Management Issues in Test Automation

rial

Presented by:
Dorothy
Ind nt
Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite Orange Park, FL 32073
888‐2
MC
AM Tuto
4/7/2014
8:30 AM

“Management Issues in Test Automation”

Graham
ependent Consulta

300,
68‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ sqeinfo@sqe.com ∙ www.sqe.com

In software testing for forty years, Dorothy Graham is coauthor of four books—
ng and
the
st
Dorothy Graham
ultantIndependent Test Cons
Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testi
Experiences of Test Automation—and is currently working with Seretta Gamba on a
new book on test automation patterns. A popular and entertaining speaker at
conferences and seminars worldwide, Dot has attended STAR conferences since
first one in 1992. She was a founding member of the ISEB Software Testing Board and
a member of the working party that developed the ISTQB Foundation Syllabus. Dot
was awarded the European Excellence Award in Software Testing in 1999 and the fir
ISTQB Excellence Award in 2012. Learn more about Dot at DorothyGraham.co.uk.

Management Issues in Test Automation
Contents
Session 0: Introduction to the tutorial
Tutorial objectives
What we cover (and don’t cover) today
Session 1: Planning and Managing Test Automation
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Test automation objectives (and exercise)
Two measures: coverage and EMTE
Return on Investment (ROI)
Session 2: Technical Issues for Managers
Testware architecture
Scripting, keywords and Domain-Specific Test Language (DSTL)
Automating more than execution
Session 3: Final Advice, Strategy and Conclusion
Final advice
Strategy exercise
Conclusion
Appendix (useful stuff)
That’s no reason to automate (Better Software article)
Man and Machine, Jonathan Kohl (Better Software)
Technical vs non-technical skills in test automation

0-1
presented by Dorothy Graham
info@dorothygraham.co.uk
© Dorothy Graham 2014
www.DorothyGraham.co.uk
0-1
Management Issues
in Test Automation
Prepared and presented by
Dorothy Graham
email: info@dorothygraham.co.uk
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
0-2
Tutorial description
•  Many organizations never achieve the significant benefits that are
promised from automated test execution. Surprisingly often, this is due not
to technical factors but to management issues.
•  Dot Graham describes the most important management concerns the test
manager must address for test automation success, and helps you
understand and choose the best approaches for your organization—no
matter which automation tools you use or your current state of automation.
•  Dot explains how automation affects staffing, who should be responsible
for which automation tasks, how managers can best support automation
efforts leading to success, and what return on investment means in
automated testing and why ROI can be dangerous and what you can
realistically expect.
•  Dot also reviews the key technical issues that can make or break the
automation effort.
•  Come away with an example set of automation objectives and measures,
and a draft test automation strategy that you can use to plan or improve
your own automation.

0-2
0-3
Objectives of this tutorial
•  help you achieve better success in automation
– independent of any particular tool
•  mainly management but a few technical issues
– responsibilities, pilot project
– objectives for automation
– Return on Investment (ROI)
– critical technical issues for managers
– what works in practice (case studies)
•  help you plan an effective automation strategy
0-4
Tutorial contents
1) Planning & Managing Test Automation
2) Technical Issues for Managers
3) Final advice and Conclusion

0-3
0-5
Shameless commercial plug
testautomationpatterns.org
Part 1: How to do
automation - still relevant
today, though we plan to
update it at some point
New
book!
0-6
What is today about? (and not about)
•  test execution automation (not other tools)
•  I will NOT cover:
– demos of tools (no time, which one, expo)
– comparative tool info / selecting a tool*
•  at the end of the day
– understand management issues
– be aware of critical technical issues
– have your own automation objectives
– plan your own automation strategy
* I will email you STA Ch 10 on request – info@dorothygraham.co.uk

0-4
0-7
About you
•  your Summary and Strategy document
– where are you now with your automation?
– what are your most pressing automation
problems?
– why are you here today?
•  your objectives for this tutorial

1-Managing
1-1
Planning & Managing Test Automation
1 Managing 2 Technical 3 Conclusion
1-2
Contents
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Test automation objectives
Two measures for automation
Managing
1 2 3
Management Issues in
Test Automation

1-Managing
1-3
What is an automated test?
•  a test!
– designed by a tester for a purpose
•  test is executed
– implemented / constructed to run automatically
using a tool
– could be run manually also
•  who decides what tests to run?
•  who decides how a test is run?
1-4
Existing perceptions of automation skills
•  test automation is technical in some ways
•  using the test execution tool directly (script writing)
•  designing the testware architecture (framework /
regime)
•  debugging automation problems
– this work requires technical skill
– most people now realise this (but many still don’t)
•  do testers need to be the automators?
– common perception now: testers need to be able
to write code
See article: “Technical vs non-technical skills in test automation”

1-Managing
1-5
Responsibilities
•  test the software
–  design tests
–  select tests for automation
•  requires planning / negotiation
•  execute automated tests
–  should not need detailed
technical expertise
•  analyse failed automated
tests
–  report bugs found by tests
–  problems with the tests may
need help from the automation
team
•  automate tests (requested by
testers)
•  support automated testing
–  allow testers to execute tests
–  help testers debug failed tests
–  provide additional tools (home-
grown)
•  predict
–  maintenance effort for software
changes
–  cost of automating new tests
•  improve the automation
–  more benefits, less cost
Testers
Automators
Pattern: AUTOMATION ROLES
1-6
Test manager’s dilemma
•  who should undertake automation work?
– not all testers can automate (well)
– not all testers want to automate
– not all automators want to test!
•  conflict of responsibilities
– (if you are both tester and automator)
– should I automate tests or run tests manually?
•  get additional resources as automators?
– contractors? borrow a developer? tool vendor?

1-Managing
1-7
Agile automation: Lisa Crispin
– starting point: buggy code, new functionality
needed, whole team regression tests manually
– testable architecture: (open source tools)
•  want unit tests automated (TDD), start with new code
•  start with GUI smoke tests - regression
•  business logic in middle level with FitNesse
– 100% regression tests automated in one year
•  selected set of smoke tests for coverage of stories
– every 6 mos, engineering sprint on the automation
– other key success factors
•  management support & communication
•  whole team approach, celebration & refactoring
1-8
Automation and agile
•  can’t do agile without automation
– in agile teams, developer-tester works well
•  apply agile principles to automation
– automation sprints, refactor when needed
•  support manual and automated tests
•  fitting automation into agile development
– ideal: automation is part of “done” for each sprint
– alternative: automation in the following sprint ->
•  may be better for system level tests
See www.satisfice.com/articles/agileauto-paper.pdf (James Bach)

1-Managing
1-9
Automation in agile/iterative development
A
manual testing of
this release (testers)
A B
B CA
FEDCBA
regression testing (automators automate the best tests)
run automated tests (testers)
1-10
Contents
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Managing
1 2 3
Test Automation

