Everyone’s talking about test automation: test teams, test managers and project managers. Why? The answer is simple: test automation saves a lot of time and money! BUT test automation is not just test automation…

 

In order to take full advantage of an automated solution, some rules should be observed. Follow and implement the following 3 tips from our test experts and get an easily maintainable test automation. This quickly pays for itself!

Tip 1: Separation of Concerns

Apart from trivial “Hello World” examples and “Proofs of Concept”, test automation for a technically relevant IT system necessarily results in a comprehensive automation code. This code can then no longer be effectively managed in a monolithic structure. The decisive factor for economic efficiency is that the code has a modular, low-redundancy structure.

A separation of the code into a logical level and a technical level has top priority. The logical level describes the workflow of the test case. The technical level contains the interaction of the code with the test object. This separation ensures that if the test object is changed technically, only the technical level has to be adjusted. Under ideal circumstances, this is exactly one method of the code.

Tip 2: Framework

Complex code for test cases is difficult to understand, debug, and maintain. However, maintenance represents a large part of the total test automation effort. The costs are correspondingly high. It is therefore particularly important to keep this effort as low as possible.
A test automation framework covers a large part of frequently repeating code and thus reduces the complexity of the code.

By outsourcing this code from the test cases into the framework, the implementation of automated test cases is greatly simplified and thus more economical in terms of structure and maintenance.

Tip 3: Re-usability

A test automation component has a high re-usability when used by a large number of automated test cases. The higher the re-use rate, the more “useful” the component is.
A component-based model can automatically lead to a high re-use rate if implemented correctly. This is supported by a hierarchical layered architecture that separates the different levels of abstraction. This leads to a desirable high reuse rate at all levels of the test automation architecture.

Cost Analysis

Do you want to know if your automation is economical? Request the cost analysis and the data table. Get in touch with us via email: [email protected]

In order to decide when automation is economical, a cost analysis can be carried out according to a formula tested by our test experts. This formula is used to create a data table with all the cumulative costs of manual and automated operations. This shows from which release the break-even is reached.

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Author: Martin Koch

A fixed parameter in the aqua world – Martin Koch is responsible for product management concerning anything to do with quality assurance software aqua.

Process consulting ITIL – focusing on release – and change management, QM, QA as well as requirements management all belong to his job profile. Equally, project work for customers such as T-Mobile/Telekom and Vodafone. He started off as a Java lead developer, development and project leader for the iTAP project before taking care of conception and development within the aqua team.

In addition to his diploma in computer science, Martin Koch also contributes to the company with his experience in banking, as a developer and graphic designer for interactive media (video game ‘Creatures’) and as a developer of the tele-cooperation software used by the aircraft construction company Airbus.