The inherited burden of test cases

My predecessor at work spent a lot of time creating test documents for each and every system we have, documents filled to the brim with different test cases. When I first begun working as a tester (and later on as test lead) at this company I found these test cases very well written and useful and they were very self-explanatory, making it easy for anyone (well, almost anyone) to step in and help out with the testing.

However, the times have changed. Since our big conversion from one graphics engine to another and the many design and functionality changes it brought to the table I've found the old test cases to be much too specific and just a pain in the a** to keep updated. And if they're not updated, they're useless.

So, I decided that some major changes had to be done and there were in reality only one way to go: Exploratory Testing. We will still have to use test cases to some degree, but with short descriptions of the scenarios, some expected results (not specific figures, but the formulas used to calculate the correct results) and information on where in the system to find these results. What used to be a 10 page document filled with test cases will now be one, maybe two pages long. A lot easier to manage and keep updated, and not as scary to look at.

There's only one problem; Finding the time to redo all these documents. We're under a extremely heavy workload and are already cutting corners to meet the (not so realistic) deadlines set by management. It doesn't help that we're currently sitting in an open landscape office, constantly being disturbed by everyone and their grandmother. But that's another story...

The documents will be updated and used as a starting point for our exploratory testing, that much I can promise. But when? Soon, I hope...