What is the difference between Test Cases and Test Scenario?

Test cases and Test Scenario are the documents used by the testers to ensure that the application meets the customer requirements. These are the most important documents that the testers prepare prior to testing. Even though the core objective of the documents is the same, there is a difference in their representation. Read on to know more.

Test cases:

Test cases refer to the detailed steps/conditions to be executed to ensure whether the application is functioning properly or not. The test case includes test input, procedure, expected result, and actual result of the functionality to be tested. The test cases can either be positive test cases or negative test cases. For example, if you are testing a search box, one of the positive test cases could be testing whether the search box accepts the valid data (alphabets). The negative test case could be submitting the box without entering any data. An effective test case should cover all the possible cases (that is both negative as well as positive). Therefore, in simple words, a test case is used to ascertain the test coverage of an application.

Test Scenarios:

Test scenario is a combination of test cases which defines what is to be tested on an application/feature, or simply test scenarios are the series of test cases. Suppose you are testing a login form. Then, the test scenario would simply be a single sentence i.e "Ensure the working of login form". Test scenarios mainly focus on the functionality and not the input datas.This document includes test conditions, where as test cases are the step by step procedure to be followed to meet this condition.

Test cases should be written after considering all the requirements. By doing so, the testing process will become simpler yet effective. Hope this article helps. Happy Testing !