Verb - Noun

This technique is a tool to come up with new test ideas and to help break habits.

If you have been testing the same software for a while you have likely fallen into some habits on how you interact with it. You might not even be aware of the habits and even if you are it might not be that simple to break free of them. Using the Verbs and Nouns technique with the help of this application will allow randomness to guide you to find new ways to interact with the software.

1. First you need to identify the verbs and nouns of your application. Add the identified verbs and nouns through the accordingly labeled input text boxes. See the example at the bottom for some inspiration on finding verbs and nouns.

   Note: You don't have to identify "all" verbs and nouns, even a short list will lead to many possible scenarios to test. Also note that this technique is applicable for any software application, you don't need to have a user-facing GUI, it might just be a bit harder to identify the verbs and nouns for some applications.

2. Let this application generate a list of actions (combinations of one random verb and one random noun) by clicking the generate button.

   Note: With each added verb and noun the amount of possible combinations and the number of possible sequences these combinations can be placed in will grow quickly. With so many possibilities the list of actions generated by this application is almost guranteed to ensure that you will take actions in a very different order from what you otherwise would.
   You can choose to get a random sequence of all unique actions if you like, just check the checkbox marked "Unique" before pressing the generate button. Since this technique is as much about the sequence in which to do things, getting duplicate actions can be seen as a positive in many cases, just choose how many actions you want to generate and press the generate button. Choose the mode that helps you the most in your current testing situation.

3. Start executing the generated actions in sequence.

   Note: Some of the actions generated would be completely sensible and you have therefore most likely already tested them. Other actions might be nonsense, these might seem unusable at first glance but do not skip out on executing them, they're even better for inspiration in your testing than the sensible actions. Search for an interpretation of this nonsensical action, hopefully this will lead you into unexplored territory and testing things that you would not have thought of otherwise.
   The same is true when the sequence of actions does not seem to make sense, get creative and try to find an interpretation to how the sequence of actions could be executed. The point of this technique is to force you into doing things in a way that you would not do, or even think about, otherwise. So treasure the nonsensical actions and strange sequences that you get.