Software Testing Automation Tips: 50 Things Automation Engineers Should Know

Quickly access 50 tips for software test engineers using automated methods. The tips point to practices that save time and increase the accuracy and reliability of automated test techniques. Techniques that play well during demos of testing tools often are not the optimal techniques to apply on a running project. This book highlights those differences, helping you apply techniques that are repeatable and callable in professionally run software development projects. Emphasis is placed on creating tests that, while automated, are easily adapted as the software under construction evolves toward its final form.

Techniques in the book are arranged into five categories: scripting, testing, the environment, running and logging of tests, and reviewing of the results. Every automation engineer sooner or later will face similar issues to the ones covered in these categories, and you will benefit from the simple and clear answers provided in this book. While the focus of the book is on the use of automated tools, the tips are not specific to any one vendor solution. The tips cover general issues that are faced no matter the specific tool, and are broadly applicable, often even to manual testing efforts.

What You'll Learn

• Employ best-practices in automated test design
• Write test scripts that will easily be understood by others
• Choose the proper environment for running automated tests
• Avoid techniques that demo well, but do not scale in practice
• Manage tests effectively, including testing of test scripts themselves
• Know when to go beyond automation to employ manual methods instead

Who This Book Is For

Software test engineers working with automated testing tools, and for developers working alongside testing teams to create software products. The book will aid test engineers, team leads, project managers, software testers, and developers in producing quality software more easily, and in less time.

About the Author

Gennadiy Alpaev has been working as a test automation engineer since 2003. He has worked with many automation tools, including SilkTest, TestComplete, Selenium, and Squish. In 2011 he began to move his expertise toward teaching about testing and automation. Gennadiy has been running online and on-site courses on TestComplete and test automation for independent students and companies ever since. He is a published author, and speaks regularly at conferences on the topic of testing automation.