Pekka Kiviniemi, Quality Consultant in Qentinel, tells in his presentation how to make automation usable and human understandable to business users. The presentation took place in Qentinel's Automation Clinic on 1 March 2018 in Espoo, Finland.

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Writing Readable Test Automation
Qentinel Automation Clinic 1.3.2018
Pekka Kiviniemi

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Agenda
• Why keyword driven test automation
• Problems with keywords
• Pace way
• Pace benefits

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Test automation in developer style, -28%
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get(loc.postcode_url)
assert "Posti" in driver.title
elem = driver.find_element_by_name("streetname")
elem.clear()
elem.send_keys("Bertel Jungin aukio")
elem = driver.find_element_by_name("postcodeorcommune")
elem.clear()
elem.send_keys("Espoo")
elem.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)
assert "02600" in driver.page_source
driver.close()

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Same test with RF keywords style, +31%
Open browser to postnumber page
Input street Bertel Jungin aukio
Input city Espoo
Submit address
Verify postnumber 01500

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Claim: “Keyword driven TA benefits”
1. Easy to read by stakeholders
2. Test cases are easy to modify
3. Keyword re-use across multiple test cases
4. If SUT changes, fixing one keyword fixes it everywhere
5. Domain experts can write test cases without coding skills
6. Programmers can write keywords without domain expertise

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Refute #1: Practical issues in real life
• RF keywords hide complexity inside
• What does a RF keyword exactly do?
• Keywords are code and may contain bugs
• Keyword developers want to avoid repetition
• RF keywords may contain other keywords inside
• Debugging RF keywords may take a long time

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Refute #2: Test cases are easy to modify
• Testing new functionality requires new keywords
• Complex keywords are not easy to modify
• Developers cannot work with many keywords (> 100)
• Resulting duplicate keywords

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Refute #3: keyword re-use
Postnumber
• Open browser to postcode page
• Input street Bertel Jungin aukio
• Input city Espoo
• Submit address
• Verify postnumber 02600
Tracking number
• Open browser to Posti page
• Input ShipmentId 1234567
• Submit ShipmentId
• Verify shipments found 1
• Verify destination Helsinki

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Pace keywords: replicate one user action
• ClickText
• TypeText
• Verify
• Dropdown
• Checkbox
• Appstate

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Pace keyword based test automation
Test Post Code
Appstate posti main page
ClickText Post Code Search
TypeText Street Bertel Jungin aukio
TypeText Munincipality Espoo
ClickText Search
VerifyText 02600
Test Shipment ID
Appstate posti main page
ClickText Item tracking
TypeText shipmentid 1234567
ClickText Search
VerifyText 1 shipments found
VerifyText Destination: Helsinki

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Pace TA benefits: maintenance
Test
maintenance
New test
creation
Test
maintenance
New test
creation
Traditional method Pace method

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Summary
• Everybody can read what a test does
• Anybody can edit a test or create a new one
• Less maintenance
• Easier testlogs

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“Simplicity is a great virtue but it
requires hard work to achieve it and
education to appreciate it. And to make
matters worse: complexity sells better.”
―Edsger Dijkstra

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Pekka.Kiviniemi@Qentinel.com