Term Definition: soap-opera testing

A technique for defining test scenarios by reasoning about dramatic and exaggerated usage scenarios. Like a soap opera on television, these scenarios reflect "real life", but are condensed and exaggerated to depict dramatic instances of system use. When defined in collaboration with experienced users, soap operas help to test many functional aspects of a system quickly and-because they are not related directly to either the systems formal specifications, or to the systems features-they have a high rate of success in revealing important yet often unanticipated problems. The definition of this term and the associated technique were developed by Hans Buwalda during his test consultancy experience with customers.