Basics to Test Automation Every Software Developer Should be Aware About
Every developer is well acquainted with the fact that test automation helps in improving quality and working with efficiency with little or no effort on manual regression testing. Instead of spending so much time at the end of the development cycle, you should run automated test that takes a tad but amount of time and focus on running regression tests with each build. Unluckily, many begin with the user interface later which provides the smallest ROI. Pay heed to this guide to make the most with the inception of test automation.
- Using the test pyramid method
Don’t begin by hiring a group of contractors when it comes to automation at the user interface level. Invest some time getting acquainted with the test automation pyramid. When ready, build a test automation strategy with a test automation tool, keeping the optimization of ROI in mind. Test automation pyramid teaches you how to maximize automation, beginning with the unit tests at the lowest level of the pyramid and then moving up to the service level testing. User interface is at the top of the pyramid. The service layer lets the testing business logic at the service level or the API where you are not encumbered by the UI or the user interface. The higher the level, it slower it gets and brittle the testing becomes. Eventually, while the UI test automation is ongoing, they are slow, hard to manage and prone to break easily. Try to keep those to a minimum.
- Unit test automation
It is the essential component of high-quality code. Test automation has tools like UFT or Unified Functional Testing or Selenium that offers test automation factors. But, majority of the test should be written at the unit test level. xUnit or Microsoft’s Visual Studio Unit Testing Framework should be used to build automated tests for small units of code. Developers can also assess each code path and test it with a coverage tool like DotCover. Automated test units are fast, gives your team immediate feedback in case of regressions and continues to thrive.
- Service level testing
This layer is also known as automated API tests, acceptance tests or automated component tests. This layer tests the business logic with no involvement of the UI. This leads to test the inputs and outputs of the API. This level offers an option to set up data and follow a series of tests with inputs and anticipated outputs defined in separate files. This helps in creating automated tests against edge cases, boundary conditions or error conditions without the UI. These tests are slower and complex than unit tests as they need database access. They are faster and reliable than UI tests.