1
Intelligent Mistakes
in Test Automation
(or: it seemed a good idea at the time)
Prepared and presented by
Dorothy Graham
email: [email protected]
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
www.DorothyGraham.co.uk
© Dorothy Graham 2013
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Intelligent mistakes?
• mistake:
– an action resulting from defective judgment,
deficient knowledge or carelessness, a
misconception or misunderstanding
• intelligent
– exercising good judgment, showing mental
resourcefulness, being well-informed
• intelligent mistake
– action based on a faulty premise, with the best of
intentions, but with adverse consequences
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Contents
• Automation should find lots of bugs
• Automation comes out of a box (or download)
• Let’s automate all of our manual tests
• ROI is essential for automation
• Testing tools are testers’ tools
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
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Good idea?
Automation should find lots of bugs
• Seems very sensible
– we are automating tests
– tests find bugs
– automation is more thorough and faster
– therefore, automation should find more bugs
- and quicker
• Problems
– what tests are we automating?
– what does automation actually give us?
5
What finds most bugs?
regression tests
exploratory testing
likelihood of
finding bugs
most often
automated
What is usually automated?
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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
9.3% 24.0%
58.2%
8.4%
Experiences of Test Automation, Ch 27, p 503, Ed Allen & Brian Newman
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fast
testing
slow
testing
Effectiveness
Low
High
Efficiency
Manual testing
Automated
Efficiency and effectiveness
poor
fast
testing
poor
slow
testing
good
good
greatest
benefit
not good but
common
worst
better
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When do automated tests find bugs?
• when the first run of a given test is automated
– Test-Driven Design in Agile (& BTDD)
– Model-Based Testing (MBT), automated test design,
monkey testing, exploratory test automation
– keyword-driven (e.g. users populate spreadsheet)
• find bugs in parts we wouldn’t have tested?
– indirect result of automation
– direct result of running more tests
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Contents
• Automation should find lots of bugs
• Automation comes out of a box (or download)
• Let’s automate all of our manual tests
• ROI is essential for automation
• Testing tools are testers’ tools
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
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Good idea? Automation comes out of the
box (or download)
• Seems very sensible
– automation gives great benefit, success stories
– spending a lot on the tool must guarantee great
benefits
– all we need to do is “get the right tool”
• Problems
– technical issue: what testware architecture is right
for your organisation? (hint: not the tool’s)
– management issues: staffing, support, resources
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Automation should fit your organisation
• your own testware architecture is critical
– a poor architecture gives
high maintenance cost
• most frequent cause of
abandoned automation/
shelfware
– two layers of abstraction
– technical: for long life
– human: for wide use
– using the tool’s architecture
ties you to that tool [version]
Testers&&
Test&Execu+on&Tool&
runs&scripts&
HL Keywords
Structured
Scripts
testware&
architecture&
write&tests&(i n&D STL)&
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It’s not about the tool
• no such thing as “the right tool” or “best tool”
– what’s “the best car”?
poor benefits
low cost
good benefits
high cost
good benefits
low cost
poor benefits
high cost
benefits
tool cost
commercial tools?
open source tools?
budget
investment in
good automation
good benefits
moderate cost
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It takes time and effort to succeed
• management support is critical
– high level managers need to understand
automation capability & limitations, and have
realistic expectations
– building good automation is a learning process
– “people issues” – people use the automation,
people develop the automation
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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 process Manual process
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Contents
• Automation should find lots of bugs
• Automation comes out of a box (or download)
• Let’s automate all of our manual tests
• ROI is essential for automation
• Testing tools are testers’ tools
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
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Good idea?
Let’s automate all of our tests
• Seems very sensible
– we already have lots of tests being done manually
– automation would be much quicker
– we can be completely automated, no need for
manual tests [testers?!]
• Problems
– what tests are you automating?
– what are you missing by automating [only]
existing tests?
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Automate manual tests?
manual
tests
automated
tests
tests not
worth
automating
new ways of
automating, e.g.
exploratory test
automation
manual tests
automated
(% manual)
tests (&
verification)
not possible to
do manually
tests not
automated
yet
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Tools will replace testers?