1-Managing
1-11
A tale of two projects: Ane Clausen
– Project 1: 5 people part-time, within test group
•  no objectives, no standards, no experience, unstable
•  after 6 months was closed down
– Project 2: 3 people full time, 3-month pilot
•  worked on two (easy) insurance products, end to end
•  1st month: learn and plan, 2nd & 3rd months: implement
•  started with simple, stable, positive tests, easy to do
•  close cooperation with business, developers, delivery
•  weekly delivery of automated Business Process Tests
– after 6 months, automated all insurance products
1-12
Pilot project
•  reasons
–  you’re unique
–  many variables /
unknowns at start
•  benefits
–  find the best way for you
(best practice)
–  solve problems once
–  establish confidence
(based on experience)
–  set realistic targets
•  objectives
–  demonstrate tool value
–  gain experience / skills
in the use of the tool
–  identify changes to
existing test process
–  set internal standards
and conventions
–  refine assessment of
costs and achievable
benefits
Pattern: DO A PILOT

1-Managing
1-13
What to explore in the pilot
•  build / implement automated tests (architecture)
– different ways to build stable tests (e.g. 10 – 20)
•  maintenance
– different versions of the application
– reduce maintenance for most likely changes
•  failure analysis
– support for identifying bugs
– coping with common bugs affecting many
automated tests
Also: naming conventions, reporting results, measurement
1-14
After the pilot…
•  having processes & standards is only the start
– 30% on new process
– 70% on deployment
•  marketing, training, coaching
•  feedback, focus groups, sharing what’s been done
•  the (psychological) Change Equation
– change only happens if (x + y + z) > w
x = dissatisfaction with the current state
y = shared vision of the future
z = knowledge of the steps to take to get from here to there
w = psychological / emotional cost to change for this person
Source: Eric Van Veenendaal,
successful test process improvement

1-Managing
1-15
Contents
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Managing
1 2 3
Test Automation
1-16
An automation effort
•  is a project (getting started or major changes)
– with goals, responsibilities, and monitoring
– but not just a project – ongoing effort is needed
•  not just one effort – continuing
– when acquiring a tool – pilot project
– when anticipated benefits have not materialized
– different projects at different times
•  with different objectives
•  objectives are important for automation efforts
– where are we going? are we getting there?

1-Managing
1-17
fast
testing
slow
testing
Effectiveness
Low
High
EfficiencyManual testing Automated
Efficiency and effectiveness
poor
fast
testing
poor
slow
testing
goodgood
greatest
benefit
not good but
common
worst
better
1-18
Good objectives for automation?
– run regression tests evenings and weekends
– increase test coverage
– run tests tedious and error-prone if run manually
– gain confidence in the system
– reduce the number of defects found by users

Test Automation Objectives Exercise
© Dorothy Graham HMSTA140203 Page 1 of 3
Test Automation Objectives Exercise
The following are possible test automation objectives. Evaluate each one - is it a good one?
If not, why not? Which are already in place in your own organisation?
Possible test automation objectives Good automation objective?
(If not, why not)
Already in
place?
Run tests every night on all PCs NO. Or MAYBE, if we know the tests
being run are worthwhile
Automate all of our manual tests
Make it easy for business users to write
and run automated tests
Ensure repeatability of regression tests
Ensure that we meet our next release
deadline (we’re under time pressure)
Find lots of bugs by running automated
tests
Find defects in less time
Free testers from repeated (boring) test
execution to spend more time doing
exploratory testing
Reduce the number of testers
Reduce elapsed time for testing by x%
Run more tests
Run tests more often

1-Managing
1-19
Same tests
automated
edit tests
(maintenance) set-up execute
analyse
failures clear-up
Manual
testing
More mature
automation
Reduce test execution time
1-20
Automate x% of the manual tests?
manual
tests automated
tests
tests not
worth
automating
exploratory
test
automation
manual tests
automated
(% manual)
tests (&
verification)
not possible to
do manually
tests not
automated
yet

1-Managing
1-21
What finds most bugs?
regression tests exploratory testing
likelihood of
finding bugs
most often
automated
What is usually automated?
automation objective – find lots of bugs?
No! - not for regression test automation
1-22
Automation success = find lots of bugs?
•  tests find bugs, not automation
•  automation is a mechanism for running tests
•  the bug-finding ability of a test is not affected
by the manner in which it is executed
•  this can be a dangerous objective
– especially for regression automation!
Automated tests Manual Scripted Exploratory Fix Verification
Experiences of Test Automation, Ch 27, p 503, Ed Allen & Brian Newman

1-Managing
1-23
When is “find more bugs” a good
objective for automation?
•  objective is “fewer regression bugs missed”
•  when the first run of a given test is
automated
– MBT, Exploratory test automation, automated
test design
– keyword-driven (e.g. users populate
spreadsheet)
•  find bugs in parts we wouldn’t have tested?
– indirect! (direct result of running more tests)
1-24
Good objectives for test automation
•  realistic and achievable
•  short and long term
•  regularly re-visited and revised
•  measurable
•  should be different objectives for testing and
for automation
•  automation should support testing activities
Pattern: SET CLEAR GOALS

1-Managing
1-25
Contents
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Managing
1 2 3
Test Automation
1-26
“We need to
increase our coverage”
“Make sure you cover 100%!”
“What coverage
are we getting?”
“If we automate,
we will get better coverage”
Have you heard:
“We need as much
coverage as possible”

1-Managing
1-27
What is coverage?
the
tests
this part of the
software has
been covered
by these tests
the rest has
not been
covered by
these tests
1-28
Tested everything?
system
system
system
system
software
more
tests
100%? – of what?
modules, statements, branches, states, data?
menu options, user stories, error messages?

1-Managing
1-29
What is coverage?
•  coverage is a relationship
– between a set of tests
– and some part of the software
•  an objective measure of some aspect of
thoroughness
•  100% coverage is not 100% tested
– other levels of coverage
– only needs one test to “tick the box”
– tests can fail, poor quality tests – still get coverage
– coverage only of what is there, not what’s missing
1-30
Coverage is NOT
software
the
tests
the
tests
this is test completion!
don’t call it “coverage”!
“we’ve run all of the tests”
[that we have thought of]

1-Managing
1-31
Coverage
•  next time you hear “coverage”, ask: “of what”?
– and why
•  coverage is a relationship
– between tests and what-is-tested
•  completing the planned tests is NOT coverage!
– ban the phrase “test coverage”
1-32
EMTE – what is it?
•  Equivalent Manual Test Effort
– given a set of automated tests,
– how much effort would it take
•  IF those tests were run manually
•  note
– you would not actually run these tests manually
– EMTE = what you could have tested manually
•  and what you did test automatically
– used to show test automation benefit

1-Managing
1-33
EMTE – how does it work?
a manual test
the manual test
now automated
Manual testing Automate the manual testing?
only time to run the tests
1.5 times
doesn’t make sense –
can run them more
1-34
EMTE – how does it work? (2)
Automated testing
EMTE

