The full potential of test automation lies in a well-formulated strategy. As the demand for feature-filled applications rises, independent software vendors and organizations focus more on delivering reliable and efficient products within strict product delivery deadlines.

However, as more and more companies are adopting agile and DevOps methodologies making application development a complicated process, manual testing can no longer be relied upon. When it comes to ensuring the quality and functionality of the software while speeding up its market launch, automated testing is the only viable option. Some of the key strategies adopted by firms to ensure the best use of test automation are given below.

Steps to set your test automation strategy 1. Ascertain your goals The first step is to determine a successful enterprise test automation strategy and find out which test to automate. The best example of test cases are the ones that run often, are time-consuming, requires an extensive amount of data to perform a task, can be tested over multiple platforms, and have a high probability of test failures and risk.

The first strategy for successful test automation is methodically planning it out and defining the scope and goals of test automation.

2. Preparing a test approach

The test approach influences testing practice in organizations. With test automation and agile methodology, testing is becoming an integral part of the software development process. Once the team finalizes and decides to adopt a specific test approach and determines appropriate testing levels, roles and responsibilities are assigned to the respective team members.

Deciding on the right testing method will provide the maximum value when automated. Different testing levels require various testing methods. Below are some of the testing methods that can help you to achieve maximum values.

• Unit Testing In agile methodology, unit testing is an important test automation strategy as it yields high ROI. The developers can write, execute, and maintain a small piece of code in form of either function or method, which is used during unit testing.

• Smoke Testing Smoke tests verify and provide instant feedback about the system builds. It confirms that all complicated functionalities are working without errors and defects. For an efficient smoke test, a few manageable test cases should be selected to quickly execute the tests.

• Regression Testing Whenever new features and functionalities are implemented in software, it introduces new errors in the build. Regression testing allows checking these features repetitively to detect defects. Regression testing can be automated to reduce the burden, time-to-market and cost.

• Component Testing Component testing tests the comprehensive business value and does not focus on the quality or quantity of the entity. Component testing can be automated to reduce time and expenses.

• End-to-End Testing End-to-end tests can be complicated. Hence, the testers need to select the right tools, which are easy to use, maintain and scale to ensure high ROI.

• Integration/API Testing The software development relies on API and SDK, hence validating the comprehensive application performance is critical. Integration and API testing confirm the system’s performance and stability with external systems. Automating frequently run API tests is important as some of the changed codes may affect the API functionality.

• Cross-browser Testing Running app tests manually over multiple browsers / operating systems/devices can be a time-consuming task. Automating cross-browser tests enables you to run these tests quickly. It is proven that cross-browser test automation has increased test coverage, reducing testing time and effort significantly.

3. Selecting test automation framework

Writing and running tests is based on detailed guidelines like coding standards, procedures, test-data reporting and more, etc, which is known as the test automation framework. Here is a list of test automation frameworks,

• Linear Scripting Linear scripting is the most useful framework. With record and playback features, you can record the steps in sequence and play them whenever you need them.

• Library Architecture Library architecture identifies, divides, and groups common tasks. The functions are saved in the library and used whenever the test scripts are required to use them.

• Modular-Based Testing In this type of framework, an application is divided into separate units and the testing is conducted in the unit base. Each part has a respective test script, which is later combined as merged tests.

• Data-driven Test The errors found in linear & modular-based, data-driven tests overcome it. It allows one to store data and access it from the external file to test the same feature with different sets of data, whenever needed.

• Keyword-driven Test Keywords are stored externally and are used to represent or test the GUI of an application. The actions are tested following certain guidelines and are usually separated from the test logic.

• Hybrid Testing Hybrid testing facilitates application flexibility and provides accurate test results.

4. Selecting the right tool

As a part of a test automation strategy, it is important to select the right testing tool. Selecting the right automation tool is based on an understanding of the technology upon which an application is built and the test requirements of the Application Under Test (AUT).

One of the main aspects of selecting the right automation tool is to address the testing demands of certain kinds of applications. The right automation testing tool must be compatible with the platform and easy to use.

As the number of platforms grows, the automation testing tool to validate application performance across the platform must be wisely selected. An ideal test automation tool supports cross-browser testing and has the ability for maximum use of the test scripts.

5. Create and run the tests

The next step is to write and execute the scripts. The following are the steps,

The test cases must be written in a way that enables the testers to use them in multiple projects To remove the redundancy, it must be validated to see if a similar type of case has been written before The test cases must be written in such a manner that anybody other than a test scripter would be able to execute it Based on the feature and component, the user must prioritize the test cases The high-priority test cases must be executed first

6. Maintaining test scripts

Scrutinizing testing parameters is important for maintaining test scripts. Regression tests may take more time for the applications, which are rich in features, resulting in the importance of test automation waning out.

Maintaining the test cases plays a crucial role; hence test cases must be optimized and categorized. It allows the evaluation of test case subsets, and clearly defines the purpose of test automation. The process of test automation becomes easier with smaller test cases.

Importance of a successful test automation strategy to achieve product development goals The importance of a test automation strategy is to help you achieve product development goals. Finalizing test automation strategy helps in,

• improving test accuracy – Test automation improves accuracy by reducing human errors, which occur in manual testing
• saving time and effort – Test automation reduces time and effort by delivering results faster
• offering test coverage – Test automation improves software quality by expanding the depth and scope of testing and ensuring a thorough examination and investigation of various software features
• increasing test case efficiency – Test automation improves test case efficiency by making slight improvements during the testing phase of software development cycles so that the product could be launched in the market on time
• Reducing maintenance cost – Test automation allows you to change and update testing methodology, reducing maintenance costs
• increasing the speed of the test execution – Test automation allows test experts to focus on more challenging, case-specific tests while executing redundant and lengthy test cases
• reducing manual intervention – Test automation can run with minimal manual intervention, which can be long, prone to errors and tedious
• analysing involved risks – Test automation analyses involved risks delivering accurate results within the stipulated time

Conclusion

Having a successful testing strategy and framework can impact your business and organization in many ways. Test automation encompasses more comprehensive testing allowing you to accomplish complicated test automation tasks easily. The right automation strategy promotes the reused cases of critical components and improves employee productivity. The test automation strategies help in understanding business objectives and defining product development goals.

Yethi’s well-managedTest Centre of Excellence can efficiently handle the test resources and infrastructure while ensuring the quality of applications. We help you meet your business objectives and product development goals with our test automation strategies.

Our proprietary 5th generation codeless test automation tool – Tenjin is an intuitive automated test suite. We have a test repository of 450k+ test cases, which help us to offer you high test coverage throughout all aspects of digital transformation and application testing like functional, UI/UX, performance, compatibility, security, geo-based and network testing. This smart tool blends with all test automation frameworks facilitating end-to-end testing like unit, regression smoke, integration, cross-browser and many more.