• “we can reduce the number of testers once we
have the tool”
– what are your testers like?
• mindless morons, or
• intelligent investigators?
– need more skills, not fewer
– automation can free testers to do more test
design, exploratory testing
• and find more bugs
– tools don’t replace testers, they support them
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Contents
• Automation should find lots of bugs
• Automation comes out of a box (or download)
• Let’s automate all of our manual tests
• ROI is essential for automation
• Testing tools are testers’ tools
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
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Good idea?
ROI is essential for automation
• Seems very sensible
– we will be spending time and possibly lots of
money on tools – need to be sure it will be worth it
– a “water-tight” business case will convince our
managers to invest in automation
• Problems
– ROI is not the whole story
– people are not convinced by numbers
– calculating ROI is difficult and can be dangerous
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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
these are (good) benefits
but are not ROI
ROI =
(benefit – cost)
cost
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How important is ROI?
• ROI can be dangerous
– may give impression that people are replaced by
tools (see http://dorothygraham.blogspot.co.uk/)
• “automation is an enabler for success, not a
cost reduction tool” – Yoram Mizrachi
• many achieve lasting success without
measuring ROI (depends on your context)
– need to be aware of benefits (and publicize them)
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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
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Contents
• Automation should find lots of bugs
• Automation comes out of a box (or download)
• Let’s automate all of our manual tests
• ROI is essential for automation
• Testing tools are testers’ tools
Twitter: @DorothyGraham
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Good idea?
Testing tools are testers’ tools
• Seems very sensible
– testers do testing – testing tools help with testing
– tools will make them better testers, because they
will be able to run more tests, faster
• Problems
– tools are software packages using programming
languages; tester skills are different to
development skills
– spending time on / with tools means less testing,
not more testing (initially at least)
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Is it the tester’s job to automate tests?
– test execution automation is software development
• needs programming skills
– not all testers want to become developers
• or would be good at it
– do automators need testing skills?
• helpful but not essential
– if testers are automators a conflict of interest
• do you run tests or do you automate tests?
• automation is better long-term, BUT
• deadline pressure pushes you back into manual testing
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Current thinking?
• “Testers, if you want to have a job, you need to
learn to write code”
– so testers who don’t write code are now worthless?
– the only good tester is a developer-tester?
• I see serious consequences (and I don’t agree!)
– for every context? (user/business testers)
• fine for those who want to, in agile team, dev level
– pure testing skills are no longer valued?
– not right to force good testers out of our industry!
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Why are these intelligent mistakes?
• Automation should find bugs?
– tests find bugs; automated tests are still tests
• Automation comes “out of the box”
– you think you buy a solution that will just work
• Automate all manual tests?
– a starting point for tests to be automated
• Automation has to achieve ROI?
– can’t expect investment without showing some return
• Testing tools are tools for testers?
– testers write and run tests; tools run tests
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Why are these intelligent mistakes?
• Automation should find bugs?
– tests find bugs, automation runs tests
• Automation comes “out of the box”
– effort and time, e.g. tailor your testware architecture
• Automate all manual tests?
– not all should be, automate more than manual
• Automation has to achieve ROI?
– may be dangerous, need to show benefits
• Testing tools are tools for testers?
– different skills, not all testers should code
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Summary
• Many ideas seem sensible at first / on the
surface, but have serious problems
– automation should find lots of bugs
– automation comes out of a box (or download)
– let’s automate all of our manual tests
– ROI is essential for automation
– testing tools are testers’ tools
• Recognise these “intelligent mistakes” and
avoid them
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More information
• downloads www.DorothyGraham.co.uk
– articles and papers
• email [email protected] for
– list of test execution & framework tools
– automation ROI calculator spreadsheet
– an invitation to join the new Test Automation Patterns wiki
– my random newsletter
• blog http://dorothygraham.blogspot.com
– including automation, DDP, certification
• twitter
– @DorothyGraham
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