When thinking about how to test software these questions can help you think of ideas you might otherwise miss. These tips are useful for anyone testing software; we do integrate tips that are specfically relevant to those using the Hexawise software testing application.

• What additional things could I add that probably won't matter (but might?)
• What are the two parameters in the plan with the most values? And should I shrink the number of parameter values for either case?). If you have a parameter or two with many more parameter values than other parameters have that can greatly increase the number of test cases that must be run to explore every pairwise (or higher) combination. If those are critical to test, then they should be, but often a high number of parameter values is an indication that they really could be reduced. Using value expantions may well be a wise choice.
• Do the tests cover all the high priority scenarios that stakeholders want covered? Once you generate the tests think about high priority scenarios and if they are missing add them as required test cases. It may well be worth adding tests for the most common scenarios. Often this can be done without requiring extra tests when using Hexawise. Hexawise will just consider those and then create test cases to match your criteria which often won't require an extra test. Sometimes it will add a test or a few tests to the total, in which case you can decide the benefit is worth the added cost of those tests.
• If you're testing a process, what are the if/then points where the process diverges? Make sure the alternative processes are being tested.
• If the plan is heavily constrained, would it make sense to split it into multiple separate plans?
• Might it make a difference to how the system operates if you were to include additional variation ideas related to: who, what, when, where, why, how and how many? Those questions are often helpful in identifying parameters that should be tested (and occassionally in identifying parameter values to test).
• Have you accidentally included values in your plan that everyone is confident won't impact the system? You want to test everything that is important but if you test things that are not going to impact whether the software works or not it adds cost with no benefit.
• Have you accidentally included "script killing" negative tests in your plan? See details on this point in our training file, different types of negative tests need to be handled differently when using Hexawise
• Have you clearly thought about the implications of the distinction between impossible to test for combinations vs combinations that will lead the system to display error messages? Impossible to test combinations can be avoided using the invalid pair feature. But situations where users can enter values that should results in error messages should be tested to validate those error messages appear.
• Have you considered the cost/benefit trade-off of executing, say, 50% of the Hexawise generated test set vs 75% vs 100%? It is best to think about what is the most sensible business decision instead of just automatically going for some specfic percentage. Depending on the softare being tested and the impact on your business and customers different levels of testing will make sense.

Too often software testing fails to emphasis the importance of experienced software testers using their brains, insight, experience and knowledge to make judgements about what is the best course of action. Hexawise is a wonderful tool to help software testers but the tool needs a smart and thoughtful person to wield it and produce the results we all want to see.

Related: Software Testers Are Test Pilots - Create a Risk-based Testing Plan With Extra Coverage on Higher Priority Areas - How Much Detail to Include in Test Cases?