Software testing has become a critical and ever growing part of the development life-cycle. Initially, it relied on large teams executing manual test cases. This has changed in recent years as testing teams have found a way to facilitate a faster deployment cycle: test automation. A cost-effective automation testing strategy with a result-oriented approach is always a key to success in automation testing. In this article let’s see how to build a good test automation strategy. You can get a better understanding of the concepts from the Automation Testing Certification.
Introduction to Test Automation
In manual testing, testing of a web application is done manually, by human action. Someone actually goes on a device to evaluate numerous components including design, functionality, and performance. But, manual testing can be mundane, error-prone, time-consuming, often repetitive and even boring. Whereas automation testing uses the assistance of tools, scripts, and software to perform test cases on various levels of the software.
Some of the advantages of test automation over manual testing are as follows:
- Improves test accuracy
- Saves time and effort
- It offers test coverage
- Increases test case efficiency
- Reduces maintenance costs
- Increases the speed of the execution
- Reduces manual intervention
One of the most common mistakes with test automation is going for the immediate benefits and forgetting about the bigger picture. Many teams abandon their automation efforts after a sprint or two and go back to manual testing. Now, why do you think that happens?
Most of the time, most of these companies use automation just because others are using it. Here are some of the problems:
- Companies are not sure of the right way to implement test automation
- They do not have the right automated testing methods in place
- Companies may not know when to implement test automation and when not to
- They are not aware of the right set of tools that meet their requirements
So, what they need here to succeed in test automation is careful planning and strategy: Test Automation Strategy.
Test Automation Strategy
- A cost-effective test automation strategy with a result-oriented approach is always a key to success in automation testing. Having a good test
- automation strategy will help businesses keep pace with the market and avoid any major technology failures.
To build a good test automation strategy you need to be familiar with test automation life cycle. Let’s explore the same:
Test Automation Life Cycle
Automation test life cycle has the following phases
Automation Feasibility Analysis
In this step, you check the feasibility of automation. This includes shortlisting the relevant test cases for automation and selecting the right test tool that fits your requirement.
Test Strategy
Here, you select the test automation framework. You have multiple options to choose from here. For example, linear test automation framework, data-driven framework, key-word driven framework etc.
Environment Set Up
In this phase, you set up the testing environment and acquire the required hardware and software to execute the automated test cases.
Test Script Development
In this step, you start creating the automation test scripts. Make sure that the scripts that you have written are reusable, well-structured and well documented.
Test Case Execution
In this step, you execute the test cases that you have written previously.
Test Result Generation and Analysis
In this last phase of test automation life cycle, you analyze the output of test cases and share the reports with stakeholders.
Building Blocks of Test Automation Strategy
The prime objective of any software project is to get a high-quality output while reducing the cost and the time required for completing the project. A good test automation strategy helps companies achieve that. Below is the list of building blocks of automation test strategy:
Scope of Automation
Defining a project scope includes outlining timelines and milestones for each sprint in the project. Two most important things here are:
Shortlisting the test cases to automate
One of the best models that can help you with that task is Mike Cohn’s “Test Automation Pyramid”. According to the pyramid, unit tests are quick to write. They have the highest ROI(Return of Investment) and should ideally form the backbone of your automation testing strategy. Regression test should be your next priority. Next, you need to check functionality and other quality characteristics with functional testing. Then comes UI(User Interface) tests. They are expensive, require heavy maintenance, and return the highest number of false positives/negatives.
Selecting the right test automation tool
You need to select one out of the several test automation tools available in the market. That can be a difficult task. In order to select the tool that fits best for your project, first, you need to understand your project requirements thoroughly. Identify your budget. Select the tools that fit your requirement and within your budget. Then you can shortlist based on other parameters such as licensing cost of the tool, maintenance cost, training and support, tools extensibility, performance and stability
Test Automation Environment
Setting up your test environment is another building block of test automation strategy. You can establish your automation test environment
- First by identifying the requirements of the test environment
- Then by acquiring the required tools with their licenses.
- You can also consider the data that is part of test cases like:
- Where to store the test data?
- Should the data be masked?
- What happens to the data after testing?
Test automation is like a deterministic game, where, known inputs will produce predictable outputs. A stable and predictable test environment is a prerequisite for successful test automation.