How to Implement Efficient Test Automation in the Agile World

In Agile software development, Test Automation bears pivotal importance.

Taking into account the plenitude of features added and delivered throughout each Sprint, maintaining the integrity of existing functionality whilst incorporating new features is a necessity.

The brevity of Sprint durations detrimentally affects the feasibility of executing the entire suite every time the product is augmented at a Sprint’s conclusion. In these circumstances, an automated test suite becomes a key player.

Nevertheless, perfecting automation implementation is a time-consuming process. Investing effort in the initial stages to plan and design the automation activity will yield considerable benefits in the longer term.

In this third segment of our Advanced Agile Testing series, through my professional guidance and expertise, I hope to provide you with helpful insights to consider while integrating automation within your project.

Prior to this, it’s also recommended to read part 1 and part 2 first so as to attain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.

What Aspects Should be Automated in Agile?

When it’s time to embark on the journey of introducing automation to our projects, for most of us, the “Smoke Test suite” or the “Regression Test suite” quickly come to mind as the go-to options for automation. While these are undoubtedly vital, considering the automation test pyramid, it’s apparent that these only cover the pyramid’s apex.

In addition to the aforementioned tier, there’s also the service layer along with the unit layer which are equally and potentially even more consequential.

So, what other tests could be suitable for automation, apart from Smoke tests and Regression tests?

#1) Builds and Deployments

In conventional environments, there exist established builds that may take place weekly, fortnightly, or even monthly. The primary driving factor behind this is the time-consuming nature of deployments. A downside to this methodology is that we are bound to wait for the predetermined dates to address bugs or incorporate new features which inevitably results in delays.

Moreover, in many instances, by the time testers complete their tests and report bugs and defects, developers have already moved forward to other stages of the development process and thus show less enthusiasm towards addressing bugs in previous versions. This further prolongs the time required to make a feature available for production.

Builds and deployments are repetitive tasks that can often be boring. They have the potential to consume several hours, inducing delays in testing and feedback provision. Due to their repetitive essence, builds and deployments are optimal candidates for automation.

Recommended reading => The Process of Release and Deployment Management

Some benefits of automating build deployments include:

• Preventing deployment errors (such as copying incorrect files or copying files to erroneous locations)
• Enabling immediate testing of bug fixes and new features as soon as they are completed
• Affording testers with more time for testing
• Reducing the time required to transfer a feature to production
• Offering swift feedback

#2) Unit tests/Component tests

In a preceding tutorial, I emphasised the significance of automating the unit layer by employing the TDD approach.

This layer forms the grounding for the automation test pyramid and needs to possess solidity. The development team should aim to automate the majority of tests in this layer.

#3) API/Web Service Testing

Web services enable two applications to exchange data or information via requests and responses, while remaining oblivious to the underlying architecture or technology. Typically, web service testing involves sending requests and validating responses.

Testing web services necessitates writing programs to initiate calls for web service methods and validating their returned values. With the ability to test a multitude of service permutations and combinations, test data can be stored in an Excel sheet. A program can subsequently access the data and test the corresponding service with the test data acting as parameters, subsequently validating the results.

This type of testing fits in the middle layer of the automation test pyramid. The majority of functional testing can be carried out in this layer. Asset defect identification and rectification at this layer is easier and is not reliant on the availability of a UI.

#4) Testing behind the GUI

Automation of testing behind the GUI is generally simpler than automating the GUI itself. Furthermore, alterations to the UI do not impact the functionality as long as the underlying business rules and logic are preserved. The focus here is on testing business logic and rules.

Test cases are frequently created in tabular format or spreadsheets, with code snippets or fixtures accepting inputs from these tables and returning results. This approach provides immediate outcomes and allows non-technical stakeholders to execute tests and receive expected results. Fitnesse is one such tool used to achieve this technique.

#5) Non-functional testing

Non-functional testing entails load, performance, and stress testing. Several tools available in the market can automate these tests.

#6) Data Comparisons

A great deal of tests necessitates comparing data files, such as text files, CSV or Excel files.

• These files can be compared against baselines for data validation
• Comparisons can encompass data of the same content but in diverse formats, such as two files generated from different sources

Given their repetitive nature, these comparisons make suitable candidates for automation.

#7) Searching

Searching for a specific entity from a vast set of files can be arduous, particularly when it’s a frequent task. For instance, perusing through log files can be time-intensive. Automating searches of such a type can prove to be beneficial.

