A key component of any successful automated testing process is the test automation framework. Reducing maintenance costs, testing productivity gains and increasing ROI for quality assurance teams are among the major advantages that can be provided when optimizing agile processes.
Automation is critical to an efficient testing process for the following reasons:
- Improve test efficiency
- Reduce maintenance costs
- Manual intervention whenever possible
- Test as widely as possible
- Reusability of code
Managers in the software development field have a broad understanding of how implementing automation frameworks benefits their businesses, and many in the field have come to use the term framework regularly, which is key to becoming a successful software automation project.
But for many, the question remains: What exactly are test automation frameworks and automation scripts? How does it work together, and what advantages does the framework bring to the testing process?
Defining test automation
In any industry, automation is often interpreted as automating processes that require little human intervention. In the software industry, test automation means performing various tests on software applications using licensed versions or open source automation tools. In technical terms, a test automation framework is a set of custom interactive components that help to execute scripted tests and fully report the results of tests.
In order to successfully build an automation framework, you must consider the recommendations of software quality assurance experts, which will help control and monitor the entire testing process and improve the accuracy of the results. The carefully improved automation framework allows testers to perform automated tests in a practical, simplified manner.
Different types of frameworks
Depending on how the team is going to create the framework and target automation requirements, a variety of possible answers may come to mind.
Tool-centric framework
Both commercial and open source automation tools have their own system infrastructure to help generate reports, test suites, and distributed test execution in their test environments. One example is the Selenium automation framework, which has a major component, WebDriver, that acts as a Web browser-based plug-in to control and manipulate an application’s DOM model in a Web browser. The Selenium test automation framework also has useful coding libraries and record playback tools.
Another important example of a tool-specific framework is Serenity, which is built around Selenium Webdriver and is an accelerator. In this case, the community groups specific components together to speed up the test automation implementation process.
When it comes to tool-specific frameworks such as QTP and RF, it is difficult to make a clear decision because they are pre-built with an infrastructure with emulations, reporting, and scripting ides.
Project-oriented frameworks
Such automation frameworks are customized to automate specific application projects. The project-specific framework supports certain target application test automation requirements and is driven by components built from open source libraries. It creates a test-friendly environment to run some basic functionality. These include deploying the developed application, running the application, executing test cases, direct reporting of test results, and wrapper controls that simplify coding. A project-specific framework should also have a component to support test runs in a variety of cloud environments on different OS and browsers. Such testing frameworks are common in cross-browser testing.
Keyword driven framework
Keyword-driven frameworks are those designed to attract developers and testers with less coding. They may be tool-specific or project-specific frameworks that enable less-skilled employees to write and understand automated scripts. Keyword sets for encoding (for example, Login, NavigateToPage, Click, TypeText) are installed as keyword repositories in the code base. The spreadsheet that the tester scripts from the supplied keyword references is passed to the keyword interpreter and the test is executed.
Key components of the perfect test automation framework
If you want to implement a powerful and high-performance test automation framework (whether open source or commercial), you must consider including certain components that make up its core. You don’t have to include all of the components mentioned below in every framework.
The main components of an ideal test automation framework based on various tests are:
Test library
Unit testing
Unit test libraries can be used to shape an important part of any test automation framework. You need it for:
- Annotate by a specific form (e.g
@TestEtc.) define test methods to use - Perform assertions that affect the final results of automated tests
- Run straightforward tests
Whether you run tests from the command line, IDE, proprietary tool, or CI (continuous integration) system to ensure that unit tests run in an intuitive manner, the unit test library provides test runners.
Integration and end-to-end testing
When performing integration and end-to-end test automation, it is often recommended to ensure that the functionality provided by existing test libraries is healthy. Api-level testing, driven by the application’s UI, requires components that make it easier to interact with the application under test because it eliminates unnecessary coding burdens. Therefore, try not to focus on coding in the following areas:
- Connect to the application
- Send the request
- Receive result response
Behavior-driven development
Libraries dedicated to BDD target behavioral specifications, creating executable specifications in the form of executable code. Here, different scenarios of functionality and expected behavior can be translated into code, although they do not work in the same way that testing tools interact directly with the application under test. They can be used as support for BDD processes to create real-time documentation consistent with the scope and intent of automated tests. A typical example of a set of BDD libraries is:
Test data management
The biggest challenge in software test automation and test creation is leveraging test data management systems. As the number of automated tests increases, there is always the problem of ensuring that some of the test data needed to perform a particular test is available or created. The challenge is that there is no foolproof solution to this problem, which requires a reliable approach to test data management for automation to succeed.
One way to solve this problem is to have the right MOCO tools in place to make the data simpler, clearer, and easier to digest.
Mock, Stubs and virtualization
Virtualization in software testing
When exploring and researching many ideas for automated testing, you may encounter the following:
- You want to isolate the module from the connected components that you normally experience in unit tests
- You need to deal with cumbersome and critical dependencies that are common in application integration or end-to-end testing
In this case, you find it critical to create mocks and Stubs and virtualization that reflect the behavior patterns of the connected components. Dealing with this can be a daunting task, and it is critical to choose useful virtualization tools when developing an automated testing framework.
