Test Automation Let’s talk business Igor Gershovich Connected Testing, Inc. www.connectedtesting.com igershovich@connectedtesting.com

Overview Test Automation Myths Return on Investment (ROI) Frameworks

Test Automation Myths

Myth #1 - Test Automation is simple, that every tester can do it This myth is promoted by the tool sales people. They are trying to promote the following test automation process: Record the script Enhance the script by adding functions and data driving Run the scripts Report results Under the influence of this myth QA manager can proudly report: All our testers are developing test automation.

Reality - Test automation is a software development task Automation should be designed, developed and tested You need to have some kind of a programming background to implement test automation. Test Automation is not as complex as C++/C#/Java development. Test automation standards should be developed Automated test components are assets that should be treated like application source code

Myth #2 – Commercial test tools are expensive Under the influence of this myth some companies, especially the small ones: Try to develop their own test automation tools Use scripting languages like Perl and Ruby Use shareware test tools Do not consider test automation at all

Reality – Commercial tools are cheap Per seat license for most expensive automation tool is $8K This tool will be used for 5 years. Maintenance/Support fees are 20% of tool cost or $1,800 per year The cost of this tool is $8K/5+$1,800 = $3,100 per year The automation developer cost with overhead is $100K per year The cost of this tool is just 3% of the person who uses it, but productivity gain can be very significant

Commercial Tool Benefits: Customer support. Many of the open source tools come and go with little to no support Most commercial tools are constantly being updated as technologies change Most commercial tools usually have more functionality (QTP can test various GUI applications: Web, .Net, Java, VB, C/C++, PowerBuilder, etc. vs. WATIR – Web only) Commercial tools usually have a large community of users, which translates into better availability of qualified resources Commercial tools require less advanced programming More test automation frameworks are available for commercial tools Commercial tools are integrated with Test Management tools which makes reporting and execution much simpler.

Absolutely Unscientific research: Employer demand by tool expertise (May, 2008)

Dice search results across US (30 days) Tool Search string Matches QTP Qtp OR quicktest OR "quick test“ 613 Functional Tester "rational robot" OR "functional tester” 118 SilkTest silktest OR "silk test” 86 TestComplete testcomplete OR "test complete” 26 TestPartner testpartner OR "test partner“ 19 VSTE VSTE AND test 45 WATIR watir Selenium 108

Excerpt from IDC Report: “Worldwide Automated Software Quality 2007-2011 Forecast and 2006 Vendor Shares…”

Return On Investment (ROI)

Classic ROI Calculation ROI = BENEFIT/COST Automation Cost = Price Of HW + Price of SW + Development Cost + Maintenance Cost + Execution Cost Manual Testing Cost = Development Cost + Maintenance Cost + Execution Cost ROI = (Manual Testing Cost - Automation Cost)/Automation Cost Looks right, isn’t it?

Problems with Classic ROI Calculation You can’t compare Automated Testing and Manual Testing. There are not the same and they provide different information about the AUT. You can’t compare cost of multiple execution of automated tests vs. manual tests. You would never dream of executing that many test cases manually.

Automation Real ROI ROI value IS NOT the value of Automation vs. Cost of executing these tests manually Automation ROI value IS the benefit of this type of testing, and it can be: Reducing Time to Market Increased Test Efficiency (Productivity) Increased Test Effectiveness

Reduced Time to Market Can get a greater market share Makes people available to work on other projects Higher margins, if no competitive products are currently available

Productivity and Effectiveness More testing gets done faster, increasing the odds of finding defects Defects found early have better chances to be fixed Manual Testers can concentrate on clever ways to finding defects, instead of typing test inputs and verify output. About 7% of bug fixes create new bugs, sometimes in already tested parts of the system. With automation you can rerun tests for those modules. This almost never happened when testing done manually.

ROI summary Each project requires different types of automation - there is often no easy formula available to calculate ROI Performing ROI calculation can help to determine upfront what type of automation, what level of skills, what tools will be required.

Automation Frameworks

Test Automation Framework A Test Automation Framework is a set of assumptions, concepts and tools that provide support for Automated Software Testing. Correctly implemented Test Automation Framework can further improve ROI by reducing the development and maintenance costs.

Types of Test Automation Frameworks Modular Data-Driven Keyword–Driven Model-Based

Modular framework The Modular framework is the natural progression from Record-and-Playback The modular framework seeks to minimize this repetition of code by grouping similar actions into “modules” (e.g.: login) Test Data is in a script This is what tool sales people are promoting.

Data-Driven/Keyword Driven These frameworks are similar in that the data is separated from the test script The script is just a "driver" or delivery mechanism for the data. The difference: In keyword-driven testing, the navigation data and test data are contained in the data source In data-driven testing, only test data is contained in the data source.

Model-Based testing Model-based testing is software testing in which test cases are derived in whole or in part from a model that describes some (usually functional) aspects of the system. Model-based testing for complex software systems is still an evolving field.

We’ll be concentrating on Keyword-Driven testing since it is a most beneficial framework for large-scale test automation.

Advantages of Keyword-Driven Test automation This Framework addresses the most common problem with test automation: Automation Engineers do not have domain knowledge and the End Users (Subject Matter Experts/Test Engineers) usually do not have automation expertise. When properly implemented and maintained, it presents a superior ROI because each business event is designed, automated and maintained as a discrete entity. Keywords can then be used to design test cases, but the design and automation overhead for the keyword has already been paid.

Advantages of Keyword-Driven Test automation Reduced the cost and time spent maintaining and updating tests The modular structure of keyword-driven testing means that new tests can easily be created from pre-existing modules The test team is capable of entirely automating tests, even without programming knowledge Can be easily modified to use with different test tool Reusability across different projects

Classic Keyword-Driven Example Object Action Data Textfield (username) Enter Text <username>

Recent Success with Keyword-Driven approach Estimate using Modular Framework: 1 year Estimate with Keyword-Driven Framework: 6 months Project was completed in 4 months by 1 person, 2 month ahead of schedule. This was the first project for the automation developer utilizing the Keyword-Driven Framework. 170 components were developed (1 component per Web page). 109 Regression Test cases were automated.

Example of Test Data for Keyword-Driven test automation developed by Connected Testing Inc. for TestComplete and QTP

Resources “Everything you want to know about Test Automation…” by Brian Le Suer “Manager’s Guide to GUI Test Automation” by Yury Makedonov “The ROI of Test Automation” by Michael Kelly “What is my ROI?” by mVerify Corporation SQA Forums “An Overview of Test Automation Frameworks” by Nathaniel Ritmeyer “The benefits of keyword-based software test automation” by David W. Johnson Wikipedia

Igor Gershovich Company: Connected Testing, Inc. E-Mail: igershovich@connectedtesting.com Phone: 720-933-9395 Website: www.connectedtesting.com