Automation doesn't necessarily make software testing faster, more reliable, or less expensive. Since the upfront costs of setup and automation tools can be high, test automation is only profitable if the long-term costs outweigh these upfront expenses. In addition, not all automation tools and methodologies have the same characteristics, functionality and capabilities, and each project may meet different requirements, which impact costs and benefits.
In order to get the most out of test automation, here are eight recommendations based on our experience, acquired during more than 50 international corporate test automation projects. These tips are intended to help improve ROI in test automation and improve software quality.
1) Choose carefully what you need to automate
To achieve a balance of costs and benefits, it is essential to identify the factors that increase the complexity of automating a specific test project . Test automation ideally applies to code that:
a) plays an important role in an application;
b) processes high volumes of data;
c) performs common processes;
d) can be used on a set of applications.
Companies are advised to also look for non-traditional areas, or even not foreseen in the perimeter, to which they could extend their investment in automation, in particular for the testing of the installation routines of patches and bug fixes, for the management of tests, and for creating test reports.
2) Choose your test tools wisely
Companies need to recoup their investment in automation. They must therefore choose test tools capable of meeting their needs over several years. Among the appropriate evaluation criteria:
a) Support for various types of automated testing including functional testing, test management, mobile technology testing, SOA architecture testing, and IVR (interactive voice response) software testing ;
b) Support for multiple testing frameworks;
c) The ability to recognize objects created in a wide variety of programming languages;
d) Stability of configuration and operation on any environment and any platform;
e) The degree of efficiency of test execution with minimum manual effort;
f) The ability to automatically resume after application failure, to prevent interruption of tests;
g) The performance of the scripting language, facilitating the development of scripts (instructions executed as part of a specific test) that can be reused on several platforms and types of test.
3) Refine your processes
In many organizations, the lack of centralized and standardized automation processes has resulted in the test lifecycle being lengthened, disproportionately expensive, and unable to detect the maximum number of anomalies. To improve these processes, it is necessary to:
a) Describe the risks inherent in current methods and demonstrate that the test can be performed at lower cost and / or with greater efficiency;
b) That top management become involved in providing the budget and support needed to modify workflows to improve testing processes;
obtain the support of the test teams in order to achieve the improvement objectives;
c) Offer training to test managers, test specialists and engineers, to acquire specialized skills in test methodologies;
d) Prioritize process improvements based on business objectives;
e) Implement continuous measurement of test processes in order to obtain a better return on investment.
4) Choose a Framework
As with any other tool, test automation solutions must be used correctly to be effective. Choosing an appropriate framework helps increase reusability and long-term efficiency .
A framework does not replace an automation tool but serves as a roadmap to use it optimally. In a different storage space, it must also allow the configuration of the test scripts and the test data, so that the latter are reusable as much as possible and easier to manage.
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