How can we Design an Effective Test Automation Framework?

Testing frameworks are a set of rules and guidelines that are used to design and create test cases. A standardized test language is provided and the application under test is provided with reporting structure through which test maintenance costs can be reduced. An automation framework provides an automated test environment that can be easily set up by users, which, in turn, helps in providing better ROI for both QA and development teams. In this article, you will get to know the seven steps that are required to design an effective test automation framework.

What are automated testing frameworks?

Automated processes are optimized through the platform of automated testing frameworks. Faster cycles are facilitated through test reusability and through speeding up maintenance and test creation, wherein test data is separated from logic.

Automated testing frameworks help in lowering maintenance costs, maximizing test coverage, improving test accuracy and eventually providing a higher ROI.

 

Following are the seven steps required to design an effective test automation framework:

1. Initiate with building a proper structure: A folder structure needs to be set up and organized for the test assets. Different assets need to be kept separated from each other such as scripts, name mapping criteria, tests and also the files needs to be created that will be required within each one.

When the test assets are structured properly, then the team members can easily and quickly refer to make sure that when updates are made, tests are stable.

2. The application needs to be properly scrutinized: The team members must get familiarized with the application. What the application should do and shouldn’t do needs to be understood by reading the relevant documents. Exploratory testing can be conducted to know how the setup of the system’s internal workflows is being done. This will in turn give a clear idea as to how the application works.

3. Ascertain the testing environment: The data should be gathered that will be used for the tests and then the environments can be set up. Make sure that the configurations that are being set up can run in more than one environment. A function comprised of code is known as the event handler. It acts as a listener, wherein a script, or a series of scripts are triggered by a specific event.

4. A smoke test project should be set up: Before the verifications and utilities are created, it is important to set up a smoke test project. This set of tests is considered to be important because they will be used to verify the utilities. The most crucial functions of an application are validated by smoke tests in order to ascertain whether they are working as intended, and also determine whether there is a need for additional testing.

5. Work on On-Screen Actions: When the application has been properly familiarized by the team, data has been gathered and environments have been set up, shared utilities need to be created for common User Interface (UI) actions such as text input fields and menu navigation. These are the basic building blocks for the tests, which can then be combined to form the test logic.

6. Verifications need to be built and managed: Verifications need to be set up by applying the same logic that has been used for structuring the data, which means, they should be shareable. For example, the application’s functionality is being tested and the requirements are being changed on a text field. If you are verifying that only numeric characters are being accepted in the text field and not the text, then there is a need for updating the tests.

7. The logging and reporting mechanism needs to be set up: All along the entire build process, the team should be recording and taking notes on all the verification building, data preparation and environment and exploratory actions. The messages need to be logged before verifications, wherein what is being verified and the expected result out of it needs to be stated.

These messages should be human-readable, so that the log can be easily looked up by the non-technical users and thus know exactly as to why and where a failure has occurred. The reporting mechanism needs to be automated. Automated reporting will save an ample amount of time that is being spent on pulling reports and thus focus on analyzing the data.

Conclusion: 

If you are looking forward to implementing automation testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a globally renowned software testing services company that will provide you with a tactical testing platform that is in line with your project specific requirements.