What are the key elements for an effective Test Automation strategy?

Some of the key reasons for application failure rate are bad user experience and inadequate testing of the application. In the current digital landscape, there are various factors that can undermine the performance of your application. At the worse, you can even expect a data breach if the application is not rigorously tested!

Testing is multifaceted and covers an entire gamut of activities to ensure that the Application Under Test (AUT) performs flawlessly under pressure, is secure, and is robust for the volatile market conditions.

The key is to build an effective test automation strategy to eliminate the errors that can be expected in manual testing. A Test Automation framework enables teams to cut down the costs and efforts in the testing process. Most importantly, it makes the process repeatable, which helps confirm the functionalities of the application.

It also adds the reusability factor, where the test automation framework, when updated with new test cases can be reused for any other testing project.

How critical is a Test Automation strategy for an application’s efficiency?

With the new age challenges, software testing is going through some major transformations. There is a serious need to deliver applications that can sustain the threats posed by Digital Transformation and meet customer expectations.

Agile and DevOps approach have been responsible for the rising significance of software testing, where testing is done on a constant basis along with the development teams. Testing starts way ahead in the Software Development Cycle and plays a critical role in making the application market-ready.

The idea or ultimate objective is to release a quality application at speed. This makes Test Automation inseparable from Agile and DevOps approach, as it makes the process faster and repeatable. It also improves the overall test coverage and reduces the software testing efforts.

There are cases where manual testing is not feasible, specifically, for financial/ecommerce application. Such applications have multiple users across various technology platforms and devices. How do you ensure performance and functional efficiency for such instances?

Test Automation helps add velocity to your regression tests, as it is impossible to achieve it with manual execution of tests. Nevertheless, complete automation is impossible, so there should be a potent combination of manual and automated tests within your test automation strategy to make it more result-oriented.

Your test automation strategy must be result-oriented and it is possible only by collaborating with an experienced partner or developing a strategy that fits well with your teams and organization at large. Is there a defined pathway for that? Guess not, but we can suggest the key elements that can lead to an effective test automation strategy.

• Make your test automation strategy result-oriented.

Your team and organization have got a plan for a particular project/application that you are developing. Ultimately, the strategy must serve the purpose and help you attain your goals. It is important to understand and define objectives for your test automation strategy. This will help make the overall process and related activities result-oriented.

When you let your strategy get driven by objectives, you are setting up parameters to measure its success. The objectives could be different – faster time to market, rigorous regression testing, reduced testing efforts, enhanced test coverage, cost-effective testing, and much more.

• Work with a suitable test automation tool.

There are multiple tools that exist in the market – some are commercial tools, while some are popular Open-source free tools. For instance, Selenium Test Automation is gaining ground quickly due to its obvious benefits in the Test Automation space.

Choice of the tool will depend on your testing objectives and requirements as well as the budgets. But making the choice is critical.

Additionally, there are few key parameters to consider while shortlisting and freezing on a tool, namely, maintenance costs, training costs, renewal costs, support from the team, compatibility of the tool across platforms, and consistent performance of the tool across diverse projects.

Today applications have to run across various platforms/devices.

Is you tool offering such responsiveness and support? You can also consider onboarding an expert or set up Test Automation Accelerators, if the internal team is new or has minimal experience with test automation tools.

• Are your test scripts reusable? Check and proceed.

Reusability of test scripts is one of the key reasons for considering test automation. The idea is to build scripts and automation frameworks that can be implemented across functions. It is important that you consider this aspect in your test automation strategy.

When you reuse the test scripts you make the process cost-effective and bring speed at the same time. Additionally, it helps add value to the framework that can be optimized for other projects or for testing across other device platforms.

• Blend your test automation strategy within the application development plan.

With Agile and DevOps approach, testing becomes an integral aspect of the software development process. So, the plan is all-encompassing. Your test automation strategy can be successful only when it blends effectively with your overall development plan.

The best approach is to build a strategy that essentially aligns with your overall development and business goals. For instance, your goal is to build an application that is secure and collaborates with the entire vendor/third-party ecosystem.

So, depending on this objective you will prioritize and structure your test automation strategy. The objective will be to make the application/system secure and integrate effectively with third-party systems/vendor interfaces.

• Is a separate and expert team required for test automation? We think so.

A dedicated team can help build a test automation suite with necessary resources and frameworks that align with the development objectives. Importantly, the team will come with its own set of expertise and capabilities in automating test scripts.

A dedicated team will be responsible for the queries related to test automation, as it is a specialized zone and needs expertise for seamless execution and further maintenance of the test assets.

• Is your team in sync with the test automation tool and strategy?

It is critical to select the tool by mapping it with the business objectives. However, it is much more crucial to also map whether the tool is acceptable by the team. Acceptability is at various levels.

Is the team able to work with the tool? Are they able to use various features of the tool and optimize the tool for enhancing the testing efforts?

On the same lines, it is important to train the team on the tool and get them to try various features to help meet the business objectives. For instance, how to track bugs, how to build tests for effective regression testing, and much more.

This will help the organization to reap benefits from the tool and maximize ROI.

• Do you need to build test scripts for automation in the long-run?

The objective of test automation is to build an automation framework with scripts that need low maintenance. Today, the testing and development requirements can change within a jiffy. Your automation scripts might need numerous alterations. This script must change quickly and align itself with the current testing needs.

So, this eliminates its relevance in the long-term.

Is your Test Automation strategy unable to give you the required results? Cigniti’s test automation strategy enables organizations to boost release velocity, reduce time to market and cut down testing efforts, leading to higher return on investment (ROI).

Connect with us to build the essential elements for structuring a successful test automation strategy that aligns with your business objectives.