Frequently the consideration of Edge Cases comes up after all the main test cases are complete and passed. They are often considered to be extra items that may or may not contribute to the major functionality of the product and it may not be necessary for them to all pass.
However, we recently ran into a case where the ‘edge cases’ were very critical. The product depended multiple people using it at one time and multiple people monitoring all the queues continuously. However, in the implementation we were testing, some queues could be left unattended for a few minutes at shift change. The product was not equipped (for safety reasons) to allow a queue to sit with no one monitoring it and it immediately moved the queue somewhere else leading to the ‘loss’ of the queue.
The extra work late in the project added two months to the schedule.
Lessons Learned: Even if the Edge cases are not immediately obvious they need to be listed and the impact determined in order to ensure that the product will address them.
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