Automated testing is considered to be an effective way to perform detailed verification of the system within short timeframes. Almost every software testing company strives to deploy test automation, but often it happens that the team achieves no results and benefits are not remarkable.
Practice indicates that there are 3 key factors of successful automation deployment: 1) it’s important to determine the need of automation deployment, automation strategy and the main goals. Sometimes it is better to perform manual testing than to automate the product test; 2) projects are duly managed; 3) automation team includes specialists that have successful experience in this sphere.
The stated factors can seem obvious, but certainly success is impossible without them and teams fail in automation deployment exactly because the criteria are not taken into account. Continuing a theme of fruitful automated testing let’s consider the main elements of any automation project:
- Reliable test environment. It is one of the key components of success. If test environment is designed and set up in a proper way, software testing results will be satisfactory and reliable.
- Appropriate test management. Usually, while automated testing, as well as while manual testing, special test management tools are used. Such tools help meet deadlines timely, properly maintain scripts, effectively create bug reports and increase test coverage. Another crucial thing is configuration management. In order to store and back up test scripts, usually, configuration management tools are used.
- Thorough preparations before creating test scripts. It is necessary to specify certain test architecture, conventions and framework.
- Cooperation with other teams. Any software development process is impossible without communication. Software testers need to have constant feedback from development or marketing team in order to understand the productivity of the software product testing and how the application is intended to work. Moreover, readiness of software development team to fix bugs timely is very important. Test automation can become ineffective if problems in the tested product are left unsolved.
- Proper training of the team members. Everybody in team should perform the work effectively and be familiar will all testing tools, test environment and architecture used on the project.
Test automation has a lot of advantages when it is properly applied. For example, it is not effective to design scripts which will be performed only once before the final release of the product. It’s important to understand, that automation is not just writing scripts, one should also set up infrastructure and background properly to make the project a success.