Test Automation Practice

To add to our test automation capabilities we have developed TestWorx, a QTP based framework to achieve software testing goals including:

• Rigorous testing (with 100% regression testing of every release)
• Cycle time reduction
• Reduction in the total cost of testing (TCT)
• High Path Frequency – scenarios, paths used with high degree of frequency in the application under test.
• Overall reduction in testing effort
• Reduced cost of failure by early detection of bugs and issues during testing
• Reduced cost by completing the QA cycle quicker
• Automated testing using TestWorx Framework is consistent and repeatable
• Automation routines can be executed for different combinations of data setups
• Reporting and critical defect detection inputs for impact analysis
• Automation is the way to cost-effectively and consistently achieve adequate test coverage.
• Our framework ensures reliability in critical business process testing that are recurring
• These scripts can be executed anytime through a test management tool or create a custom batch program.
• No human intervention is needed once the test scripts are ready, can be integrated in continuous integration scenarios.
• No QTP or scripting knowledge is required to execute these scripts, this will reduce the high skill resource cost and maintenance costs

Considerations for using TestWorx

Identify and Prioritize your Software Test Automation Goals

In general software releases are incremental and testing all business transactions and scenarios is not possible in every regression test cycle. You need to identify the high priority and most vulnerable areas for testing including:

• Sufficient and efficient QA to ensure critical path of the software product is always up and running
• Work around the fixed budget and time constraints for regression testing during each testing cycle to ensure the critical path of the business is not impacted due to new code changes
• Factor in the architecture of the software under test to analyze dependency on third party components.

Select the business scenarios / Test cases for regression testing

This calls for clear definition of the goals of software test automation in terms of which scenarios or business process should be considered for automation and the purpose of the regression test.

Factors to consider while selecting test scenarios for automation include:

• Is automation feasible for the selected test scenario?
• Identify areas within the application that are core and can have an adverse effect on functionality that must be tested with every build.
• Scenarios that need to be tested with different data sets / values
• High path frequency

Considerations for using TestWorx

TestWorx is a distinct improvement over traditional test automation frameworks.

Implementing the Architecture / Test Execution

Once goals have been defined and test scenarios selected for test automation, Data Driven framework implementation can start. Factors to be considered while using TestWorx at the start of automation test scripting are:

Global Variables (Environment variables) and Constants - used to tune TestWorx and provide the flexibility to modify the entity reference dynamically; ensuring the software test suits maintainability. E.g. Execution Timer, Pass/Fail/Warning counters, Path of Test data etc

Framework Libraries - defines the common set of reusable functions that are usable across the application as well as the TestWorx data driven framework. Common examples include sending test reports via emails, connecting to a database and other helper functions.

Product Libraries - defines the reusable functions that are specific to the software product or application under test. Common examples include the most frequently used parts of the software like user navigation and accessing a particular feature of the software.

Configuration File - the global settings and software application access parameters are maintained in a Configuration File. Any setting or parameter which changes with the test environment setup is part of the configuration file; for example, email Id (for reporting purpose), database name, software version etc.

Test Control File - the most important file used by testers to select the number of test cases to run this includes the Module or if required sub module name, which will help in sorting out the list if the user only want to execute the test cases related to a specific module. This file also has the iteration Column which will help in executing one test cases multiple times.

Test Data - application specific data used to test the application-under-test for example the test case type, purpose, scenario, test case ID, expected result etc.

Interaction with Database - includes the place for the Query file also the generic function for connecting, disconnecting and retrieving the values from the database

Interaction with File System - includes the necessary files to be created for the log as well as the results.

• Main Driver Script
• Initialize QTP, database
• Locate the path of the test data/configuration file/log files/database etc
• Check the test control file for selecting the test case to run
• Create log files
• Create Report Files(HTML/Excel)
• Run product specific initialization (for example login)
• Check the Test data File for the number of test cases need to run and select the data accordingly

Object Repository - the Shared Object Repository contains the objects for the GUI based validation testing. Any change in GUI objects is modified at a central location, thereby avoiding rework of scripts.

Execution (Test Scripts) - a critical component in the Test Automation suite, they contain the actual code logic to perform and validate a specific business or functional scenario.

Result Files - these are the files generated during the execution; it contains the reporting as well as the logging files. Log generation provides information at various point in the test cases, and reporting file provide the test summary with all required parameters for example execution time, environment, tester along with the number of test cases Pass/Fail/Warning. These files are present in text, excel and html format. TestWorx can also send emails with the attachment of these file according the email id entered in the configuration file.