Learn English – the difference between a scenario and situation

comparisonsmeaningmeaning-in-context

Based on a survey done globally I have been tasked with writing a help guide to cover scenarios and situations – for a cloud app I created. But I don't understand what the difference is between a scenario and situation. I feel like they are all scenarios but when on global calls the pair keeps coming up. Is there any difference in this context?

Best Answer

In my experience, "scenario" is used in a written guide as in this example:

"In this scenario, the user is trying to create a new record for a client who is already in the database under a misspelled name. How could this user avoid adding the second record?"

A "situation" is more fact-based on a real series of events leading to the event that needs to be resolved. I generally would not use "situation" in a written guide because (IMO) it is supposed to be representative of a set of facts used to train or guide a group of people, not provide anecdotal examples...

...unless I wanted to intersperse real-life examples and then I would use "situation". For example:

"A recent real-life example of this issue was reported by our help desk when a client couldn't generate an XYZ Report after the upgrade. In that situation, Tech Support should suggest...".