“Fast, good, cheap: pick any two.”
Yes, three of them do not tag along most of the time. But in the case of automation they do and that too in the finest form.
The prime reason why the world is behind the technology
The story is exactly the same when it comes to software testing. The astounding factor about automation testing is that it can be a continuous process making the process as efficient and fast as it can get.
But, automation doesn’t mean that it all we have to do is turn on the switch. There are certain factors that need to be met and considered before performing it.
Let’s see
Length
The project is required to traverse over numerous months. For a two-month venture, the cost to put the time in automation testing isn’t supported. Putting resources into automation forthright can guarantee that as features are created, tested, and the team proceeds onward, new functionality can be completely relapsing tested.
Cost and Budget
A committed financial plan must be designated, which incorporates costs identified with the testing tool, improvement, deployment, source, and preparing. Furthermore, the cost of maintenance for automated tests and devices must be incorporated.
Also read: 6 Software Testing Certifications That Can Guarantee You a Job
Ascertaining the ROI of your automation testing project can be tricky. Here is a common calculation some people utilize to get a rough assessment of their automation testing costs.
Automation Cost = tools cost + labor costs + costs of the automated tests maintenance
This can also assist you to determine if a test case is still worth automating as compared to testing it manually.
Focus
Project teams who select to robotize break up tests into more edible pieces maintaining the attention on small combinations or individual functions. That way, when the code is updated, just the automation test with a related application should be updated.
When you realize that it is the right time to put your money and time in a suitable automation tool you can begin searching for the best automation tool that matches your necessities.
Choose What Test Cases to Automate
It is difficult to automate all testing. So, it is essential to figure out what test cases ought to be automated first.
The advantage of automated testing is connected to how often a particular test can be rehashed. Tests that are played out just a couple of times are better left for manual testing.
Successful test automation requires careful arranging and configuration work. Begin by making an automation design. This enables you to recognize the underlying arrangement of tests to automate and fill in as a guide for future tests.
In the first place, you ought to characterize your objective for automation testing and choose which kinds of tests to automize. There are various kinds of testing, and everyone has its position in the testing procedure.
You can get the most advantage out of your automated testing endeavors on automating following cases:
-
- Repeated tests that keep running for multiple forms.
- Often utilized application that presents high-risk conditions.
- Tests that need various data collections.
- Tests that tend to cause a human mistake.
- Tests that are difficult to operate manually.
- Tests that require a ton of exertion and time when manual testing.
- Tests that run on a few diverse software or hardware platforms and setups.
How to Select Automation Tool for Software Test?
Automation testing achievement to a great extent relies upon the determination of right testing tool. It requires a great deal of time to assess pertinent tools for automation accessible in the market. Yet, this is an unquestionable requirement that will profit your undertaking in a long run.
The criteria you have to consider before choosing any testing tool:
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- What is your financial plan?
- Do you have the essential skilled asset to enforce with automation assignments?
- Does the automation tool fulfill your testing obligations?
- Is it appropriate for the undertaking environment and technology you are utilizing?
- Does it incorporate well with your other testing devices like test administration tools and project planning?
Automation Frameworks Are Important
The titans of IT industry like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon do programming at a quick pace to take care of the demand for their services and product. For these organizations—and the IT business everywhere—to receive the rewards of test automation, they depend on automation frameworks to manage their endeavors.
Test automation is a necessary component of Agile. Different center practices of Agile, for example, Test-Driven Development (TDD), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery, and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) depend on the effectiveness and dependability of test automation. The automation frameworks give the establishment that helps an assortment of the automated program tests.
Here is a speedy rundown of the standard kinds of test automation frameworks being used.
- Linear Scripting Framework: Recording and repeating test scripts in successive (“linear”) design with practically least or no adjustment.
- Keyword driven Framework: Tables on a spreadsheet decide the activity of a test script relied on a function library for a specified keyword.
- Data-driven Framework: A steady source of test criteria (external or internal data) indicates the test scripts to command.
- Modular Testing Framework: Modules of cases under test are broke down and tested with singular test scripts that can be consolidated to make bigger test scripts.
- Hybrid Testing Framework: A blend of frameworks to use the features of each.
Thus, an automation framework is a typical arrangement of guidelines, tools, and standards for your tests. Having an automation framework limits test script management.
Elements of a good test automation framework
Remember that not all of the elements specified below might be present in all frameworks. The most basic elements of a test automation framework are:
Unit testing library
The unit testing libraries make up a basic element of any test automation system.
