Put on a Gamer's Hat with Data Flow Testing

Designing tests from the point-of-view of the data is like playing a first-person-shooter game. It's fun-and it can give you a deeper understanding of the application under test. Data moves through an application like a player traverses a game. It flows through a maze (to and from the database), encounters enemies (validations), picks up inventory items (attributes), and solves puzzles (business rules) to win (accepted) or lose (rejected). Designing tests from the data’s point of view is a useful heuristic to help pinpoint the origin of the bug and to reveal bugs that may otherwise go undetected. Mitch Goldman employs the game analogy to illustrate ways to break down an application into its data-flows, design the tests, and execute them. So, put your gamer hat on and start designing tests from the data’s point of view. Have a "death match" with your bugs!

• How to break down an application into its data-flows
• Design and execute the data-flow tests to find new bugs
• Tools for designing and executing data-flow test