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Give me one test case that catches all the bugs!

Software QA/Testing Technical FAQs


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Give me one test case that catches all the bugs!

On the negative side, if there was a "magic bullet", i.e. the one test case that was able to catch ALL the bugs, or at least the most important bugs, it'd be a challenge to find it, because test cases depend on requirements; requirements depend on what customers need; and customers have great many different needs that keep changing. As software systems are changing and getting increasingly complex, it is increasingly more challenging to write test cases.
On the positive side, there are ways to create "minimal test cases" which can greatly simplify the test steps to be executed. But, writing such test cases is time consuming, and project deadlines often prevent us from going that route. Often the lack of enough time for testing is the reason for bugs to occur in the field.
However, even with ample time to catch the "most important bugs", bugs still surface with amazing spontaneity. The fundamental challenge is, developers do not seem to know how to avoid providing the many opportunities for bugs to hide, and testers do not seem to know where the bugs are hiding.

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