Steps to help ensure your automated testing methodology is a success.
Using automated test tools offers some great advantages that can help improve the testing process. However, it should only be under taken when the requirement is necessary. The automated testing process and the methods used in automated testing need to be measurable, repeatable and effective.
Effective test automation resolves each of these issues, allowing management to:
* A reduction in quality assurance resource – thereby making testing cheaper
* Quicker testing and bug resolution cycles
* Better visibility of test results
What can be done to make the automated quality assurance process more effective?
The method is driven by an effective methodology. Without an effective the automated testing practice can quickly turn into an expensive waste of time. Methodology is critical. The entire process should be driven by Methodology- from tool selection to the way in which the tool is applied.. It also helps to drive the approach to off shoring the âappropriateâ pieces of the quality assurance process.
The following offers a check list for a Test Manager to follow when applying an automated quality assurance methodology
10 Essentials for Effective Test Automation:
1. Know the steps of the software development process and how they relate to each other.
2. Clearly document the corporation requirements, hardware requirements and software requirements that are necessary to support your automated quality assurance process.
3. Understand that Quality assurance is a strategic effort.
4. Commit to giving software testing its own budget and funding.
5. Choose the right enabling technologies to support the quality assurance process.
6. Be very careful to ensure that the people used to build the automated testing framework are experienced and or trained.
7. Separate test design from test automation so that automation does not dominate test design.
8. Be very careful when considering to lower costs by using less expensive labor than a local team.
9. Document the goals within a test strategy and best practices for test design in a test plan.
10. Use a company or a person with the appropriate skills to build the baseline foundations of your automated testing framework