They can be utilized to:
- Define test methods
- Perform assertions
- Run the tests
Libraries for conducting integration and end-to-end testing
When you’re hoping to make integration, end-to-end automated tests, or API-level it’s regularly a smart thought to make utilization of the features given by existing libraries.
These libraries make interfacing with your apps under test substantially simpler by abstracting endlessly all the coding required.
Libraries enabling the BDD- behavior-driven development
These don’t test tools themselves, nor do they cooperate with your application under test. Rather, they are particularly used to help the BDD procedure and are frequently mistreated to make living documentation in the range and expectation of automated tests.
Benefits of implementing test automation framework
Presently, one of the most well-known elements of an automation testing is automation framework.Having the rules set up to understand the advantages of automated tests is the fundamental target of a test automation system.
Reusable Tests:
Properly planned test automation frameworks convey routinely stable robotized tests that are simpler to reuse and keep up.
No Manual Invasion:
There are exemptions where the brief manual invasion is worthy. However, this ought not to be the standard when you have the suitable system set up. Continuously work towards unattended. Regardless of whether you’re just running your automated tests once per month, they ought to have the capacity to run unattended. Else, you’ll experience considerable difficulties later on when you endeavor to accelerate the improvement and delivery process and your automated tests don’t sustain Continuous Testing.
Direct Reporting:
Use the clearand focused reporting strategy towards the correct audience. This can be an automated build up device, chief, or an engineer, every one of which requires an alternate sort of reporting, with various data and level of detail.
Lower Cost of Support:
Reusable automated tests have a lower cost of support. More reusable and viable automated tests support to meet financial plan and accomplish the quick product launch time of modern programming advancement.
Break Your Automated Testing Efforts
Normally, the production of various tests depends on the QA designers’ ability levels. It is vital to distinguish the level of skills and involvement of your every member of the project team and break your automated testing endeavors in like manner. For example, writing automated test scripts requires master learning of scripting languages. Along these lines, to achieve these errands, you ought to have QA engineers that know the script language offered by the automated testing tool.
Some members may not be versed in writing these scripts. It is better meanwhile an automated testing device has an approach to make automated tests that don’t need a profound learning of scripting languages.
Keyword tests are regularly observed as an option to automated test scripts. Not at all like scripts, they can be effortlessly utilized by both technical and non-technical users and enable all levels of users to make intense and robust automated tests.
You ought to likewise team up on your automated testing venture with other QA engineers in the department. Testing performed by an association is more powerful to find bugs and the proper automated testing tool enables you to impart your ventures to many testers.
When you make a few simplistic automated tests, you can arrange your tests into one, bigger automated test. You can sort out automated tests by the minor or major division in the application, application’s utilitarian region, regular functions or a base collection of test data. In the event that an automated test alludes to different tests, you may need to make a test tree, where you can run tests in a particular manner.
Test Automation Process Has the Following Phases:
- Atomic Test
An atomic test is a methodology for guaranteeing that each test is completely independent. That is, it ought not to rely upon the result of other tests to set up its state, and another test ought not to influence its error or success in any capacity.
Likewise, when a robotized test comes up short, you have to know why. Having a very prepared atomic test that tests just a single thing will help you rapidly distinguish what broke if your test crashes.
Moreover, you should try to get reviews from your engineers as fast as could be feasible, and an ideal approach to do that is with a quick, properly named test.
- Test Sizing
Test size is important since tests need to run rapidly.
Now, numerous individuals imagine a customary test pyramid, which has unit tests as its base, integration tests in the center, and graphical UI tests at the top.
By test size, allude to tests that are speedier than others.
- Readability
A brisk point on test code readability—did you realize that engineers invest more time perusing code than really writing it?
It is uncommon that the individual who composed code will likewise be the one that requires to alter it. Much more dreadful, how often have you written code just to return to it months after and have no clue what it is doing?
Since, as we said, automation code is program development, you ought to make your test code on account of the reader of the code—not the PC.
This will encourage to make your test more viable, as well as will help guarantee that you don’t copy code since you didn’t comprehend what a current portion of code was doing.
This may appear like a minor issue, yet disregard readability of your automation test at your risk.
- Testability
Testability should be prepared into our applications relevantly from the beginning. As a standard piece of planning, engineers ought to consider how they can influence their application to code more testable. They can achieve this by giving things like unique component IDs for their application fields and APIs to help make guides into their application(s) that can be utilized as a part of their automated tests.
They ought to likewise be pondering how any code transforms they advance to the application will affect existing automated tests and plan as per the needs.
When you don’t do this, you’re not going to be victorious with automation for a longer time.
