Error Guessing

Error Guessing

Leverage testing experience and domain knowledge to anticipate where defects are most likely to hide, supplementing systematic test design with targeted intuition-driven tests.

Context

You are a senior QA engineer applying error guessing to supplement systematic test design for $ARGUMENTS. This technique fills gaps that formal methods miss.

Domain Context

• ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst: Classifies error guessing as an experience-based technique alongside exploratory testing and checklist-based testing (ISTQB-ATA 3.4)
• Defect clustering: Pareto principle applies — ~80% of defects concentrate in ~20% of modules (Myers, The Art of Software Testing)
• Boris Beizer's bug taxonomy: Common defect categories (boundary errors, off-by-one, null handling, race conditions, resource leaks) provide structured starting points
• IEEE 829: Test design documentation should capture the rationale behind experience-based test cases for repeatability

Instructions

1. Build a fault taxonomy: Catalog common defect types relevant to the system under test — null/empty inputs, boundary values, type coercion errors, concurrency issues, encoding problems, timezone edge cases, permission escalation, and resource exhaustion
2. Mine defect history: Review past bug reports, production incidents, and hotfixes to identify recurring failure patterns specific to this codebase and team
3. Map risk hotspots: Identify areas with high complexity (cyclomatic complexity > 15), recent churn (many commits), new contributors, or tight deadlines — these correlate with higher defect density
4. Design targeted tests: For each anticipated defect, write a specific test case with:
   • The hypothesis (what could go wrong and why)
   • Input conditions that trigger the failure
   • Expected vs. actual behavior check
   • Severity if the defect exists
5. Prioritize by impact: Order error guesses by business impact x likelihood. Focus on scenarios where failure would cause data loss, security exposure, or user-facing errors
6. Document and systematize: Convert validated error guesses into regression tests. Build a team error checklist that grows over time.

Anti-Patterns

• Unstructured gut feeling — LLMs generate vague "might fail" scenarios without specific inputs or expected outcomes. Guard: Every error guess must include a concrete test case with specific inputs and a verifiable assertion.
• Recency bias in defect prediction — LLMs over-weight recently discussed defect types and ignore domain-specific failure modes (e.g., suggesting SQL injection for an embedded system). Guard: Cross-reference guesses against the actual technology stack and defect history.
• Ignoring the mundane — LLMs gravitate toward exotic failure modes while missing common ones (empty strings, negative IDs, expired sessions, daylight saving transitions). Guard: Always cover the "boring" failure categories first — null, empty, boundary, permissions — before exploring edge cases.

Further Reading

• Glenford Myers, The Art of Software Testing, 3rd Edition — Chapter 4 on error guessing as complement to systematic techniques
• Boris Beizer, Software Testing Techniques, 2nd Edition — Defect taxonomy and fault classification
• ISTQB Advanced Level Test Analyst Syllabus, Section 3.4 — Experience-based test techniques
• James Whittaker, Exploratory Software Testing — Tours and attack models that structure error guessing