both of these types of tests for your test suites and test plans.

Reference:Guidance for Creating Test Plans and Test Suites

Figure: Run each 'test case' with a prescribed configuration

Figure: As you progress through each step, 'Pass' or 'Fail' the expected results. Take screen captures or video as appropriate

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Figure: Bad Example -After checking all the ‘Expected’ results in your MTM test, do not forget to 'Pass' or 'Fail' the Test Case

Figure: Good example - After all 'Test Steps' have been checked off, choose the overall status for the test. Otherwise it will continue to show as 'Active' on the reports

Figure: Bad Example – No Tests should remain as 'Active' or 'Failed' at the end of a Sprint

Figure: Good Example – every test is 'Passed'

Tip: You can pass a test from the test list. Select the Test menu, then the Test Suite. Choose the Test Case to pass and then click the green button ‘Pass Test’.

The next step is to review the Statistics of the Sprint.

Figure: Good example - This Sprint currently has 2 'Failed' tests (red), and 1 'Active' test (blue). (This 'Results' view is new in MTM 2012)

Key:

• The red is work remaining for the developers, and 
  
• The blue is working remaining for the testers (unfinished testing)
  

Positive Test -When I enter ‘Adam’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see all entries starting with Adam in the Grid
Negative Test - When I enter ‘zzz’ in the Search box and click ‘Search’ I will see *no* entries in the Grid
Gold Plating - If no results are retuned show a message box ‘No results found’
Gold Plating – Validation: If no search text is entered, the ‘Search’ button should be disabled
Gold Plating – Validation: If the button is disable and search text is entered, the ‘Search’ button becomes enabled
Gold Plating – Right clicking on a column header and using the ‘Sort’ functionality, sorts the data by that column
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned, clicking the pagination page numbers shows the correct data
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned and we are on page > 1, clicking the ‘Prev’ button goes to the previous page
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned and we are on page 1, ‘Prev’ button does not error
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned and we are on page < MaxPage, clicking the ‘Next’ button goes to the next page
Gold Plating – if a large set of results is returned and we are on page = MaxPage, clicking the ‘Next’ button does not error

Related Resources

http://www.scrumalliance.org/articles/169-new-to-user-stories

There are two ways to run an exploratory test in Microsoft Test Manager.

Figure: Bad Example - go to the Test tab, choose Do Exploratory Testing, choose a PBI, then click Explore. Too many steps​

Figure: Good Example - Right-click on a requirement in your test suite and choose "Explore requirement"

Note: You should always run an exploratory test against a PBI. This will automatically relate any bugs and test cases to that PBI (not to mention the exploratory test run).

When you start an Exploratory test, you don't see any test steps, but you can click on the title of the requirement to see its Acceptance Criteria.

Figure: Clicking on the title will show you the Acceptance Criteria

Note: You should always have Acceptance Criteria on your PBIs!

If you find a bug while testing, click the Create bug button to add a bug related to the PBI.

Figure: Creating a bug from exploratory test links to the PBI

By default, the reproduction steps will be populated with the last 10 actions you took (you can change this and other defaults with configuration).  You can cut this down to just the relevant actions by clicking Change steps.

Figure: You can change the repro steps captured in the bug very easily

Now you have a bug, you should create a matching test case so you can verify when the bug is fixed.  This also gives you a handy regression test to help ensure the problem isn't reproduced later.

Figure: Click Save and create test to create a matching test case

Again, the steps are prepopulated from your bug steps.

Figure: The test steps are prepopulated from the action recording

Related Links

1. Go to Visual Studio Marketplace and click install.

   
   

   Figure: Microsoft Test & Feedback ​(was Exploratory Testing) extension 

2. Click "Add to Chrome" to add the extension to the browser on your computer.

   

   Figure: Chrome Web Store page for Test & Feedback extension

3. Go to Chrome.
4. Start a session by clicking on the Chrome extension and then click start a session.

   

   Figure: Chrome extension icon

   
   

   Figure: Test & Feedback start session button

5. Upload the screenshot to a PBI.

   

   Figure: PBI in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) showing the screenshot
   

​Related Links

• Do you use Exploratory Testing to create Acceptance Tests?​
  
• Azure DevOps - Explore work items with the Test & Feedback extension​​
  

We have one Test Plan per sprint.

​Bug reports can come from anywhere and anyone - the more people reporting back, the better. ​​

Once a problem has been discovered, it helps to collect as much information as possible. Although there are many useful tools you can give to your test team, Problem Details Recorder has one big advantage: It's shipped with Windows since Windows 7 so anyone can record details of their issue with no preinstalled software.​​

Figure: To start Problem Steps recorder, type PSR into the start | run box 

​​​

Figure: then click 'Start Record'

Once recording, the user can repeat whatever steps to reproduce an issue.

Figure: User behavior is captured along with full screenshots. This can be saved and attached to a Bug PBI​​