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Developers Compliance to Test Automation

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8:22 PM

A TestSquad reader sent me an email asking:Is there a verification process to help validate that application developers comply to test automation requirements during their application development?Usually we just give the requirements and expect application developers to comply but when you are doing the automation scripts already, some things are still skipped. I am looking for a process that will help them comply.e.g. automation requirement: name tables as xxxxI have to admit that answering such a question is not easy. How can you guarantee that development activity is compliant with a subsequent test automation? How does the developer's code affect the success of your test automation?1 month ago, i was considering Selenium RC to automate a Java web application. Unfortunately and for a reason, automation was not introduced till a late stage in the project. So as soon as we started recording scripts, a problem emerged: the development team did not give an "id" attribute to the numerous html elements. And this forced us to use some workaround; unnecessary if if the QA automation effort was introduced from day one. This is relatively a simple scenario that could be solved using workaround, but i am sure the impact can much more severe for complex projects.So a corollary answer for the original question is "continuous collaboration between developers and testers from day one in the SDLC" and that naturally leads us to Agility.I like to use LinkedIn for tough questions. Here's the best answer i got from Greg AkinsI don't think there is an easy answer to this. One issue isthat there is a responsibility for the developer to not only createfeatures which are requested by the customer/business, but also toensure that the features are are created in a way that supports thetest process. It's my experience that the incentive to do the latteris somewhat limited.However, having spent time writing and designing Selenium and FITtests on smallish team, there was a long learning period associatedwith getting the team to understand how the application needed to bedesigned to support testing. I'd definitely suggest working side byside with your developers, and iterating frequently while you're stillexpecting frequent "failures" in the dev/test process I would love to her your personal experience :)



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3 Comments:



Rphillips

said...



4/26/2008 2:37 AM





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Devise a test plan.1)High level:Start with a chart - structure chart of the modules, this will help with test coverage(completeness)2) Low level:Use a traceability matrix/table to link all requirements to a test case.Then build the test scripts for all the test that are needed.



Anonymous

said...



5/25/2008 3:34 AM





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The first thing which testers should always do is to be engaged and tell developers what they need. If they are part of the software design process they should make sure that the needs of test automation are articulated/captured in meeting minutes. As with other issues testers should be on top of/aware of what developers are doing. Usually for automation developers should be amenable to helping testers (more than with other issues). For example if a defect requires a major architectural change late in the cycle, you may face developer resistance. Enhancing automation ability is usually much less difficult.



Ghada

said...



10/07/2008 9:30 PM





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i think this is a late comment to add to the question but m gonna do it anyways.we had the same issue while working on our automation scripts, while creating the scripts we found that some elements do not have id's and others that have dynamically change theirs (i guess this was due to .net behavior or sth) anyways, the best thing we did is that we raised the issue to top mgt and we forced the developers to follow our rules; each item should have a static id and stuff.so its like the first comments implied, automation ppl should be part of the game since its beginning and not at the later stages of the SDLC, they should force their rules just as other players do, and this should be part of the test plan like previosely stated.

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