Software testing has evolved into an essential and ever-increasing component of the development life cycle. Initially, big teams carried out manual test cases. This has changed in recent years as testing teams discovered a means to speed up the deployment cycle: test automation. A cost-effective automation testing plan with a results-oriented approach is always essential for automation testing success.
Organisations have embraced Agile and DevOps in order to produce high-quality software in a more timely and efficient manner. One of the most important advocates of agility is test automation. However, with an inadequate plan, an investment in Test Automation may fail to deliver its benefits.
In this article, we will talk about creating an effective Test Automation plan to assist us avoid common Test Automation problems.
Test Automation Strategy
A cost-effective test automation strategy with a results-oriented approach is always essential for automation testing success. An effective test automation approach will assist firms in keeping up with the market and avoiding severe technological disasters.
To create an effective test automation plan, you must first understand the test automation life cycle. Let’s look into it. The steps of the automation test life cycle are as follows:
- Analysis of Automation Feasibility: This step determines the viability of automation. This includes selecting the appropriate test tool and shortlisting the required test cases for automation.
- Strategy for Testing: You select the test automation framework here. There are several alternatives available to you here. For instance, a linear test automation framework, a data-driven framework, a key-word driven framework, and so on.
- Configuration of the Environment: During this phase, you set up the testing environment and purchase the hardware and software needed to run the automated test cases.
- Development of Test Scripts: This is where you begin writing the automation test scripts. Make certain that the scripts you’ve created are reusable, well-structured, and well-documented.
- Execution of Test Cases: In this stage, you will run the previously written test cases.
- Generation and Analysis of Test Results: In the last stage of the test automation life cycle, you analyse test case output and share results with stakeholders.
Why need a Test Automation Strategy
The success of test automation is defined by the Test Automation Strategy, and a well-defined automation strategy produces the greatest outcomes. The organization/team should devote significant time to strategy development. Automation can lose focus if it lacks a proper automation plan. The following are some of the things that can go wrong in the absence of an automation strategy.
- Loss of Business Value: If the test automation framework provides no business value, the Return on Investment (ROI) will be insignificant. No organisation will support anything that does not provide commercial value or has no Test Automation ROI. The automation plan should be well specified such that it provides more commercial value than expected.
- Lack of Vision: Without a long-term aim and vision, you may wind yourself bringing several tools and scrapping them more frequently.
- Wrong Tech Stack: In the absence of an automation strategy, you will end up adopting the incorrect tools and technology. If you choose the wrong tech stack and tool, you may encounter numerous issues in the long term, or you may even need to scrap existing ones and start from scratch.
- Risk Analysis: The technique also aids in predicting the risks associated with test automation. The approach will include information on if a risk exists, how it may be mitigated, workarounds, and alternatives. Without a strategy, you will have no idea what risks may occur in the future; when they do, it may be too late to find a solution. Learn more about Agile Risk-Based Testing.
Building Blocks of Test Automation Strategy
The primary goal of any software project is to produce high-quality output while minimising project costs and timelines. A solid test automation strategy can assist businesses in accomplishing this. The following are the components of an automation test strategy:
- Automation Scope: Outlining dates and milestones for each sprint in the project is part of defining a project scope. The following are the two most significant points:
- Choosing test scenarios to automate: Mike Cohn’s “Test Automation Pyramid” is one of the better models for assisting you with this endeavour. Unit tests, according to the pyramid, are easy to write. They provide the best ROI (Return on Investment) and should ideally serve as the foundation of your automation testing strategy. Your next priority should be a regression test. Then, using functional testing, you must check functioning and other quality features. Then there are UI (User Interface) testing. They are costly, need extensive maintenance, and produce the greatest number of false positives/negatives.
- Choosing the Best Test Automation Tool: You must choose one of the several test automation technologies available on the market. That can be a challenging task. To choose the right tool for your project, you must first completely grasp your project requirements. Determine your budget. Choose tools that meet your needs while remaining inside your budget. Then you can narrow down the list based on other criteria such as tool licensing costs, maintenance costs, training and support, tool extensibility, performance, and stability.
Best Practices to build a Test Automation Strategy
- Establish Objectives: Before beginning automation, you should be clear about your long-term and short-term test automation goals. You should clearly define the route map and share it with upper management and stakeholders. Some of the suggestions may assist you in defining your aim.
- Why are we contemplating test automation for this project?