A common mechanism for implementing patterns
In addition to the automation framework components discussed above, there are some useful mechanisms to help create, use, and maintain automated tests, such as:
- Wrapper method: use
Selenium WebdriverComponent, creating custom wrappers makes error handling easier, and can better handle timeouts, exception handling, and fault reporting. - Abstract approach: Abstract mechanisms represent improved readability and cover up redundant implementation details. For example, in creating
Selenium WebDriverThe purpose of using page objects when testing is to expose user input actions on a Web page, including entering credentials or clicking somewhere on the page. The goal is to implement advanced testing methods by going beyond or around the need to explore specific elements of the page. This approach is suitable for many similar applications and automated tests.
Test Result report
When selecting a library or mechanism for reporting test results into an automation framework, you should focus primarily on the target audience that will read or view the generated report. In this connection, we can make several notes:
- Such as
JUnitandTestNGUnit testing frameworks such asCI (Continuous Integration)Reception systems, such as servers, that will eventually interpret it and make it available to other softwareXMLFormat for rendering. - When we look for tools with reporting capabilities in the most human-understandable language, we need to consider using commercial tools that are compatible with unit testing frameworks, such as for
JunittheUFT Pro,NUnitandTestNG. - Another option is to leverage a third-party library such as ExtentReports, which creates reports of test results in a human-readable format, including visual explanations through pie charts, graphs, or images.
The CI platform
To test applications faster and more uniformly, a continuous integration platform helps teams build software and run tests periodically for new releases. This approach gives developers and stakeholders the opportunity to get regular feedback and faster responses on application quality when developing and deploying new functionality and updating existing functionality.
Source code management
Like manual testing, automated testing involves writing and storing source code and versions of test cases. Every development company has a select source code and version control system to preserve and protect source code. Automated testing requires a sound source code management system that comes in handy when working with production code. Some typical examples of source code management that any developer will give are Git, Mercurial, Subversion, and TFS.
Create a dependency manager
The primary purpose of the dependency manager is to assist in the process of collecting and managing existing dependencies and libraries used in automating the functionality of a software solution. Some tools, such as Maven and Gradle, also act as dependency managers and help build tools. Build tools are designed to help you develop automated software and run tests from source code and support libraries. Other dependent tools include Ant, NPM, and NuGet.
The process of establishing and implementing a framework
There are several ways to plan your approach to implementing automated test solutions.
- Discuss the practical applicability of automation from the user’s point of view. Check from every Angle whether it works as described in PPT (best practices for avoiding PPT automation) and test it on the technology in use.
- It is important to pay close attention to the technology of the system under test to find the most appropriate test automation tool that perfectly simulates user behavior.
- A stage-based implementation approach is recommended, where each stage has a priority to deliver automated test scripts, while adding framework capabilities to enable the desired script execution.
- Before starting software test automation, you must first calculate and estimate the ROI after implementation, the time to run manual regression or smoke tests, and the run cycle for each release in order to ensure that the automation decision is executed correctly.
The inevitable need for a test automation framework
Describing and explaining how software test automation frameworks and scripts improve the testing process does not always mean that it will work successfully for everyone who is committed to automation. However, there is no denying that a test automation framework, if planned in detail and executed correctly, can bring the following benefits to software development and testing companies:
- Minimum Time, maximum Benefit: Any viable test automation framework and automation scripts are built to minimize the time required to write and run tests, thereby providing maximum output in a short amount of time. With an excellent automation framework, you can get rid of the usual concerns, such as synchronization, error management, local configuration, report generation, interpretation, and many other challenges.
- Reusable and readable automation code: When using code mentioned in an existing component library, it will remain readable and reusable for some time to come, and all related tasks (such as reporting, synchronization, and troubleshooting) will become more accessible.
- Resource optimization: The efficiency gained from creating automated tests depends on the flexibility of their adoption. If automated systems are flexible and compatible with different teams working on different components, they can provide significant gains in resource optimization and knowledge sharing.
conclusion
In today’s fast-paced, brutal software development ecosystem, automated testing and scripting play an integral role in maintaining the speed, efficiency, and clarity of the software testing cycle. As automated testing techniques are instilled into software testing, organizations considering adopting a test automation framework must delve into the design of the final framework before stepping into this area. A well-designed framework design and component strategy to be used will form the foundation for the final test automation framework.
The best way to build a mature, mature, flexible architecture for a test automation framework is to start small, test and review frequently, and then work up to build extended versions. When implementing an automated testing framework, one recommended approach is to find a tool that can quickly and easily adapt to processes and workflows. Look for a tool that is not only flexible but can support multiple applications and languages, as this will enable the QA team to contribute effectively regardless of their background or skills.
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