Build
Validate a built case
The review a newly built case gets before it is trusted: does it test the right thing, and would it fail if the feature broke?
- Unit
- minutes per case
- Where you enter it
- Build tab, Detailed mode, per vendor.
What it means
A test that passes is not necessarily a test that works. Validation is the check, per built case, that it asserts what the requirement says, that it would actually fail on a defect, and that it is stable enough to keep. In some teams this is a peer review; in others the author does it against a known-bad build.
It is per vendor because tools that generate cases — AI-assisted authoring especially — shift effort from writing to checking.
Why it matters to the cost
For AI-assisted tools this is the honest counterweight to a very low authoring time: a case generated in five minutes still needs someone to confirm it is right. Ten minutes of validation on 300 cases is 50 hours, comparable to the authoring time itself for the fastest tools.
Typical values
Five to fifteen minutes per case; toward the higher end for generated cases.
Typical values describe a category of tool — AI-native, codeless, script-based, homegrown, manual — never a named product. Why we do not price named products.
Where it appears in the model
Build — one-off
- Total test cases
- basic + average + complex Test case complexity tiers
- Build effort
- Set up, install and configure + Scoping the suite + Training time per person × People trained
- + Σ Test case complexity tiers × Build time per test case for each tier, as Scratch vs migration
- + Total test cases × Validate a built case
- Build cost
- Build effort × Effective hourly rate + Build tokens priced as Token cost
Every name is a link to its definition. See the whole model.
Try it with your numbers
Validate a built case is a row in the calculator. Change it and every total on the page moves with it — free, in your browser, nothing to install.
See how validate a built case impacts the calculation of test automation costsLast reviewed 2026-09-15. All terms.