- The expected business benefit from automation or ROI
- The scope of automation
- A high-level procedure to provide the automation
- The planned percentage of automation (in a stepwise manner, for example, quarter by quarter)
- Planning the Test Approach: There are various degrees of testing; automation is frequently misunderstood with end-to-end testing, although there are numerous levels. Creating test pyramids is the best technique. Unit testing is the backbone of the automation method, and false failures are quite rare. Despite the fact that unit testing is a component of white box testing, having high coverage of unit testing decreases regression. Unit testing should be required for all features under development. The contemporary architecture allows you to add a quality gate where you may specify the minimal percentage of Unit Test coverage before releasing it to the repository. The proportion of Unit Testing coverage normally ranges from 80% to 90%; however, this varies depending on the application framework, complexity, and type of application.
- Integration and API Testing: API-driven architecture is now used by practically all organisations for development. API testing serves as middle-level or integration testing, and it is simple to implement. The straightforward API testing technique yields excellent results. API testing greatly aids in the validation of business logic. Consider having integrated component testing in the absence of an API.
- UI Testing: UI testing is concerned with UI aspects. One type of UI testing is visual validation testing. UI testing primarily evaluates styles, layouts, alignments, typefaces, and so on. Well-defined UI testing aids in the reduction of UI defects and delivers a more pleasant User experience (UX).
- End-to-end testing: It is the most focused area of test automation, focusing mostly on functionality and workflow. End-to-end testing mostly simulates user behaviour through simulation. This is a perfect substitute for manual testing. End-to-end testing should be carefully documented. This also necessitates frequent maintenance to generate correct output, so keep that in mind while developing a strategy.
Choosing a Framework for Test Automation
The most important aspect after determining the business value is the sort of framework to select. There are various sorts of automation frameworks; you must discuss them with the team and select the best one.
Linear Automation Framework (Recording & Playback): The record and playback framework works when the user just records the tests and then executes them. The record and playback facilities are ideal for novices. The record and playback feature is not recommended due to its numerous restrictions.
Pros
- Simple to set up
- Simple to automate scripts
- Requires little technical expertise
Cons
- Expensive to maintain
- Difficult to utilise in the long run
Framework for Data-Driven Testing: Data-driven testing simply divides the data from the actual tests. In a data-driven framework, data is stored in external files like as CSV, JSON, and so on, and is then used dynamically in your script.
Pros
- This framework is best when your application’s data changes often.
- Running the same tests with numerous sets of data is simple and involves less effort.
Cons
- The data-driven structure necessitates strong technical abilities
- You must spend time separating data, generating data files, and incorporating them into your scripts.
- Code reuse will be limited • It will take more time
Keyword driven framework: Keywords are associated with GUI actions in a keyword-driven framework. For example, the keyword “enter the username” prompts the user to enter their username on the GUI. When the keywords are encountered, the mapping functions are invoked to conduct actions.
Pros:
- The keyword-driven architecture facilitates high levels of code reuse
- It is simple to use for entry-level testers.
Cons:
- Time-consuming keyword-driven framework
- Expensive setup
- Requires extensive technical expertise.
How to Do Automation Testing on LambdaTest
- Sign Up for LambdaTest: Go to the LambdaTest website and sign up for an account.
- 2. Select Devices: Choose the gadgets and working structures you wish to test your app on under ‘Real Time’ ‘App Testing’. LambdaTest provides a wide choice of options to meet your testing needs.
- Run Regression Tests: After setting up your account, click the ‘Start’ option to start running your tests.
- Review Results: Now, wait for these tests to be completed. You will get a notification once the tests are done.
- Use Features on the Testing Panel: When you run the app, you’ll notice components on the left side of the screen that might help you interact with it, such as reporting defects using the bug icon, sharing them with your teammates, recording screenshots, and creating videos based on the testing you do.
- Check Results: Examine the test results report on your ‘Dashboard’ under ‘Recent tests’ on the right hand side for any faults or errors that happened during the test.
Conclusion
As we conclude our discussion of automation testing methodologies, consider the critical role that tools like LambdaTest play in making this journey easier and more gratifying. LambdaTest is a reliable partner, providing an AI-powered test orchestration and test execution platform that streamlines the cross-browser testing processes.
The platform enables you to test your applications on hundreds of browsers, Mobile device labs, and operating systems simultaneously on a uniform platform. LambdaTest not only automates your testing methods, but it also promotes team communication, accelerates debugging, and assures that your product runs flawlessly in today’s diversified digital landscape.