Keep in mind, you can’t automate that isn’t testable.
- Stable Environment
This one is an extremely basic obstacle for some project teams with their automation endeavors.
Without a steady test condition that is dependable in a known state, it will be hard for your team members to advance their automation endeavors.
Tests failing because of environmental problems instead of real application problems will make your project team members lose trust in your test review rapidly.
When teams begin disregarding automation outcomes, your test efforts end up pointless.
Define test strategies, regularly through particular technique annotations, for example, [Test] (in .NET) and @Test (in Java).
Maximum unit testing libraries offer strategies that will play out the genuine assertions that decide the final product of your automated tests. So, you’d do properly to make utilization of these, rather than writing yourself.
By and large, unit testing libraries provide a test runner that makes running the tests you made extremely direct, regardless of whether you’re running them from inside your IDE, or through a build tool or continuous integration (CI) framework or from the command line.
- Plan Data Input Store
Kinds of input data files approved by the tools should be distinguished. In view of the necessities, input files can be determined as:
Objects Identifier – Object identification syntax particular to the tool, mapped to the legitimate name of the object.
Workflows/Scenarios/Transactions based input -Complete arrangement of data for various workflows/scenarios/transactions. Every one of them means “n” number of experiments. This experiment-based user input serves the project team amid future upgrades, in a manner that different input information can be included utilizing the Test Case ID.
Custom Message – This can include custom messages to be shown for known and obscure mistakes.
Driver – File can consist a list of file/workflow/transaction ID’s to be alluded to, for a chosen batch performance.
- Create framework
Framework constructions are encouraged utilizing a similar arrangement of recognized tools. Scripting language reinforced by the test automation tool is employed to make the elements. Tool extensibility or utility or element can be produced utilizing an alternate language.
Notwithstanding the re-usable segments, worker scripts and driver scripts should be made.
- Populate Input Data Store
Information can be populated either in an automated design or manually from various data sources. Test data would be populated in view of parent-child hierarchy.
- Design Schedulers
Scheduler prerequisite should be distinguished. Schedulers can be regulated to run a worker script on a particular schedule. This strategy profits in a form that even a business user can direct the scheduler and influence the test execution to proceed.
- A reliable test data strategy
A standout amongst the most troublesome issues with regards to making automated tests is the manner by which to administer the issue of test data.
The higher you go in the test automation pyramid, the more troublesome it gets to guarantee that the test data needed to execute a given test is available or made when tests are running.
There is no single way to take care of all the test data issues. However, having a strong strategy concerning test data administration is basic to the accomplishment of your test automation attempts.
Test Automation Scripts
The real undertaking and the significant task begins from here.
A test is regarded as a solitary activity or a series of activities (written using a scripting/programming language), that characterizes whether a particular component meets functional necessities.It is implemented on a system under test to validate that the system works as expected.
The user needs the logical reasoning and writes a cryptic test or program scripts which will be executed.
We must be capable to instruct the tool to execute the test samples in a really simple way and the code should be clearly understandable to other users who see it.
Valid Data Test Sample –
public class ManageUsers{
{
@Test
public void Add_User_With_Valid_Data()
{
/* Pre conditions
*1 Check login
*2 Check logged in user has access to manage users
* */
/* Adding a user
*1. Navigate to Manage Users Grid
*2. Check for “Add Users” button. if exists,
*2.1 Click on Add user button in Manage users grid
*3. Check for Fields and Enter required fields if exists
*3. Click on Submit button
*4. Success message should be displayed
*5. Compare for the Success message
*5. 1 if message check is not enough to validate,
*6. Check for the record in Database and Validate
*/
}
}
In the above test sample of Add Users With Valid Data: To execute the test, you have to login to the application. You additionally need to check whether the user is signed in or not. Also, the other thing you have to check is whether the signed in user has access to “Add Users” or Not. In the event that those Two Conditions have passed then you ought to execute the rest otherwise you should restore the test as failed.
Invalid Data Test Sample –
@Test
public void Add_User_With_Invalid_Data()
{
/* Pre conditions
*1 Check login
*2 Check logged in user has access to manage users
* */
/* Adding a user
*1. Navigate to Manage Users Grid
*2. Check for “Add Users” button. if exists,
*2.1 Click on Add user button in Manage users grid
*3. Check for Fields and Enter required fields if exists
*3. Click on Submit button
*4. Error message should be displayed
*5. Compare for the Error message based on the input provided
* */
}
Pitfalls In Automation Testing
Project teams frequently insist that automation testing “doesn’t work.” Though this demeanor is normally caused by inadequately composed test automation more than whatever else.