1-Managing
1-35
EMTE example
•  example
– automated tests take 2 hours
– if those same tests were run manually, 4 days
•  frequency
– automated tests run every day for 2 weeks
(including once at the weekend), 11 times
•  calculation
– EMTE =
1-36
Contents
Responsibilities
Pilot project
Managing
1 2 3
Test Automation

1-Managing
1-37
Is this Return on Investment (ROI)?
•  tests are run more often
•  tests take less time to run
•  it takes less human effort to run tests
•  we can test (cover) more of the system
•  we can run the equivalent of days / weeks of
manual testing in a few minutes / hours
•  faster time to market
1-38
Examples of ROI achieved
•  Michael Snyman, S African bank (Ch 29.13)
– US$4m on testing project, automation $850K
– savings $8m, ROI 900%
•  Henri van de Scheur, Database testing (Ch 2)
– results: 2400 times more efficient
•  Stefan Mohacsi, Armin Beer: European Space
Agency (Ch 9)
– MBT, break even after four test cycles
from: Experiences of Test Automation book

1-Managing
1-39
How important is ROI?
•  ROI can be dangerous
– easiest way to measure: tester time
– may give impression that tools replace people
•  “automation is an enabler for success, not a
cost reduction tool”
•  Yoram Mizrachi, “Planning a mobile test automation
strategy that works, ATI magazine, July 2012
•  many achieve lasting success without
measuring ROI (depends on your context)
– need to be aware of benefits (and publicize them)
1-40
An example comparative benefits chart
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
exec speed times run data variety tester work
man
aut
ROI spreadsheet – email me for a copy
14 x faster 5 x more often 4 x more data 12 x less effort

1-Managing
1-41
Why measure automation?
•  to justify and confirm starting automation
– business case for purchase/investment decision,
to confirm ROI has been achieved e.g. after pilot
– both compare manual vs automated testing
•  to monitor on-going automation “health”
– for increased efficiency, continuous improvement
– build time, maintenance time, failure analysis time,
refactoring time
•  on-going costs – what are the benefits?
– monitor your automation objectives
1-42
Sample ‘starter kit’ for metrics for test
automation (and testing)
•  possible examples:
– some measure of benefit
•  e.g. EMTE or coverage
– average time to automate a set of tests
– maintenance effort (average per test)
– failure analysis effort (different types of change)
– also measure testing (e.g. DDP)
•  change if not giving you useful information

1-Managing
1-43
Summary: key points
•  Assign responsibility for automation (and testing)
•  Use a pilot project to explore the best ways of
doing things
•  Know your automation objectives
•  Measure what’s important to you
•  Show ROI if needed
Managing
1 2 3
Test Automation
1-44
Good objectives for automation?
– run regression tests evenings and weekends
– increase test coverage
– run tests tedious and error-prone if run manually
– gain confidence in the system
– reduce the number of defects found by users
only if they are worthwhile tests!
can be a good one but depends what is meant by “test” coverage
good objective
an objective for testing, but automated regression tests help achieve it
good objective for testing, maybe not a good objective for automation!

Test Automation Objectives Solution
Test Automation Objectives: Solution Ideas
Possible test automation objectives Good automation objective?
(If not, why not)
Run tests every night on all PCs NO. or MAYBE, if we know the tests being run are
worthwhile
Automate all of our manual tests NO. Automate only those tests that are worth
automating. Plus automate more than manual tests.
Make it easy for business users to
write and run automated tests
YES. With the right testware architecture, non-
technical testers can do this (with support).
Ensure repeatability of regression tests PROBABLY. Tools will run the same tests in the
same way every time. But this is not what users do!
Ensure that we meet our next release
deadline (we’re under time pressure)
NO. Automation may help to run some tests that are
required before release, but good automation takes
time and effort to implement.
Find lots of bugs by running
automated tests
NO. Automation just runs tests. It is the tests that find
bugs, whether they are run manually or are automated.
Find defects in less time Not really. Some types of defects (regression bugs)
will be found more quickly by automated tests, but it
may actually take longer to analyse the failures found.
Free testers from repeated (boring) test
execution to spend more time doing
exploratory testing
YES. This is a good objective for test execution
automation.
Reduce the number of testers NO. You will need more staff to implement the
automation, not less. It can make existing staff more
productive by spending more time on test design.
Reduce elapsed time for testing by x% NO. Elapsed time depends on many factors, and not
much on whether tests are automated (see further
explanation in the slides).
Run more tests MAYBE. It is better to increase the value of tests, not
the number. But long term, this can be a benefit, if a
useful number of useful tests are automated.
Run tests more often YES – this is what the test execution tools do best. (As
long as they are useful tests.)

Test Automation Objectives Solution
Test Automation Objectives: Selection and Measurement
On this page, record the test objectives that would be most appropriate for your
organisation (and why), and how you will measure them (what to measure and how to
measure it).
If you currently have automation objectives in place in your organisation that are not good
ones, make sure that they are removed and replaced by the better ones below!
Proposed test automation objective
(with justification)
What to measure and how to measure it
Add any comments or thoughts here or on the back of this page.

2-Technical
2-1
Technical Issues for Managers
1 Managing 2 Technical 3 Conclusion
2-2
Contents
Scripting, keywords and DSTL
Technical
1 2 3
Test Automation

2-Technical
2-3
abstraction here:
easier to write
automated tests
 widely used
abstraction here:
easier to maintain,
and change tools
 long life
testware
architecture

Testers

Test
Execu/on
Tool

runs
scripts

High Level Keywords
Structured Scripts
structured

testware

Test
Automator(s)
write
tests
(in
DSTL)

2-4
Easy way out: use the tool’s architecture
•  tool will have its own way of organising tests
– where to put things (for the convenience of the
tool!)
– will “lock you in” to that tool – good for vendors!
•  a better way (gives independence from tools)
– organise your tests to suit you
– as part of pre-processing, copy files to where the
tool needs (expects) to find them
– as part of post-processing, copy back to where
you want things to live

2-Technical
2-5
Tool-specific script ratio
Testers

Test
Execu/on
Tool

Testers

Test
Execu/on
Tool

Tool-specific
scripts
Not Tool-
specific
High
maintenance
and/or tool-
dependence
2-6
Key issues
•  scale
– many scripts, data files, results files, etc.
•  shared scripts and data
– reuse and sharing, not multiple copies
•  multiple versions
– different software versions need different test
versions; old tests may still be required
•  multiple environments / platforms
•  test results are different to the test materials
•  standard approach improves productivity
Pattern: TESTWARE ARCHITECTURE

2-Technical
2-7
Contents
Technical
1 2 3
Test Automation
2-8
Levels of scripting
•  capture replay  high maintenance costs
•  structured scripts use programming constructs
– modular, calling structure, loops, IF statements
– few scripts are then affected by changes
•  data-driven: control scripts process SSs/ DBs
– easy to add new similar tests
•  keyword-driven / DSTL / Framework
– one control script proccesess actions and data
– including verification actions
Patterns: DATA-DRIVEN TESTING, KEYWORD-DRIVEN TESTING,
DOMAIN-DRIVEN TESTING

