Automated Software Testing

Contents

Introduction to automated software testing _[3] 3

The automated test lifecycle methodology (ATLM). 4

Reasons to automate software testing _[1] 4

Types of Automated Tests. 4

Advantages of automated software testing.. 4

Disadvantages of automated software testing _[4] 4

Choosing Automation Tools. 4

Summary. 4

References. 4

Introduction to automated software testing _[3]

Due to the financial situations in the world today, to save money and make the most of every project, software development organisations and software developers face a challenge of completing software projects in lesser and lesser amount of time and using minimal resources.

Software testing “is usually the part of the project which makes grown men weep”._[1] It is a laborious, tedious, and time consuming task; which means more resources needed and therefore more expense. For this reason many organisations have turned to automated software testing.

Automated software testing is automating the manual process of testing software.

“Automation is the use of tools and strategies that reduce human involvement or interaction in unskilled, repetitive or redundant tasks”._[2]

Things that can manually never be done, is accomplished by automation.

Example: simulating 1000 virtual users for volume testing. _[1]

This done manually:

A thousand people asked to come in and carry out the allocated task would mean, a thousand computers are needed and every user needs to be explained their task that needs to be carried out simultaneously. Every user has a level of intelligence to grasp the allocated task and that needs to be taken into account. This would take long and shoot up the costs. Repeating the test is not possible.

This automated:

One virtual user is created on a computer. This user is multiplied by a thousand on the same computer. One person would program these users to carry out the assigned tasks simultaneously. Finally, this would be executed. This test could be repeated over and over again.

The automated test lifecycle methodology (ATLM)
This is a systematic approach to maximize test coverage. See Fig 1.

Figure 1 Automated Test Lifecycle Methodology (ATLM)

The first step, in the lifecycle, is making the decision to automate testing. In this stage the team outlines the potential benefits of automation and also creates a test tool proposal.

The second step is the test tool acquisition. In this stage the entire testing tool is evaluated and selected. The system’s engineering environment is reviewed whenever possible and a list of tool evaluation criteria is also produced. The vendor is then contacted to bring in the selected tool that is evaluated based on the provided criteria.

The third step is the automated testing introduction process. This stage outlines the procedure needed to successfully introduce automated testing to a new project. Test process analysis is the first part of the procedure. This ensures that the overall test strategy is in place and adapted to the project. The second and final part is the test tool consideration. This looks into the test tools brought in without any specific project and checks if it now is of any advantage to the project.

The fourth step is the test planning, design and development. This, I believe, is the most important stage as it includes identifying the test procedures standards, defining the tests and the development standard. The test plan contains the results of all other stages in the ATLM. The procedure creation standards and guidelines are identified. Also the hardware, software and network required to support the test environment is identified along with a preliminary test schedule. The test design step includes the number of tests to be performed, the ways the testing will be approached and the test conditions that will be used. Finally the test development step is carried out so that the automated tests can be reusable, repeatable & maintainable.

The fifth stage is execution and management of tests. All test plans are now executed according to the standards discussed earlier in their plans.

The sixth stage is test program reviews and assessment. This stage is carried out throughout the lifecycle so that there is continuous improvement and less faults at the end. This would reduce the cost as faults found in earlier stages are cheaper to resolve than later stages.

So, in short ATLM “is structured methodology geared toward ensuring successful implementation of automated testing”. _[3]

Reasons to automate software testing _[1]

There are quite a few reasons to automate. Manual testing is mundane and laborious task that can lead to human errors. Small but important details of the software to the requirements can easily be forgotten. Automated testing verifies that the developed software matches the requirements and validates that that is what the organisation wants. Automation also helps avoid the defects and failures. Many things can lead up to this, for instance, if the environments are setup incorrectly or the wrong version of software is being deployed than that will cause a bug which will mean the system will malfunction or fail.

Compatibility is also an issue when it comes to deploying a new version of software. It should be compatible with the existing software for it to run smoothly. Automation ensures this.

The other reason to automate is that there are various other non-functional parameters that need to be tested, for instance: performance, usability, security, scalability etc. These parameters are skewed and vary from person to person for the level of tolerance. So Automation would be able to provide the wide range needed.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14