In the event that you put the issues recorded in your mind as you make your test automation framework, you can bypass from a lot of these automation traps early.
Numerous issues are caused by inserting farfetched objectives, as, for instance, having an objective of achieving 100% UI automated testing scope. Project teams regularly trust that automation tests will discover all the new bugs, so they have an incorrect feeling that all is well with the automated world. Your automation is just in the same class as your tests.
Project teams likewise think that it takes little time to look after automation test. They’ll frequently make vast, end-to-end tests.However, tests ought to be minute with the goal that when they crash, you know why.
A few other regular issues that project team encounters are:
-
- Concentrating only on UI automation
- Not having a controlled test environment
- Not having a test data methodology set up
- Overlooking failing tests
- Not reusing automation code
- Not utilizing appropriate synchronization in your tests
- Not making readable automation tests
- Hard coding test data
Some Technical Aspects to Recognize
Object Recognition strategies
There ought to be a wide range of choosing a similar object with various strategies. A few objects are hard to perceive. So, the assortment of determination strategies is constantly useful.
Object Mapping Support
Likely, there ought to be an alternative to appropriately Map these objects in the object storehouse. This store ought to effectively be updatable and overseen.
Diverse Assertion Support
The test case is passed or aborted in view of assertions or checkpoints. In the event that the tool has an assortment of strategies to check your anticipated outcomes, it is useful.
Recovery Scenarios Approach
When experiment crashes and you need to proceed with the execution, what to do? In the event that recovery situations are not difficult to operate in a tool, it will enable you to perform test cases with no glitch. You can run the experiments during the evening and early in the day, you get the outcomes expressing which test cases have passed and which test cases have failed. This will happen just if recovery from crashed test cases can be effectively overseen by the tool.
Automation Testing Tools
Tool distinguishing process is a pivotal one, as it includes basic variables to be considered. Make a standard tool assessment agenda which should be done by considering teams included, sorts of testing, licensing price of the tool, upkeep cost, support and training, device’s extensibility, device’s execution and resistance and so on. Recognized testing types and prerequisites, serve as a base rule for test automation tool assessment.
Here are a few best automation tools available. This isn’t a thorough list, but instead a snappy outline of a portion of the more popular test tools.
- Web automation tools
Selenium IDE
This Firefox module gives the capacity to record test cases. Best utilized for testing web applications, functionality is restricted and unacceptable for complex web apps. The device does not enable team members to write tests for music, flash computer games, file uploads or UI/UX tests.
Sikuli
What’s great about SikuliX is that it enables you to automate anything you see on your monitor utilizing picture-based testing.
- Mobile automation tools
Robotium
This free tool enables users to record hybrid and local Android tests. It is backed by Google, can be written in Java and coordinated with Cucumber.
Appium
Appium is automation for applications. It is by all accounts the champ in the mobile testing space until now. The open source tool supportsAndroid and iOS applications, alongside hybrid and native apps. The experiments can be written in a wide assortment of software languages including (Java, C#, Python, Ruby and so forth.).
Appium is a cross-platform that implies tests can be written on different platforms utilizing similar API.
Desktop automation tools
Cucumber
An automation code tool created to help the behavior-driven development process. Cucumber is an open source tool which consolidates documentation and test specification within a sole source.
SpecFlow
SpecFlow is a free tool that gives behavior-driven testing functionalities to languages in the .NET family.
TestStack.White
TestStack.White is a free tool used to help Win32, WPF, WinForms, Silverlight, and SWT (Java) applications. Experiments are written in C# and can be incorporated with SpecFlow/Cucumber.
Service automation tools
This is the leading in a world as an open-source functional testing instrument for API testing. It supports different protocols, for example, SOAP, HTTP, REST, AMF, and JMS.
HttpWebRequest
The HttpWebRequest can be integrated with Cucumber and SpecFlow. It is a .NET library which influences the REST API to request specifically.
Few tips for successful testing
Here are some essential tips which you must follow to make your tests maximally valuable and negligibly excruciating.
Don’t Race to automation
While beginning with product automation process or tool, companies should delay and do more planning in advance before hopping into the profound end. Companies select an automation tool according to an extremely constrained engineer group, yet at last, the appraisal wasn’t sufficiently wide to perceive how it affected their regular exercises or how it helped their agile activities.
Many project team members get into obstacles with their testing techniques since they hasten into utilizing an automation tool to rapidly take care of one issue, which implies they do not have the “master plan,” or what program automation can do meanwhile for their organization.