2-Technical
2-9
Data file: TestCase2
FILE ADD MOVE DELETE
Europe
France
Germany
1,3
2,2
1
5,3
Data-driven example
Data file: TestCase1
FILE ADD MOVE DELETE
countries
Sweden
USA
4,1
Norway
2
7
For each TESTCASE
OpenDataFile(TESTCASEn)
ReadDataFile(RECORD)
For each record
ReadDataFile(RECORD)
Case (Column(RECORD))
FILE:
OpenFile(INPUTFILE)
ADD:
AddItem(ITEM)
MOVE:
MoveItem(FROM, TO)
DELETE:
DeleteItem(ITEM)
…..
Next record
Next TESTCASE
Control script
2-10
Data vs Keyword driven files
ScribbleOpen Europe
AddToList France Italy
MoveItem 1 to 3
MoveItem 2 to 2
DeleteItem 1
MoveItem 5 to 2
SaveAs Test2
keyword approachdata-driven approach
FILE ADD MOVE DELETE SAVE
Europe
France
Italy
1,3
2,2
1
5,2
Test2
which is easier to
read/understand?
what happens when
the test becomes
large and complex?
this looks more like
a test

2-Technical
2-11
Test
Tool
softwareundertest
script
libraries
tool dependenttool independent
Tool-independent framework
frame-
work
test
procedures
/definitions
tool independent
scripting language
Another
Test
Tool
sut
Test
Tool
softwareundertest
script
libraries
some tests run manually
2-12
Contents
Technical
1 2 3
Test Automation

2-Technical
2-13
Automated tests/automated testing
Select / identify test cases to run
Set-up test environment:
•  create test environment
•  load test data
Repeat for each test case:
•  set-up test pre-requisites
•  execute
•  compare results
•  log results
•  analyse test failures
•  report defect(s)
•  clear-up after test case
Clear-up test environment:
•  delete unwanted data
•  save important data
Summarise results
Automated tests
Select / identify test cases to run
Set-up test environment:
•  create test environment
•  load test data
Repeat for each test case:
•  set-up test pre-requisites
•  execute
•  compare results
•  log results
•  clear-up after test case
Clear-up test environment:
•  delete unwanted data
•  save important data
Summarise results
Analyse test failures
Report defects
Automated testing
Automated processManual process
2-14
Comparison of results
– more reliance on the correctness of your expected
results (“golden version”)
– masking/filtering (e.g. date test is run, different
order, etc)
•  may take significant effort
– dynamic comparison vs post- execution
– sensitive vs robust tests (what to compare)
– false fail (eats time), false pass (misses bugs)
– make your automated tests red until proven green

2-Technical
2-15
Outside the box: Jonathan Kohl
– task automation (throw-away scripts)
•  entering data sets to 2 browsers (verify by watching)
•  install builds, copy test data
– support manual exploratory testing
– testing under the GUI to the database (“side door”)
– don’t believe everything you see
•  1000s of automated tests pass too quickly
•  monitoring tools to see what was happening
•  “if there’s no error message, it must be ok”
–  defects didn’t make it to the test harness
–  overloaded system ignored data that was wrong
–  “zombie tests” (see also Julian Harty, Christophe Mecke)
2-16
Automation +
execution
comparison
traditional
test
automation
DSTL
structured
testware
architecture
Looser
oracles
ETA,
monkeys
Pre & post
processing
Metricse.g.EMTE
Utilities
eg data load
Disposable
scripts

2-Technical
2-17
Summary: key points
•  Structure your automation testware to suit you
•  Use the highest level of scripting that you need
•  e.g. keyword / Domain-Specific Test Language
•  Automate more than execution
Technical
1 2 3
Test Automation

3-Conclusion
2-1
Final Advice and Conclusion
1 Managing 3 Conclusion2 Technical
2-2
Contents
Final advice
Your strategy
Conclusion
Conclusion
1 32
Test Automation

3-Conclusion
2-3
Dealing with high level management
•  management support
– building good automation takes time and effort
– set realistic expectations
– for long-term success, you need this!
•  benefits and ROI
– make benefits visible (charts on the walls)
– metrics for automation
•  to justify it, compare to manual test costs over iterations
•  on-going continuous improvement
–  build cost, maintenance cost, failure analysis cost
–  coverage of system tested
2-4
Dealing with developers
•  critical aspect for successful automation
– automation is development
•  may need help from developers
•  automation needs development standards to work
–  testability is critical for automatability
–  why should they work to new standards if there is “nothing in it
for them”?
– seek ways to cooperate and help each other
•  run tests for them
–  in different environments
–  rapid feedback from smoke tests
•  help them design better tests?

3-Conclusion
2-5
Standards and technical factors
•  standards for the testware architecture
– where to put things
– what to name things
– how to do things
•  but allow exceptions if needed
•  new technology can be great
– but only if the context is appropriate for it (e.g.
Model-Based Testing)
•  use automation “outside the box”
2-6
On-going automation
•  you are never finished
– don’t “stand still” - schedule regular review and re-
factoring of the automation
– change tools, hardware when needed
– re-structure if your current approach is causing
problems
•  regular “pruning” of tests
– don’t have “tenured” test suites
•  check for overlap, removed features
•  each test should earn its place

3-Conclusion
2-7
More information
–  Test Automation Patterns wiki
•  preview on testautomationpatterns.org
•  email me for invitation to join the full wiki
–  Automated Testing Institute (conference and magazine)
•  www.automatedtestinginstitute.com
–  SQE (Software Quality Engineering sqe.com)
•  www.stickyminds.com
•  Linda Hayes automation course
–  Randy Rice: presentation on Free and Cheap tools and
automation course
•  www.riceconsulting.com (search on “free tools”)
–  LinkedIn has test automation groups
2-8
Contents
Final advice
Your strategy
Conclusion
Conclusion
1 32
Test Automation

3-Conclusion
2-9
What next?
•  we have looked at a number of ideas about
test automation today
•  what is your situation?
–  what are the most important things for you now?
–  where do you want to go?
–  how will you get there?
•  make a start on your test automation
strategy now
–  adapt it to your own situation tomorrow
2-10
Strategy exercise
•  your automation strategy / action plan
– review your objectives for today (p1)
– review your “take-aways” so far (p2)
– identify the top 3 changes you want to make to your
automation (top of p3)
– note your plans now on p3

3-Conclusion
2-11
Please fill in the evaluation form
•  against this tutorial’s description:
– management concerns for automation success
– staffing, how to support it, what to expect, ROI?
– key technical issues to be aware of
– your objectives and strategy
•  I appreciate:
– improvement suggestions (content, timing etc)
– high marks ;-)
– if you give a lower mark, please explain why
•  and put your name on the form - thanks
2-12
Summary: key points
•  Management issues:
•  staffing, pilot, objectives, Return on Investment (ROI)
•  Technical issues:
•  testware architecture, scripting, more than execution
•  Final advice
•  Your Objectives and Strategy
Conclusion
1 32
Test Automation

3-Conclusion
2-13
any more questions?
please email me!
info@DorothyGraham.co.uk
Thank you for coming today
I hope this was / will be useful for you
All the best in your automation!

