Parent page: Test Automation Problems

Framework

There are 3 most popular approaches in implementation of Test Automation, and none of them isn’t ideally suitable for any environment.

Approach and problems

1) Linear scripts

• A single test case could be automated fairly quickly (especially using recording) but robustness without error-handling is very questionable
• GUI mapping is automatically performed by a Tool on the fly but duplication is very high, reusability not possible, and maintenance is expensive
• Due to a lack of structure at the Test Suite level there is a high duplication rate of the code and minimal reusability is possible (except of copy/paste but this is even worse) – so the maintenance cost is very high and there is a high chance that Test Suite won’t be functioning on time after the application is updated
• Built-in reporting isn’t friendly enough to use it as transferable Test Results
• Essentially the script is data-entry and comparison only, so validation has to be done manually – by going through all the test results
• Test scripts preparation, (update and debugging before) execution, and validation may take more time then just manual execution of the same test cases

2) Data-Driven Framework

• Library-based structure provides good usability and reusability but quality of the test scripts strongly depends on the programming skills and experience of implementing person
• Verification can be quickly implemented with checkpoints but checkpoint data maintenance is very time consuming
• The test logic is coded with the programming language so the more test scripts is created the higher is maintenance cost

3) Keyword-Driven Framework

• Requires initial investment for design and implementation of the Framework as well as requires a seasoned automation professional to implement it
• Implementation approach may still vary. There are successful and unsuccessful concepts of keyword-driven automation. A special attention should be paid on the meta-language usability for non-programming users