Part 2 - Smart Test Automation: Intuitive Enhancement over Reactive Rectification

<< Previous A Little Background: Pertaining to one of the large-scale Test Automation projects the author worked on, it was ascertained that the cycle-time pertaining to “Test - Fix | Optimize - Retest” cycle was a substantial portion of the total project lifecycle. And, universally, that is the case in most of the contemporary large-scale Test Automation projects. The goal was to shorten the cycle-time pertaining to the Test-Fix-Retest cycle! It is intended to discuss a method that was devised on an experimental basis in that project. The method was put to use and it really worked to save a substantial amount of time. Despite so many tough challenges, delivery to the customer could happen on time without compromising on quality. This paper intends to describe that method and the way it was implemented.

Intuitive Enhancement: Let’s discuss what is ‘Intuitive enhancement’ (Predictive Modification), based on the Test Automation project referred to above. To explain the concept, here is some background information and statistical details (gathered by the end of the project) from the referred Test Automation project. By the end of the project, we found that the total amount of time had been spent in the following way. Please refer to figure, Figure - 1, sited below.

Note: The figures used in this paper are indicative and representative of the actual project data collected.

And, the effort was spent in the following way. Please refer to the figure, Figure - 2, sited below.

Let’s understand over here that Time and Effort are two independent parameters in this case. As far as the Time factor is concerned, we have a taken a look at when a particular segment (Example: Requirement Analysis) of task was started and completed relative to the start and the end time (date) of the entire project. As far as the Effort factor is concerned, we have taken a look at how much of manual human-effort was involved in completing a particular segment of task in comparison to the total amount of manual human-effort involved over the entire project.

Example: Let’s take a task-oriented look at the difference between these two factors - Time and Effort. A Test Engineer tests a (database) backup functionality. Only required representative steps have been considered and approximate (representative) time taken for each step has been stated in this example - Table - 1.

The following figure, Figure - 3, depicts the components pertaining to effort devoted to Bug-Fixing and Optimization. It is tried here to emphasize on the fact that in a typical Test Automation project, Bug-Fixing (or workaround-solution design and implementation) and Optimization consume a large chunk of the total EFFORT! And, this is one of the important segments of tasks that need to be managed really efficiently.

The following figure, Figure - 4, depicts the components pertaining to time devoted to Bug-Fixing (or workaround-solution design and implementation) and Optimization.

Next Page >>