32 BETTER SOFTWARE JULY/AUGUST 2009 www.StickyMinds.com

www.StickyMinds.com JULY/AUGUST 2009 BETTER SOFTWARE 33
“Why automate?” This seems such
an easy question to answer; yet many
people don’t achieve the success they
hoped for. If you are aiming in the wrong
direction, you will not hit your target!
This article explains why some
testing objectives don’t work for auto-
mation, even though they may be very
sensible goals for testing in general. We
take a look at what makes a good test
automation objective; then we examine
six commonly held—but misguided—
objectives for test execution automation,
explaining the good ideas behind them,
where they fail, and how these objectives
can be modified for successful test auto-
mation.
Good Objectives forTest
Automation
A good objective for test automation
should have a number of characteristics.
First of all, it should be measurable so
that you can tell whether or not you
have achieved it.
Objectives for test automation should
support testing activities but should not
be the same as the objectives for testing.
Testing and automation are different and
distinct activities.
Objectives should be realistic and
achievable; otherwise, you will set your-
self up for failure. It is better to have
smaller-scale goals that can be met than
far-reaching goals that seem impossible.
Of course, many small steps can take
you a long way!
Automation objectives should be
both short and long term. The short-
term goals should focus on what can be
achieved in the next month or quarter.
The long-term goals focus on where you
want to be in a year or two.
Objectives should be regularly revised
in the light of experience.
Misguided Objectives for
Test Automation
Objective 1: Find More Bugs
Good ideas behind this objective:
• Testing should find bugs, so au-
tomated testing should find them
quicker.
• Since tests are run quicker, we can
run more tests and find even more
bugs.
• We can test more of the system
so we should also find bugs in
the parts we weren’t able to test
manually.
Basing the success of automation on
finding bugs—especially the automa-
tion of regression tests—is not a good
thing to do for several reasons. First, it
is the quality of the tests that determines
whether or not bugs are found, and this
has very little, if anything, to do with
automation. Second, if tests are first run
manually, any bugs will be found then,
and they may be fixed by the time the
automated tests are run. Finally, it sets
an expectation that the main purpose of
test automation is to find bugs, but this
is not the case: A repeated test is much
less likely to find a new bug than a new
test. If the software is really good, auto-
mation may be seen as a waste of time
and resources.
Regression testing looks for unex-
pected, detrimental side effects in un-
changed software. This typically in-
volves running a lot of tests, many of
which will not find any defects. This is
ideal ground for test automation as it
can significantly reduce the burden of
this repetitive work, freeing the testers
to focus on running manual tests where
more defects are likely to be. It is the
testing that finds bugs—not the automa-
tion. It is the testers who may be able to
find more bugs, if the automation frees
them from mundane repetitive work.
The number of bugs found is a mis-
leading measure for automation in any
case. A better measure would be the per-
centage of regression bugs found (com-
pared to a currently known total). This
is known as the defect detection per-
centage (DDP). See the StickyNotes for
more information.
Sometimes this objective is phrased
in a slightly different way: “Improve
the quality of the software.” But iden-
tifying bugs does nothing to improve
software—it is the fixing of bugs that
improves the software, and this is a de-
velopment task.
If finding more bugs is something that
you want to do, make it an objective for
measuring the value of testing, not for
measuring the value of automation.
Better automation objective: Help tes-
ters find more regression bugs (so fewer
regression failures occur in operation).
This could be measured by increased
DDP for regression bugs, together with
a rating from the testers about how well
the automation has supported their ob-
jectives.
Objective 2: Run Regression Tests
Overnight and on Weekends
• We have unused resources (eve-
nings and weekends).
• We could run automated tests
“while we sleep.”
At first glance, this seems an excellent
objective for test execution automation,
and it does have some good points.
Once you have a good set of auto-
mated regression tests, it is a good idea
to run the tests unattended overnight
and on weekends, but resource use is not
the most important thing.
What about the value of the tests
that are being run? If the regression
tests that would be run “off peak” are
really valuable tests, giving confidence
that the main areas of the system are still
working correctly, then this is useful.
But the focus needs to be on supporting
good testing.
It is too easy to meet this stated objec-
tive by just running any test, whether it
is worth running or not. For example, if
you ran the same one test over and over
again every night and every weekend,
you would have achieved the goal as
stated, but it is a total waste of time
and electricity. In fact, we have heard of
someone who did just this! (We think he
left the company soon after.)
Of course, automated tests can be run
much more often, and you may want
some evidence of the increased test exe-
cution. One way to measure this is using
equivalent manual test effort (EMTE).
For all automated tests, estimate how
long it would have taken to run those
tests manually (even though you have no
intention of doing so). Then each time
the test is run automatically, add that
EMTE to your running total.
Better automation objective: Run the
most important or most useful tests, em-
ploying under-used computer resources
when possible. This could be partially

