The Right Approach to Test Automation
Posted on Tue, May 04, 2010
Satish Taribalalu, Program Director, Ness Software Product Lab
As the head of Ness's "Testing Council," I've seen the power of test automation first hand and have actively worked to gather best practices from across our many engagements.
Along the way, I've seen testing scenarios which used to take 15 days streamlined to just one night. And I've seen script-based automation deployed to enable test-driven development and improve overall product quality.
Based on what we've learned thus far, I recommend the following approach to automation.
1. Choose the Right Products for Automation
Automation can save time, but implementation takes time too, so you might not realize the overall time savings in the present release. You have to wait for the next one. For this reason, before you start automating, you need to ask about the product roadmap and where you are on it. If the product won't be around long enough for you to see any benefit from automation, don't do it.
2. Choose the Right Automation Methodology
Automation methodologies have evolved over time from the traditional "record and play" method to more contemporary, script-based and data-driven methods.
These methods are more efficient and produce greater time savings because they let you build in reusable templates and scripts. Not only that, they are easier for your functional and business teams to use.
Applying a framework focused on reusability and ease of use to your automation projects will not only give you benefits in the longer run, but will also lead to a faster adoption of automation.
3. Choose the Right Roadmap Strategy
Automation can't work in a silo. Not only does it need to support the development work, and even be integrated into it through a "test-driven development" model, but it also needs to satisfy the concerns of business owners, project managers, and product managers.
That is, even though the move to automation is usually a technical decision, not a business decision, it still needs to be justified in business terms. When doing that, you have to show that short term pain will bring a long term gain:
"To get automation up and running will require a two month investment and may increase costs slightly for the first two cycles, but, it will improve speed and reduce costs on the next 10 cycles."
On the production side, automation needs buy-in from both functional test teams and development teams. Involve these teams upfront and make them part of the automation journey.
Remember, as part of the normal software development process, testing can be very time-consuming, and that creates a lot of pressure. Many are tempted to save time by cutting corners on testing (by doing less of it, primarily). When you test less, though, quality suffers. That is a bad outcome.
When you automate testing in the right way, on the other hand, you save time, which then allows you to be more thorough in your testing approach, and that leads to the outcome everyone wants: a better quality product.
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