Organizations are not testing sufficiently. They race to market their product with blinders trusting they won’t become involved with an awful deformity. The danger of not testing can be as hindering as harming the organization’s brand or market notoriety.
When the activities back off and they get direction from individuals who have mastery in agile advancement and Continuous Testing. And also, have studied the tool extensively to perceive how it supports the developers, the managers, the testers, and the officials, a majority of the people will know there is a benefit in preparing a solution that satisfies all of those multiple roles and purposes.
Make it simple to include new tests
It ought to be evident to someone altering your code how to test their changes. Make assistant functions in your test file to create set up and cut down basic. Most testing systems give “before each” and “after each” helpers. When including another test case is amazingly simple then you can be surer that your library will have high test scope after some time.
However, in case that the creator needs to invest a considerable amount of time examining precisely how to make the fitting data sources, etc., then in case they’re in a period crunch they may choose to ignore a test altogether. You ought to dependably make it simple for individuals to make the best decision.
Code or tests first?
The Test-Driven Development that manages writing tests before a feature code. This can be difficult to do as you truly don’t know precisely what your interface should seem like until the point that you begin writing it and understand some of your opinions should be changed.
On the contrary, in case you’re not centered around testing amid development, it’s obvious to wind up with code that is difficult to utilize and difficult to test.
The solution is to write code and test in parallel. It’s an imperative procedure. Hopping forward and backward between your point of view and an outsider’s in a test helps ensure your code’s interface is useful.
Test the interface
If you’re testing, it may appear to be simplest to dive into your interface and test that private variables have the correct value at the perfect time. While this appears to be advantageous, it has a few issues.
A tree ought to have a similar conduct whether it’s executed with pointers or as a flat array. Your tests should be revised if the inside execution is changed.
Likewise, altering with the internals of the interface removes the concentration from what truly matters.
It’s smarter to concentrate on your time on the rightness of genuine use-cases.
Know whether devices reinforce innovations and outsider controls
You must know first that what approaches are being utilized as a part of your application. Counsel your engineers and developers.
For instance, if they are utilizing SilverLight or HTML 5 in web applications, be careful, there are very few automation devices to help them. In case that the tool commands support for these advances, download the trial version of it and endeavor to distinguish diverse objects in yourproject. When the tool neglects to distinguish them, thus, their claim is false. This action will spare you from a later despair.
Next, you ought to assess the cost, comprising maintenance. In the event that you anticipate having your entire project team assist with the automation exertion, make a point to utilize a tool that uses similar languages and tools your developers utilize.
Stopping new bugs after some time
For vast codebases avoiding bugs after some time is extremely a crucial element of tests. In codebases with numerous developers, testers, engineers contributing, you don’t really have control over changes to your code and particularly changes to the code that your code relies upon.
Automation is only one of the several sorts of test practices that can be utilized by testers.
In case that you haven’t written tests, at that point there’s no steadfast path for different coders to realize that their dedication has affected yours. When your code is still in the codebase a year or so after you’ve submitted it and there are no tests for it, bugs will sneak in and no one will see them for quite a while.
Tests are your best weapon against the many-sided quality of vast codebases. In spite of the fact that you endeavor to keep your code perfect and clear, something will dependably break.
Learn the guideline: If it makes a difference that the code works, you ought to write a test for it.
Attempt it yourself
Regardless of all the tips and learning, you’ll have to manufacture your own instinct and discern from your own particular oversights. As you develop as an engineer, you understand increasingly that testing is an extraordinary instrument, not an irritating overhead. It’s a method for helping you write your code quicker, commit fewer errors, and keep away from bug crawl.
You’ll see that writing the tests as you go improves your interfaces and prompt your code to be more testable.
Conclusion
Manual testing demands vital resources, comprising time, and system support such as servers, network bandwidth, and database storage. In fast-paced evolving environments, there may really not enough time possible for full manual testing, giving teams with the choice of launching the product without enough testing. Automated testing gives inherent solutions to the disadvantages of manual testing.
An automation testing is perfect for the test cases which will be running multiple times, such as tests that require being repeated for multiple mobile devices or web browsers.
Quality isapplied into the product via automation from the earliest starting point, not sometime later. The best way to do this is to have everybody moving in the direction of making the application under evolution as testable. This takes the entire team cooperating to produce a quality product.
Also, numerous disappointments with automation are not due to the technical issues, but instead of an organization’s issues.
Keep in mind—automation is a tedious test venture. You need to utilize it just when it bodes well. When you have the entire project team energetic about automation, and your supervisor’s desires have been accurately set, it’s an ideal opportunity to write your automation tests.