measured by the increased use of re-
sources and by EMTE, but should also
include a measure of the value of the
tests run, for example, the top 25 per-
cent of the current priority list of most
important tests (priority determined by
the testers for each test cycle).
Objective 3: Reduce Testing Staff
• We are spending money on the
tool, so we should be able to save
elsewhere.
• We want to reduce costs overall,
and staff costs are high.
This is an objective that seems to
be quite popular with managers. Some
managers may go even further and think
that the tool will do the testing for them,
so they don’t need the testers—this is
just wrong. Perhaps managers also think
that a tool won’t be as argumentative as
a tester!
It is rare that staffing levels are re-
duced when test automation is intro-
duced; on the contrary, more staff are
usually needed, since we now need
people with test script development skills
in addition to people with testing skills.
You wouldn’t want to let four testers go
and then find that you need eight test au-
tomators to maintain their tests!
Automation supports testing activi-
ties; it does not usurp them. Tools cannot
make intelligent decisions about which
tests to run, when, and how often. This
is a task for humans able to assess the
current situation and make the best use
of the available time and resources.
Furthermore, automated testing is
not automatic testing. There is much
work for people to do in building the au-
tomated tests, analyzing the results, and
maintaining the testware.
Having tests automated does—or at
least should—make life better for testers.
The most tedious and boring tasks are
the ones that are most amenable for au-
tomation, since the computer will hap-
pily do repetitive tasks more consistently
and without complaining. Automation
can make test execution more efficient,
but it is the testers who make the tests
themselves effective. We have yet to see
a tool that can think up tests as well as a
human being can!
The objective as stated is a manage-
ment objective, not an appropriate ob-
jective for automation. A better manage-
ment objective is “Ensure that everyone
is performing tasks they are good at.”
This is not an automation objective
either, nor is “Reducing the cost of
testing.” These could be valid objectives,
but they are related to management, not
automation.
Better automation objective: The total
cost of the automation effort should be
significantly less than the total testing ef-
fort saved by the automation. This could
be partially measured by an increase in
tests run or coverage achieved per hour
of human effort.
Objective 4: Reduce Elapsed Time
for Testing
• Reduce deadline pressure—any
way we can save time is good.
• Testing is a bottleneck, so faster
testing will help overall.
• We want to be quicker to market.
This one seems very sensible at first
and sometimes it is even quantified—
“Reduce elapsed time by X%”—which
sounds even more impressive. However,
this objective can be dangerous because
of confusion between “testing” and “test
execution.”
The first problem with this objec-
tive is that there are much easier ways
to achieve it: run fewer tests, omit long
tests, or cut regression testing. These are
not good ideas, but they would achieve
the objective as stated.
The second problem with this ob-
jective is its generality. Reducing the
elapsed time for “testing” gives the im-
pression we are talking about reducing
the elapsed time for testing as a whole.
However, test execution automation
tools are focused on the execution of
the tests (the clue is in the name!) not
the whole of testing. The total elapsed
time for testing may be reduced only if
the test execution time is reduced suffi-
ciently to make an impact on the whole.
What typically happens, though, is that
the tests are run more frequently or
more tests are run. This can result in
more bugs being found (a good thing),
that take time to fix (a fact of life), and
increase the need to run the tests again
(an unavoidable consequence).
The third problem is that there are
many factors other than execution that
contribute to the overall elapsed time
for testing: How long does it take to set
up the automated run and clear up after
it? How long does it take to recognize a
test failure and find out what is actually
wrong (test fault, software fault, envi-
ronment problem)? When you are testing
manually, you know the context—you
know what you have done just before
the bug occurs and what you were doing
in the previous ten minutes. When a tool
identifies a bug, it just tells you about the
actual discrepancy at that time. Whoever
analyzes the bug has to put together the
context for the bug before he or she can
really identify the bug.
In figures 1 and 2, the blocks repre-
sent the relative effort for the different
activities involved in testing. In manual
testing, there is time taken for editing
tests, maintenance, set up of tests, ex-
ecuting the tests (the largest component
of manual testing), analyzing failures,
and clearing up after tests have com-
pleted. In figure 1, when those same tests
are automated, we see the illusion that
automating test execution will save us
a lot of time, since the relative time for
execution is dramatically reduced. How-
ever, figure 2 shows us the true picture—
total elapsed time for testing may actu-
ally increase, even though the time for
test execution has been reduced. When
test automation is more mature, then the
total elapsed time for all of the testing
activities may decrease below what it
was initially for manual testing. Note
that this is not to scale; the effects may
be greater than we have illustrated.
We now can see that the total elapsed
time for testing depends on too many
things that are outside the control or in-
fluence of the test automator.
The main thing that causes increased
testing time is the quality of the soft-
ware—the number of bugs that are al-
ready there. The more bugs there are,
the more often a test fails, the more bug
reports need to be written up, and the
more retesting and regression testing
are needed. This has nothing to do with
whether or not the tests are automated or
manual, and the quality of the software

www.StickyMinds.com JULY/AUGUST 2009 BETTER SOFTWARE 35
is the responsibility of the developers,
not the testers or the test automators.
Finally, how much time is spent main-
taining the automated tests? Depending
on the test infrastructure, architecture,
or framework, this could add consid-
erably to the elapsed time for testing.
Maintenance of the automated tests for
later versions of the software can con-
sume a lot of effort that also will detract
from the savings made in test execution.
This is particularly problematic when
the automation is poorly implemented,
without thought for maintenance issues
when designing the testware architec-
ture. We may achieve our goal with the
first release of software, but later ver-
sions may fail to repeat the success and
may even become worse.
Here is how the automator and tester
should work together: The tester may
request automated support for things
that are difficult or time consuming, for
example, a comparison or ensuring that
files are in the right place before a test
runs. The automator would then pro-
vide utilities or ways to do them. But the
automator, by observing what the tester
is doing, may suggest other things that
could be supported and “sell” additional
tool support to the tester. The rationale
is to make life easier for the tester and
to make the testing faster, thus reducing
elapsed time.
Better automation objective: Reduce
the elapsed time for all tool-supported
testing activities. This is an ongoing
objective for automation, seeking to
improve both manual and existing auto-
mated testing. It could be measured by
elapsed time for specified testing activi-
ties, such as maintenance time or failure
analysis time.
Objective 5: Run More Tests
• Testing more of the software gives
better coverage.
• Testing is good, so more testing
must be better.
More is not better! Good testing is
not found in the number of tests run, but
in the value of the tests that are run. In
fact, the fewer tests for the same value,
the better. It is definitely the quality of
the tests that counts, not the quantity.
Automating a lot of poor tests gives you
maintenance overhead with little return.
Automating the best tests (however many
that is) gives you value for the time and
money spent in automating them.
If we do want to run more tests, we
need to be careful when choosing which
additional tests to run. It may be easier
to automate tests for one area of the
software than for another. However, if it
is more valuable to have automated tests
for this second area than the first, then
automating a few of the more difficult
tests is better than automating many of
the easier (and less useful) tests.
A raw count of the number of au-
tomated tests is a fairly useless way of
gauging the contribution of automation
to testing. For example, suppose testers
decide there is a particular set of tests
that they would like to automate. The
real value of automation is not that the
tests are automated but the number of
times they are run. It is possible that the
testers make the wrong choice and end
up with a set of automated tests that
they hardly ever use. This is not the fault
of the automation, but of the testers’
choice of which tests to automate.
It is important that automation is
responsive, flexible, and able to auto-
mate different tests quickly as needed.
Although we try to plan which tests to
automate and when, we should always
start automating the most important
tests first. Once we are running the tests,
Figure 1
Figure 2

