Automation Framework for Software products

Here is the extract from Ramya' blog on Software Automation Framework, which is one focus area for CI for its clients.

http://ciglobal.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/building-test-automation-famework/

Extensive software testing before the product hits the market is essential for any company to maintain its brand and position among clients and partners. With the increasing adoption of agile methodologies, frequent number of revisions makes testing more sophisticated over time and becomes a larger proposition as the product nears completion. Reusable test automation frameworks coupled with test automation tools are key to shrink test cycle times. Such frameworks ensure consistency of testing, maximize re-usability and provide an outline of overall test structure.




Frameworks are built at each level of testing. Before building a test automation framework, detailed analysis for the need for automation based on the scope in order to define the expectant results, is necessary. In this newsletter, the focus is on defining the test automation / framework objectives and looking at some of the best practices towards choosing the best tools or test automation frameworks for the project at hand.



Define automation framework / objective – Designing a framework for test management including test design, automation, execution, test report management and test data generation. The framework should be easy to use, encourage re-usability, make maintainability easy and reduce the total execution time.

Identify testing scope – Based on the nature of product under test, scope for the framework is defined. The need for automation for the product is also analyzed.

Choosing the tool – Based on the scope and type of testing involved, feature checklist for the shortlisted tools is prepared while ensuring that the automation objectives are met.

Based on the functional comparison of the tools the best suited tool can be chosen to architect the framework. The tool selection and framework design pave the path towards test automation. Implementation (and the team that does the implementation) is the key towards successful test automation. CI has leveraged its years of product testing experience, its expertise on automation tools and created an easy to use automation framework.



(Reference: Software Test Automation Book by Mark Fewster and Dorothy Graham)