How to Test a water bottle?

This is the second post of my “How to Test” series! In my earlier “How to Test” post, I had received a comment from Pradeep asking me for a testing mission for my readers (Thanks Pradeep for pointing that out). And I had to oblige by updating the post with a detailed testing mission. My testing mission for this post (and all future posts of “How to Test” series) will remain the same. You may want to take a look at the testing mission before you start reading this post. And as my earlier post on “How to Test”, here also my major area of focus would be to generate and note down some test ideas (NOT test cases). I am not going to write any test cases or log any bug reports here. Here are some test ideas which came up in a 15 minutes brainstorming session when I sat down and tried to generate some test ideas to test a water bottle.

Note: If I were you, before going to generate some test ideas on how to test a water bottle, I would have liked to ask few questions like:

1. Is it a bottle made up off glass, plastic, rubber, some metal, some kind of disposable material or anything else?
2. Is it meant only to hold water or we can use it with other fluids like tea, coffee, soft drinks, hot chocolate, soups, wine, cooking oil, vinegar, gasoline, acids, molten lava (!) etc.?
3. Who is going to use this bottle? A school going kid, a housewife, some beverage manufacturing company, an office-goer, a sports man, a mob protesting in a rally (going to use as missiles), an Eskimo living in an igloo or an astronaut in a space ship?

These kinds of questions may allow a tester to know a product (that he is going to test) in a better way. In our case, I am assuming that the water bottle is in form of a pet bottle and actually made up off either plastic or glass (there are 2 versions of the product) and is intended to be used mainly with water. About the targeted user, even the manufacturing company is not sure about them! (Sounds familiar! When a software company develops a product without clear idea about the users who are going to use the software!)
Test ideas:1. Check the dimension of the bottle. See if it actually looks like a water bottle or a cylinder, a bowl, a cup, a flower vase, a pen stand or a dustbin! [Build Verification Testing!]
2. See if the cap fits well with the bottle. [Installability Testing!]
3. Test if the mouth of the bottle is not too small to pour water. [Usability Testing!]
4. Fill the bottle with water and keep it on a smooth dry surface. See if it leaks. [Usability Testing!]
5. Fill the bottle with water, seal it with the cap and see if water leaks when the bottle is tilted, inverted, squeezed (in case of plastic made bottle)! [Usability Testing!]
6. Take water in the bottle and keep it in the refrigerator for cooling. See what happens. [Usability Testing!]
7. Keep a water-filled bottle in the refrigerator for a very long time (say a week). See what happens to the water and/or bottle. [Stress Testing!]
8. Keep a water-filled bottle under freezing condition. See if the bottle expands (if plastic made) or breaks (if glass made). [Stress Testing!]
9. Try to heat (boil!) water by keeping the bottle in a microwave oven! [Stress Testing!]
10. Pour some hot (boiling!) water into the bottle and see the effect. [Stress Testing!]
11. Keep a dry bottle for a very long time. See what happens. See if any physical or chemical deformation occurs to the bottle.
12. Test the water after keeping it in the bottle and see if there is any chemical change. See if it is safe to be consumed as drinking water.
13. Keep water in the bottle for sometime. And see if the smell of water changes.
14. Try using the bottle with different types of water (like hard and soft water). [Compatibility Testing!]
15. Try to drink water directly from the bottle and see if it is comfortable to use. Or water gets spilled while doing so. [Usability Testing!]
16. Test if the bottle is ergonomically designed and if it is comfortable to hold. Also see if the
center of gravity of the bottle stays low (both when empty and when filled with water) and it does not topple down easily.
17. Drop the bottle from a reasonable height (may be height of a dining table) and see if it breaks (both with plastic and glass model). If it is a glass bottle then in most cases it may break. See if it breaks into tiny little pieces (which are often difficult to clean) or breaks into nice large pieces (which could be cleaned without much difficulty). [Stress Testing!] [Usability Testing!]
18. Test the above test idea with empty bottles and bottles filled with water. [Stress Testing!]
19. Test if the bottle is made up of material, which is recyclable. In case of plastic made bottle test if it is easily crushable.
20. Test if the bottle can also be used to hold other common household things like honey, fruit juice, fuel, paint, turpentine, liquid wax etc. [Capability Testing!]

These were few test ideas, which occurred to me in a short 15 minutes session. Try to take this as a testing exercise and see if you are able to generate some more interesting test ideas (I am sure you can). I would be more than interested to see your test ideas. Let me (and others) know about your test ideas by leaving behind a comment. Thanks.

More of such “How to Test” posts are going to come in near future. Please share your views on the posts. Also do let me know about any specific object/equipment that you might like to see in my next post. I would definitely try to write a “How to Test” post on that item. Stay tuned!

Happy Testing…
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About Debasis Pradhan

Debasis has over a decade worth of exclusive experience in the field of Software Quality Assurance, Software Development and Testing. He writes here to share some of his interesting experiences with fellow testers.

15 Comments:

  1. Hi Debasis,
    The way you wrote "How To Test" is very informative...I'm impressed a lot...One thing i like is, you mentioned the type of testing for each Test idea is understandable...I liked this way..
    Wish to see many blogs like this..
    -Hima.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi!
    If you are asked to write a exam time matters most.So to pass a exam you have to spontaneous and accurate,which you have really shown in this blog.Thats really great to get real time ideas in very timely fashion.Hope many many come from you.

    Apart from this I have even made a post on the same topic,taking you as the inspiration(Though I had not considered the time limit).Hope all the ones who visit this blog may even read my blog and share your comments and suggestions.
    Thanks in advance.
    Regards,
    MrSharma56
    http://truetesting.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Hima and Tupaki,

    I am glad that you found this post useful and interesting. As you have shown interest in them, I can assure of similar posts in near future. So stay Tuned for more action! :)

    I was going through your post Tupaki. You have done an excellent job (even though you have not considered the time limit :)). Keep it up.

    Regards,
    -Debasis.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Debashish,

    I do visit your blog regularly..and yes today your blog was featured by Ben Simo. Keep up the good work..
    I have recently started blogging and would love to see your comments so that i can improve..
    regards,
    Madhukar.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good work Dude !!...This blogs gives basic testing information... very useful for freshers(learner)..." How to test water bottle " & "How to test mosquito repellent" are really superb, as types of testing is mentioned with each test ideas. Good work :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good One. Keep Writing...

    TesterQA
    www.testerqa.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,
    i never expected that i can get the details abt how to test the real time objects in this way....u hav covered almost all possible types of test..its realy useful for learners..thank u for sharing ur beautiful and creative ideas.

    chythra

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi!
    thanks for the explanation. it gives a good idea for a fresher. i just wondering if you could show some insight on the difference between test scenario and test cases based on above test ideas. i have gone through lots of blogs but failed to get a clear idea between the as they didn't cite any example.
    Many Thanks
    CAHNDAN GUPTA

    ReplyDelete
  9. ank u for this g8 job ,can u pls post how to test a washing machine in you series asap.

    ReplyDelete
  10. hi.... really a great work.Tishs will surely help us a lot
    Thank you so much

    ReplyDelete
  11. hi...thank you so much for the blog


    Aishwarya

    ReplyDelete
  12. hi sir..
    can u tell me..how i test a mobile phone having alarm clock or not?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Inspiring cases.Think about the real time scenarios first while creating cases.It helps.

    ReplyDelete
  14. hii admin is their any trick to cover maximum number of test scenarios please do reply on deepakbmit9@gmail.com .The way u have explained is great... thanks..please do reply

    ReplyDelete
  15. great blog with great piece of information

    ReplyDelete

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