the testers may discover new information
that shows that different tests should be
automated rather than the ones that had
been planned. The automation regime
needs to be able to cope with a change of
direction without having to start again
from the beginning.
During the journey to effective test
automation, it may take far longer to au-
tomate a test than to run that test manu-
ally. Hence, trying to automate may
lead, in the short term at least, to run-
ning fewer tests, and this may be OK.
Better automation objective: Auto-
mate the optimum number of the most
useful and valuable tests, as identified
by the testers. This could be measured
as the number or percentage automated
out of the valuable tests identified.
Objective 6: Automate X% of
Testing
• We should measure the progress
of our automation effort.
• We should measure the quality of
our automation.
This objective is often seen as “Au-
tomate 100 percent of testing.” In this
form, it looks very decisive and macho!
The aim of this objective is to ensure
that a significant proportion of existing
manual tests is automated, but this may
not be the best idea.
A more important and fundamental
point is to ask about the quality of the
tests that you already have, rather than
how many of them should be auto-
mated. The answer might be none—let’s
have better tests first! If they are poor
tests that don’t do anything for you,
automating them still doesn’t do any-
thing for you (but faster!). As Dorothy
Graham has often been quoted, “Auto-
mated chaos is just faster chaos.”
If the objective is to automate 50 per-
cent of the tests, will the right 50 percent
be automated? The answer to this will
depend on who is making the decisions
and what criteria they apply. Ideally, the
decision should be made through nego-
tiation between the testers and the au-
tomators. This negotiation should weigh
the cost of automating individual tests
or sets of tests, and the potential costs of
maintaining the tests, against the value
of automating those tests. We’ve heard
of one automated test taking two weeks
to build when running the test manually
took only thirty minutes—and it was
only run once a month. It is difficult to
see how the cost of automating this test
will ever be repaid!
What percentage of tests could be au-
tomated? First, eliminate those tests that
are actually impossible or totally imprac-
tical to automate. For example, a test
that consists of assessing whether the
screen colors work well together is not
a good candidate for automation. Auto-
mating 2 percent of your most important
and often-repeated tests may give more
benefit than automating 50 percent of
tests that don’t provide much value.
Measuring the percentage of manual
tests that have been automated also
leaves out a potentially greater benefit of
automation—there are tests that can be
done automatically that are impossible
or totally impractical to do manually. In
figure 3 we see that the best automation
includes tests that don’t make sense as
manual tests and does not include tests
that make sense only as manual tests.
Automation provides tool support
for testing; it should not simply auto-
mate tests. For example, a utility could
be developed by the automators to make
comparing results easier for the testers.
This does not automate any tests but
may be a great help to the testers, save
them a lot of time, and make things
much easier for them. This is good auto-
mation support.
For more on the following topics go to
www.StickyMinds.com/bettersoftware.
n Dorothy Graham’s blog on DDP and
test automation
n Software Test Automation
Sticky
Notes
Better automation objective: Automa-
tion should provide valuable support to
testing. This could be measured by how
often the testers used what was provided
by the automators, including automated
tests run and utilities and other support.
It could also be measured by how useful
the testers rated the various types of sup-
port provided by the automation team.
Another objective could be: The number
of additional verifications made that
couldn’t be checked manually. This could
be related to the number of tests, in the
form of a ratio that should be increasing.
What are your objectives for test
execution automation? Are they good
ones? If not, this may seriously impact
the success of your automation efforts.
Don’t confuse objectives for testing with
objectives for automation. Choose more
appropriate objectives and measure the
extent to which you are achieving them,
and you will be able to show how your
automation efforts benefit your organi-
zation. {end}
Figure 3

20 BETTER SOFTWARE DECEMBER 2007 www.StickyMinds.com
---
,

© Dorothy Graham, 2013 Page 1 of 5
Technical versus non-technical skills in test automation
Dorothy Graham
Software Testing Consultant
info@DorothyGraham.co.uk
SUMMARY
In this paper, I discuss the role of the testers and test automators in test automation. Technical skills are needed by test automators, but
testers who do not have technical skills should not be prohibited from writing and running automated tests.
Keywords
Tester, test automator, test automation, skills.
1. INTRODUCTION
Test automation is a popular topic in software testing, and an area where a number of organizations have
had good success. Tests that may take days to run manually can be executed in hours, running overnight
and at weekends, with greater accuracy and repeatability. Tests can be run more often, giving immediate
feedback for new builds.
Yet despite the obvious potential, many organizations are still struggling to achieve good benefits from
automation. I believe that one reason for this is the role of the “test automator”. There is a common
misperception that testers should take on this role. This paper explains why this may not be the best
solution.
It is popular for testers to be encouraged to develop programming skills. For example at EuroStar 2012,
a keynote speaker advised all testers to learn to code. I don’t agree with this, and this paper, originally
written for the CAST conference 2010, explains why.
2. TERMS
I will start by defining the terms I use in this paper.
Test automation: the computer-assisted running of software tests, i.e. the automation of test execution.
Test automator: A person who builds and maintains the testware associated with automated tests. [4]
Tester: A person who identifies test conditions, designs test cases and verifies test results. A tester may
also build and execute tests and compare test results. [4]
Testware: The artifacts required to plan, design and execute tests, such as documentation, scripts, inputs,
expected outcomes, set-up and clear-up procedures, files, databases, environments, and any additional
software or utilities used in testing. [4]

3. TEST AUTOMATION SKILLS
3.1 Existing perceptions
The automation of test execution is a popular application of computer technology to itself. There are a
number of books about test automation. [1,2,3,4,7,8,10,11,12] Many of them do not appear to mention
skills needed (or it was not obvious if they did). There is a general perception that testers must be or
become technical, i.e. programmers, if they are to become involved in automation, although there are a
few exceptions that mention a distinction between testers and automators.
Linda Hayes in her useful booklet on automation [7] says: “… developing test scripts is essentially a
form of programming; for this role, a more technical background is needed.” She distinguishes between
“Test Developers” i.e. testers, and “Script Developers”, which is part of the role of a test automator.
Dustin et al in [3] says: “When people think of AST [Automated Software Testing], they often think the
skill set required is one of a ‘tester’, and that any manual tester can pick up and learn how to use an
automated testing tool. Although the skills [of a tester] … are still needed to implement AST, a
complement of skills similar to the broad range of skill sets needed to develop the software product itself
is needed.” (p 225)
A paper by Mosaic [13] mentions three roles: “Manual Test Engineer”, “Automation Test Engineer” and
“Lead Automator”. In this model, the design of tests (i.e. the tester’s role) is done by both test engineers;
the automation work (i.e. test automator’s role) is done by the lead automator and automation test
engineer. The key distinction is who designs the tests, which in my view is best done by the tester, but
collaborating with the test automator for tests that are to be automated.
3.2 Is test automation a technical task?
The answer to this question depends on what you include as part of “test automation”. If you view it as
the direct use of a test execution tool, i.e. writing, editing and running scripts written in the tool’s
scripting language, then it is a technical task, and programming (i.e. scripting) skills are needed.
Another technical aspect of test automation is the design of the testware architecture – the structure and
relationship of all of the items of testware that comprise the artefacts required for automated tests to
successfully run. The design of the testware architecture is a critical aspect for successful test
automation, and the skills needed for this include technical expertise, as well as knowledge of how the
tests are to be used. The person who designs the testware architecture may be called a test automator,
test architect, or lead automator.
3.3 Constructing automated tests is not entirely a technical process
The construction of the automation architecture, and the scripts and other testware that will be used to
run automated tests is a technical task, but automated testing is not just the structure of the architecture
and scripts.
The whole purpose of test automation is to make it possible to run tests with minimal human
involvement in test execution (and comparison).
There is a need for testers to be able to use automated tests, both to write tests to be run automatically,
and to run those tests and view the results. The tests that are to be automated could be technical tests,
such as those written by developers as part of Test-Driven Development or unit or integration testing,

