When building out automation frameworks, keep the stakeholders in mind

When building out an automation framework, I always try to keep the wants and needs of the stakeholders in mind.

Business analysts want to know if we have tested the product against the business requirements.

QA Managers want easy-to-read reports that spell out what is passing and what is failing at a glance.

Developers may want to check for sporadic errors that randomly pop up.

Testers want to have regression tests automated so they can focus on testing the new features... and may want a library of building blocks so they can put together their own tests.

A prioritized backlog of automation JIRA tasks keeps everything on track, and end-of-sprint demos gives the dev team a chance to chart the progress and tweak what they see.

Being embedded in a development team, I can build and customize an automation framework, one two-week Agile sprint at a time.

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Software Engineer in Test

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How automation recaptures the magic of testing

There is something magical that first time a software tester explores a web application.

A head full of questions, they fire up their favorite browser and try to figure out how how the app works. How the app behaves when you enter unacceptable parameters. How the app performs under stress. And they will happily take notes about their discoveries as they test their own assumptions how it should work until their curiosity is satiated.

Every subsequent time they view that same app, some of that magic is lost. The unfamiliar becomes the familiar becomes the routine which becomes boredom.

That is where I come in. "My job is to make your job easier", I always say to our test lead, John Jurek.

What is imperative that needs to work before we begin testing? Make that a smoke test.

What test script is so mind-numbingly boring to manually execute? Let's add that to the backlog of regression tests to write.

Sure, it might be fun to run a test once or twice, but once you run a test seeing how one part of a feature behaves in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and all the little mobile widths a responsive web application can have, the fun slowly disappears.

Keep the testers focused on testing new features. Farm out to the automated tests the rest. That helps keep the magic of testing alive.

... And once you have an automated framework stood up that fits the needs of the development team, you can start training the testers on writing their own automation to investigate the web app.

Happy Testing!

-T.J. Maher
Software Engineer in Test

BlueSky | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles