Testing Challenge. Are you up for it?

[Jay Philips]

Creative Chaos has come up with a very interesting testing challenge. The challenge lists out a variety of products and laws. You as a tester need to determine what would you test & why would you test those items.

Here's the details of the challenge:

Picture It: Maryland, 1982. You've been hired as an auditor to check to see if Weiss's Grocery Store in Frederick is enforcing the sale laws correctly. You turn on your Plymouth Horizon and leave Middletown, taking Route 40 east, over Braddock Heights - in the distance you can just barely make out the famous clustered spires of Frederick.

... and then you're turning into the Weiss's parking lot. Before entering the store, you grab your clip-board and review the rules:

Weiss's five basic types of products:
A) Staples - Break, Milk, Cheese, Water, Flour, Sugar, Juice
B) Non-Staple Food such as Soda Pop, Ice Cream, Frozen Food, Candy Bars, Everything else
C) Alcoholic Beverages like Wine and Beer
D) Cigarettes
E) Other items like toys, magazines, pencils, paper cooking supplies, and so on

The following laws apply:
1) Maryland State Sales Tax of 5% applies to all items except staples
2) Only food items (staples and non-staples) can be sold on Sundays
3) All times must have a white tag that lists the price of the item; that price must be correctly charged by the cashier
4) Listed prices in the weekly 'sale' circular must be displayed with a yellow that; that price must be correctly charged by the cashier
5) You must be twenty-one years of age to purchase alcoholic beverages; the cashier should card you if you appear to be under thirty-five
6) Alcoholic Beverages cannot be sold between 10PM and 6AM
7) You must be eighteen years of age to purchase cigarettes; the cashier should request identification if you appear to be under thirty

Your job is to ensure that the correct laws and taxes are applied, and items are sold for the correct amount. (If you really want to be testing software, imagine that the rules must be applied through self-service checkout stations.)

Here are my questions/tests I have come up with:

- Can I make purchases with a credit card, debit card, check, money order, etc?
- Is there an extra fee for not paying a certain way?
- Can I spilt my payment of the purchase in half?
- Are the items in the store categorized the same as stated in the challenged?
- What should happen to products that are in betweeners? (EX: Would non alcoholic beer be under product category B or C?)
- What is the correct price list for the day I am in store?
- What is the sales tax for product A?
- Buy a variety of products and see if the sales tax adds up to 5%
- What day am I testing/visiting the store? If it's Sunday that I should not be able buy products C, D or E
- If it's Sunday attempt to purchase products C, D or E if they are on sale
- Is it 10PM-6AM based off of the register, store clock, clerk watch or my iPhone?
- If it's 2 seconds before 10 pm can I still buy product C?
- What is the price for products that have a different color tag?
- What is the price for products that don't have a tag?
- What day does the sale circular come out and how long does the sale last?
- If I purchase alcoholic beverages & cigarettes but look older than thirty and younger than thirty-five does the cashier only have to card me for the alcoholic beverages?
- If I purchase alcoholic beverages & cigarettes and look younger than thirty does the cashier only have to card me twice?
- If I buy three products and say nevermind to a product does the sales tax change?
- Are there any "sales" for buy 1 get 1 free?
- Are there any discounts/sales on buying in bulk?
- Just thought of another one: If the rules must be applied at "self-service checkout" how can the cashier card me?

Now that you've seen the challenge and my tests/questions what questions/tests would you come up with? Do you agree/disagree with any of my questions/tests?

[Terry Davis]

Hi Guys.
For my two pence worth...
Given the large number of questions that have arisen following the review of the functional specification, I would refuse to allow my team to become scapegoats for incomplete business analysis.
Clearly there are holes in the process flow and this should be flagged up to the client as an untestable design.
It is often the case that testers are not involved early enough in the project lifcycle and yet they are left holding the baby when everything goes wrong.
Its important as a tester to stand firm and push back to the business when an unworkable or incomplete set of criteria is given, from which we are expected to derive test cases. The analysis work that has been done here to point out these design flaws would serve to support a good case for the business re-assessing their project milestones.
Happy New Year to all, by the way.

Regards
Terry

[Jay Philips]

Vijay,

All very good points. Matthew Heusser is the one that put the challenge together for the rest of us to enjoy. I hope he has another one coming.

Thanks,
Jay

[Vijay]

Nice one..it kept me thinking for a while. The pain in testing a system is that there are many test combinations. But I have to say this is an interesting blog.

I was not sure this is for an automated check out or manual or partially manual (because of the points that indicate cashier looking at my ID)

I have a question from the customer's perspective. Say its Monday night at 9 30 PM and I want to have some beer after a bad day at work. I buy quiet a few items and its already 9 58 PM in the system's clock. By the time the cashier rings my other items its already 10 PM and when he rings my Beer...will the system throw an alert saying that its after 10 PM ? Does this mean, I will go home with out a Beer ? Will there be an override option for the Cashier because this is genuine case or will the cashier tell me...'rules are rules'? How would the system handle this scenario?

Options:
a. Override available. Also should be justifiable to the auditor.
b. No override. Unhappy customer.

This is an important question from a customer point of view, because I might feel so bad that I might not return to the store (if I was a regular customer) Is the risk of losing a customer acceptable ?

Again everything goes by the possibility of a situation occuring like this.

Three more.....

a. Is it a requirement that I cannot pay by cash ? I mean if you pay by Credit card the store would incur transaction charges everytime even when the sale value is very small.

b. How would the system handle, returns after a transaction is complete ? I mean when I pay by cash and then immediately figure out that I do not have enough money to take the cab back to my apartment. Can I return some items to do a cash back ?

c. Will the system accept personal checks (they are accepted at bigger stores like Walmart also) ?

[Chris Mayhew]

Wow! I am not a QC guy-just a marketer but you have opened my eyes to concepts that heavily impact business. Very well done!

[Torbjørn Syversen]

What about testing that it is possible to buy at all between 10PM-6AM.
And you verify that "If it's 2 seconds before 10 pm can I still buy product C" but what about the opposite If it's 2 seconds after 10 pm and I try to buy product C
And you don't verify "You must be twenty-one years of age to purchase alcoholic beverages"

[Jay Philips]

You know what, I just thought of another one. If the rules must be applied at "self-service checkout" how can the cashier card me?

[Matthew Heusser]

this is a well-thought out, comprehensive reply Jay. Thank you! There are multiple ways to approach the problem, so there is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. (I'm pleased to see you caught one 'aha', which is non-alcoholic beer.) I hope to provide commentary on this post on my blog in a week or so; I want to give a few more people a chance to respond.

[phil kirkham]

Were there credit and debit cards back in 1982 ?
:)

apart from that it's a quite comprehensive list of tests but I'm wondering if Mr Heusser isn't after something more, his Meta game that he's been hinting at...