Automation Plan and Strategy

Hey guys, in this article I will not talk about automation tools or automation frameworks, but I will talk about how to set the strategy and choose the key scenarios and priorities to build your automation strategy.

 

Who is most interested to have automation tests running ? Quality Assurance team.

 

Why ? Because the regression tests that are always performed by the QA engineers will now be performed by automated scripts. They use the automation to run detailed, repetitive, and data-intensive tests automatically.

It helps to improve software quality and make the most of their always-limited testing resources. Automated testing will shorten your development cycles, avoid repetitive tasks and help improve software quality.

 

Why should we implement an automation test project ?

• It helps to test faster (Failures will be reported ASAP to be fixed)
• Allows them to test substantially more code (Able to build deeper tests)
• Improves test accuracy (Avoid human mistakes)
• Frees up QA engineers so they can focus on tests that require manual attention and their unique human skills (Exploratory tests)

 

For a manual testing project the cost consuming factors are:

1. People
2. Tools – Test/defect management
3. Infrastructure – environment
4. Time
5. Training

 

For an automation project, in addition to the above items it needs also:

1. Automation tools
2. Add-in for test management tool integration
3. Add-in to support AUT (like SAP, oracle etc)
4. Framework set up
5. Tool specific training

 

What determines the success of your automation ?

“Are you able to generate a better ROI (Return on Investment) in comparison to the manual route”? – If not immediately, eventually.

 

Test Plan

 

1. Decide what Test Cases to Automate
2. Setup a Continuous Integration Box
3. Select the Right Automated Testing Tool
4. Divide your Automated Testing Efforts
5. Create Good, Quality Test Data
6. Create Automated Tests that are Resistant to Changes in the UI

 

Scope

 

• Add repetitive tests that run for multiple builds.
• Add tests that tend to cause human error.
• Add tests that require multiple data sets.
• Add frequently used functionality that introduces high risk conditions.
• Add tests that are impossible to perform manually.
• Add tests that run on several different hardware or software platforms and configurations.
• Add tests that take a lot of effort and time when manual testing.
• Divide your projects in phases and prioritise them.

 

Strategy

 

• Name convention
• Reports
• Select the right automation tool
• Browsers and its versions, desktop or mobile size (Layout responsive)
• Platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Multiple mobile devices (Portrait and landscape)
• Continuous integration (Frequency which you will run the tests)
• Locations for test assets to be stored

 

Resources:

https://smartbear.com/learn/automated-testing/best-practices-for-automation/

http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/automation-test-palnning/