This lesson explains how to use the Forced Interactions feature of Hexawise. If you want your tests to include specific combinations of Values, this one is for you!
Do you need Hexawise tests to include a particular test for a required business rule? For example...
Requirement: (#2947 - Reject Certain High Risk Flood Zone Applications)
The business rule that you want to test reads, "if an applicant with low salary and low credit rating applies for a house in a flood zone and the house will be used as a vacation residence, reject immediately."
Ask yourself: "How many test inputs do I need to trigger this business rule?"
To test this business rule, you must have these specific 4 Values included together in a single script:
Customer status must be Regular
Loan to value ratio must be 90%
Loan amount must be Large
And the property needs to be In a Flood Zone
(At the risk of stating the obvious, if this analysis shows that your model does not yet include all of the specific Values needed to test the business rule, you may need to go back to the "Parameters" screen and add one or more Parameter and/or Value)
Go to the Forced Interactions screen under Rules and add your scenario. It's simple:
Both of these steps are optional:
Type the name and/or number of your forced scenario
Type its expected result.
Select only the Values you need to trigger your business requirement, then Save.
That's it! When you create your scenarios, your forced interaction will appear at the top of the newly-generated table!
Keep the following usage tips in mind when using Forced Interactions:
This feature is not just for "official requirements." Consider including other critical ideas in your Hexawise-generated suite, like a forced scenario that contains the most common Value for each Parameter (i.e. "Happy Path").
As shown above, you don't need to specify every Value. In fact, it's better if you only force the Values needed to trigger the requirement/business rule. That way, the most variation is possible in your Hexawise-generated tests.
Keep the concept of "Expected Results" clearly separated in your mind from ordinary Parameters and Values. Treat them differently from each other as you enter your models. Typically, do not enter Expected Result values in the "Parameters" screen. The primary places you should enter the Expected Result are the "Forced Interactions" and "Scripts" screens. Read more here.
Use this feature selectively. Remember that many combinations will automatically appear in your Hexawise-generated scenarios without you needing to do anything special. If you have a business rule that only requires two Values to appear together, for example, that requirement will already be satisfied automatically whenever you create a 2-way ("pairwise") set of tests. If you're creating a 2-way set of tests, you would only need to use this special feature when you're trying to ensure that 3 or more specific Values get tested together in a single test case.