but system and acceptance tests can also be automated, and the testers who write those tests are not
always technical (i.e. software developers).
The content of the test needs to be determined, but this is a task that is done by a tester; the
implementation of the test is what is done by the automator.
4. TESTERS TO AUTOMATORS?
4.1 Testers become automators?
I have seen it work well to have a team of manual testers embarking on an automation project, where all
(or nearly all) of the testers effectively become programmers, i.e. test programmers, or scripters. At a
former colleague’s company, five out of the team of six testers went on the tool vendor’s training course
and became familiar with the tool’s scripting language. One tester decided he didn’t want to become
technical, so he concentrated on manual testing, but the others all became good test automators. There
were two interesting side-effects of the testers’ newly acquired skillset. First, they had a lot more
sympathy for the developers, as they now understood first-hand the frustrations of trying to get the
computer to do what you wanted it to do. Second, they found that the developers treated them with a bit
more respect, as they now also had some development skills. This led to a better relationship between
the developers and testers.
Another example where it worked very well to have all of the testers become automators is described in
a chapter by Lisa Crispin [2] in our forthcoming book. An agile team of 9 to 12 people were all involved
in doing manual regression testing, so were highly motivated to automate 20% of their work, and
everyone became involved in the automation.
4.2 A separate team of test automators?
I have seen other organizations where a separate team is set up to automate tests, leaving the testers free
to concentrate on designing tests and running manual tests. As the automation team gets going, they
automate tests nominated by the testers, freeing the testers from having to do those tests manually. The
automation team provides a service to the testers, designing the testware architecture and structure of the
tests, and assisting where needed when problems are encountered with the automated tests. For example,
if an automated test fails, it could be because of a software fault (in which case the tester would have
found a bug), but it could fail for a technical reason such as a problem with the environment, a missing
testware item (i.e. a bug in the automated testware), or a problem with the tool itself. The tester, not
being technical, will need technical assistance to identify the source of the problem.
So we have the situation where test automation does require technical skills, but we have testers who do
not have those skills – can this really work? Yes it can, but it needs two key separations or layers of
abstraction.
5. AUTOMATION SUCCESS NEEDS LAYERS OF ABSTRACTION
5.1 Technical Layer
Technical aspects are very important for test automation. A good testware architecture will have two
layers of abstraction [6]. The technical layer will implement good software development practices for
the testware, separating the tool itself and the direct scripting of the tool from the software or scriptware

that calls and uses the lower level scripts. Modularity and reuse are key factors in minimizing
maintenance of automated testware. If something changes in the software, the testware will need to
reflect that change. With lower levels of scripting (a recorded test or linear script being the lowest), a
small change to a screen can result in making “magnetic trash” [9] of the automated tests.
If possible, the testware should be designed so that it can cope with changes in the software under test
without needing any changes to the testware. If this is not possible, the effects of any change to the
software being tested should be confined to only one testware artefact (or a minimum number if this is
not practical).
This layer gives good maintainability to the automated test regime.
5.2 Tester Layer
If all of the testers are technical, such as developers who are doing Test-Driven Design or unit testing,
then this layer is not as critical. The Tester layer of abstraction is needed when system testers or user
acceptance testers want to use test automation, but do not want to become technical, i.e. programmers.
In order to achieve this, the non-technical testers must be able both to write tests (that can then be run
automatically) and also to run tests, i.e. to “kick off” a set of automated tests.
If the testware architecture uses a keyword-driven approach [1,4,5,6], the testers can write tests using
keywords that are related to the business knowledge or domain knowledge that they are familiar with.
Yes, they do have to follow the correct syntax for the keywords, but tools enable this to be relatively
easy to do, for example by providing a drop-down list of valid keywords and checking the syntax of
parameters entered to the keywords.
The keywords are implemented (i.e programmed) by test automators, using the scripting language of the
tool, or using any other programming language that they know and would be appropriate. The testers are
not involved in the implementation of the keywords, but they are able to use them to write tests.
The testers also need to be able to select a set of tests to be run automatically. This can be implemented
by the test automators to make it easy for the testers to kick off a set of tests, for example by providing
options in a user-friend interface to the automation.
The testers also need to receive and understand the results of the automated tests, and the way in which
this information is communicated to them is also designed by the test automator.
This separation of the tester from the automation is needed for the automation to grow within an
organization and to give long-lasting benefits and wide-spread acceptance.
6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Test automation does need technical skill – for those who are closest to the tool itself.
The skills of the tester and the skills of the test automator may be found in the same person, but it may
work better to have different people performing the two roles.
The test automator’s role is critical in establishing a modular and well-structure testware architecture,
separating the tool from the testware, and providing a tester-friendly interface to the testware for non-
technical testers.
Not every tester can or should become a test automator. Many non-technical people are very good
testers; they should be able to use test automation without needing to have technical skills. Getting to

this point, however, does require good technical support, but that support does not have to be provided
by the tester.
7. REFERENCES
[1] Buwalda, H., Janssen, D. and Pinkster, I. 2002. Integrated Test Design and Automation. Addison Wesley/Pearson Education, London.
[2] Crispin, L. Zero to 100% Regression Test Automation in one year: an Agile Approach to Automation 2010. In Graham, D. and
Fewster, M. Experiences of Test Automation. [Publisher not yet determined]
[3] Dustin, E., Garrett, T. and Gauf, B. 2009. Implementing Automated Software Testing. Addison Wesley/Pearson Education, Boston,
MA.
[4] Fewster, M. and Graham, D. 1999. Software Test Automation. Addison Wesley/Pearson Education, ACM Press, NY.
[5] Gijsen, M. 2009. Effective Automated Testing with a DSTL [Domain Specific Test Language]. Paper from the author and
http://www.linkedin.com/ppl/webprofile?action=ctu&id=5550465&pvs=pp&authToken=7sp6&authType=name&trk=ppro_getintr&ln
k=cnt_dir
[6] Graham, D. and Fewster, M. 2012 Experiences of Test Automation, Addison Wesley/Pearson Education, Boston, MA.
[7] Hoffman, D and Strooper, P. 1995. Software Design, Automated Testing, and Maintenance. International Thompson Computer Press,
Boston, MA.
[8] Kaner, C., Falk, J. and Nguyen, H. Q. 1993. Testing Computer Software. Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY.
[9] Mosley, D. J. and Posey, Bruce. A. 2002. Just Enough Software Test Automation. Yourdon Press/Pearson Education, Upper Saddle
River, NJ.
[10] Siteur, M.M. 2005. Automate your testing! Sdu Uitgevers bv, Den Haag.
[11] Stottlemyer, D. 2001. Automated Web Testing Toolkit. Wiley, NY.
[12] [author unknown] 2002. Staffing your test automation team. Mosaic Inc, Chicago IL.
www.mosaicinc.com/mosaicinc/successful_test.htm

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