Extensive software testing before the actual release is essential for any company to maintain its position among clients and partners. The software has to perform equally well in every platform and scenario and has to be a strategic part of the entire SDLC. Frequent number of revisions makes testing more sophisticated over time, and becomes a larger and larger proposition as time goes by. The solution to this lies in adopting Test Automation, which can be defined as executing a sequence of actions without human intervention. The purpose of the process is to eliminate man-made errors and provide faster results. Companies that opt for Test Automation pass the break-even point for labor cost after just 2 to 3 runs of automated test.
There are many factors responsible for the success of building a Test Automation Framework. The key elements are:
Management Commitment: The management should be actively involved in the Test Automation framework development.
Cost and Budget: Building a framework for Test Automation needs some budgeting.
Actual Process: The actual process should be well-defined, with no ad-hoc testing and a defined guidance for test, test-coverage and criteria for test at every step.
Related resource: To make sure that Test Automation framework development goes on smoothly, there should be a dedicated team.
Realistic Expectation: The management should have realistic expectation as 100% automatic tests is not possible and that all test cannot be automated. Test Automation will bring in results only after several cycles has been executed and there is no immediate return for the investment made for building the Test Automation Framework.
Framework defines the organization's way of doing things - a Single Standard. Following this standard, the project team will achieve -
&bull A test library design that will help in effective team-communication, library-versioning and Artifacts creation.
&bull Standard scripting that will result in team consistency during test library design and prevent individuals from following their own coding standards, thus avoiding duplicate coding.
&bull Sparing the Test engineers from knowing the critical aspects of the code. Implemented libraries and codes can be executed by just invoking the needed libraries.
&bull Test Automation scripts are separated from input data store and only the input data gets manipulated whereas no modification is needed for the test scripts.
&bull By developing the libraries, they can be reused again and again, saving time for the entire organization/project team.
&bull Extensibility and maintenance becomes easy, as the re-usable library can be created as an enhanced feature. By giving right role-based access, the standard process of Test Automation scripting can be maintained.
Test Automation Framework Development Challenges:
Test Automation Framework development involves various challenges that include.
&bull Clear vision of what needs to be achieved out of this automation. It should address core questions like testing model, types of testing, which areas need to be automated etc.
&bull Tool identification and Recommendation process is a crucial process, as it means considering critical factors like creating a standard tool evaluation checklist, types of testing, and acquiring multiple tools to perform different types of testing.
&bull Framework design involves identifying requirements from multiple areas like identification of necessary utility/components, types of input data store to be communicated, communication between the systems and utility/component development, etc.
A Sensible Approach to Automation:
Pre-requisites and Assumptions
It is assumed that the user knows what test automation is all about and he has a planned approach for it. He has investigated "Test Automation Tool - Build or Buy" and has taken a decision of buying a tool or getting an open-source tool.
Step 1 - Identify Testing Scope
Considering the organization's requirements, test automation activities can be performed in three different scopes, which are Enterprise-oriented, Product-oriented, and Project-oriented.
Step 2 - Identify Testing Types
Based on the product/application/module requirement, type of testing that needs to be performed is identified. Priority must be assigned to each type of testing, based on the schedule for product release.
Step 3 - Identify Requirements to be automated
Each requirement has its own actions, validations for testing. All the identified requirements are assigned priority. This would help in identifying "Build-Verification Test (BVT)" requirements that should never fail.
Step 4- Evaluate Test Automation Tool
Identified testing types and requirements act as a base criterion for test automation tool evaluation.
&bull Checklist
&bull Identify Tools
&bull Sample Run
&bull Rate and Select Tools
&bull Implementation and Training
Step 5- Identify Requirements that can be automated
This study would result-up in coming with requirements that can be automated.
Step 6 - Design Test Automation Framework
For designing a framework, various elements need to be taken into consideration. Some of them are:
&bull Actions to be performed
&bull Database Communication
&bull Communication with additional automation tools
&bull Device Communication
&bull Log
&bull Error Handlers
&bull Custom Messages
Based on these, Test automation framework would be designed using the following guidelines like.
&bull Application-independent.
&bull Encapsulate the testers from the complexities of the test framework.
&bull Identify and abstract common functions used across multiple test scripts.
&bull Decouple complex business function testing from navigation, limit-testing, and other simple verification and validation activities.
&bull Structure scripts with minimal dependencies - Ensuring scripts executing unattended even on failures.
Step 7 - Design Data Input Store
Types of input data files supported by the tools need to be identified. They can be objects identifier; scenarios/Workflows/Transactions based input, custom message, and Driver. For all the files types, file format needs to be identified and prototyped based on the input data storage.
Step 8 - Develop framework
Framework development is facilitated using the same set of identified tools. Scripting language supported by the test automation tools is used to create the components. Tool extensibility utility/component can be developed using a different language. In addition to the re-usable components, driver scripts and worker scripts need to be created. The approach for developing re-usable utilities/components should include:
&bull Record/Replay
&bull Screen/Window/Transaction
&bull Action/Keyword
&bull Data Driven
Step 9 - Populate Input Data Store
Data can be populated either manually or in an automated fashion from different data-sources.
Step 10 - Configure Schedulers
Schedulers can be configured to run a worker script (batch script) on a specific time-period.
Key benefits of Test Automation Framework:
&bull Standard process in Production
&bull Free from dependencies
&bull Complete Coverage
&bull Future Enhancements Support
&bull Cost Estimation
Conclusion:
Automation is a great idea. To make it a good investment, the testing should adopt the automation in its framework very well. For the success of Test automation, a clear distinction between automation and the process of automation is necessary. The benefits of Test Automation Framework will fuel an interest across domains and find greater acceptance and importance in the industry.
