Unit Testing is the first step in understanding how the application is working or is not working.  It is not that imporant in unit testing that realistic patient scenarios are tested, at least at the beignning of testing.  It is more important to assure that the entire breadth of the application be tested.  Every button should be pushed--multiple times.  While unit testing sometimes begins as soon as the application is loaded as users start to "play" on the system, formal, documented unit testing needs to be performed. 

Ideally, formal unit testing should begin when design and build is complete, and all interfaces are written and active.  Often, this is not the case and so careful recording of the non-tested items should be performed. 

Testing Plan Preparation:

• Review the vendor provided User Guides, if available, as a starting point for developing your individual unit testing plan.
• Consider obtaining other organization’s testing scripts for the same vendor. 
• Verify with your project team that all workflows have been identified from this list as those they use in their day to day activities.
• Coordinate with adjacent modules to determine where overlapping items will be tested. 
• Create your testing plan and check list from the above resources.

Implementing your Testing Plan:

• Use consistent documentation.  An action should lead to an expected result.  Verify each step against the expected result.  
• Test each piece of functionality within the application multiple times.  Does it behave consistently against the expected result?
• Document any new issues, open tickets,  work towards resolution of the tickets.
• Test every output, requisitions, labels, wrist bands, printouts possible, identify issues
• As the testing period progresses, re-prioritize the application open tasks, including any new tasks which have been identified during testing, is #1 still the #1 priority?
• Validate that any touch points with another application are working; did the other application receive what you sent?  Did your application receive what you were expecting back?   Identify any issues, open tickets, work towards resolution.  This will be tested much more during integration testing but can be started during unit testing.
• Document your testing outcomes as you go, do not leave this to the end. 
• Often all the interfaces are not completed in time for unit testing.  Test the interfaces that you can and make note of the ones that require testing later.
• Make note of any training points that might need to be stressed later on.