#8) Repetitive Tasks

Any recurrent task, whether it pertains to interacting with end users, writing stories, or building features, should be critically assessed for automation. It’s crucial to discern that automation doesn’t always necessitate state-of-the-art tools or technologies. A rudimentary VB macro or Java program with JavaScript can suffice the automation needs.

Where to Initiate?

There isn’t a universally applicable checklist or step-by-step guide on where to introduce automation. Initiating automation for a team necessitates brainstorming and scrupulous evaluation of the aspects one wishes to automate and the ultimate objective of automation.

You can commence by:

• Identifying repetition tasks
• Pinpointing potential weak points in the application
• Recognising testing challenges

In case your project/team lacks any form of automation currently, you can adopt a stratified approach, starting with automating unit tests. This approach offers the highest return on investment.

Simultaneously, testers can begin focusing on the smoke test suite, succeeded by the regression suite. Once the team has acquired the necessary skills and becomes comfortable, they can gradually proceed to automate other recurring tasks.

Avoid hasty decisions to purchase a new tool before assessing your needs accurately. As previously mentioned, a basic program or macro may fulfill your automation requirements. Perform a Proof of Concept (POC) prior to deciding to invest in a tool, in order to evaluate its effectiveness.

For more comprehensive details on selecting the right test cases for automation and estimating automation efforts, please refer to these articles Manual to Automation Testing Process Challenges and Test Estimation of Selenium Automation Project.

Once the scope of automation and the tool are definitively decided, the next step is to architect the framework.

Bear in mind that the framework evolves in Agile. Avoid the propensity to design the entire framework at the outset and then implement it subsequently. Instead, design and implement for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), followed by enhancing the prevailing framework as required. Additionally, ensure compliance to good coding and development practices for maintaining a robust automation suite.

Best Practices

• Start with a modest aim and don’t strive to automate everything at once. Remember, automation is a dynamic process.
• Embrace Agile practices while designing and planning automation processes. Avoid accumulating technical debt during automation.
• Create an automation backlog for testing, which includes implementing new features to enhancing existing ones. Allocate story points to backlog items and follow their progress using a Kanban board.
• Define acceptance criterions for automation storylines. These may include tasks such as test suite integration with continuous integration, centralizing the suite, emailing results, and providing error log files when test failures occur.
• Abstain from spending an inordinate amount of time evaluating tools. Determine what exactly you want from a tool, set a timeline for evaluation, and if unsuccessful within the set period, move on to evaluate another tool.
• Make judicious decisions regarding what to automate. Not all automation effectively yields a favorable return on investment. Evade the tendency to automate for the sake of automation itself.
• Maintain proper development environments and repositories for code storage. Adopt a habit to routinely check in and update code at the end of each working day.
• Run automated tests from a centralized location to ensure they do not rely on any specific individual. Any team member should have the capacity to trigger the scripts and receive results via email.

Which Agile principles can augment automation?

Here are some straightforward tips:

• Simplicity is key. Abstain from unnecessary intricacies. Automation should serve its intended purpose without any overcomplexity.
• Simple doesn’t imply easy. Taking small steps towards automation can reveal complex challenges during implementation.
• Adopt a team-centric approach. Embrace the Agile principles of collaboration. Tasks of automation should not be restricted to only testers or developers. Everyone should partake in the efforts of automation to ensure effective handling of technical issues.
• The framework is prone to evolution in Agile. Avoid superfluous complexity by steering clear of overloading the automation framework with too many features.
• Allocate adequate time to ensure it’s done right. Properly structure the automation to circumvent technical debt.
• Solicit regular feedback.
• Adhere to good coding conventions and practices. Maintain a straightforward design, employ concepts of object-oriented programming, and aim for test independence. Take into account factors like maintainability of the test suite.

Can I anticipate any challenges in Agile automation?

Indeed, introducing automation within the Agile sphere brings with it several challenges:

• Planning is of utmost importance. Selecting the relevant test suite, tool, framework, and strategy requires a well-strategized plan. Having said that, prevent overplanning and seek to maintain Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in focus.
• Do not compromise code quality for expeditiousness. Be aware that technical debt is pertinent in automation as well.
• Teams often neglect adopting a team-based approach, thereby burdening testers alone with the responsibility of coding and maintaining the automated suite, thereby increasing their workload.
• Automating functional tests can pose more challenges than automating the UI.

Among these challenges, the most critical is upgrading the testers’ skills.

Maintaining and enhancing an automation suite is akin to a development activity, which mandates testers to possess programming and automation skills. It is not only about detecting bugs and defects. Testers need to be proactive collaborators and refine their technical skills. More automation allows testers more time to participate in sophisticated and challenging tasks.

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