Building for the future: 7 Essential Components for test Automation Reusability

Introduction

Reusability in automation testing refers to the ability to use and leverage existing test assets, such as test scripts, test data, and test frameworks, across different testing scenarios or projects. It allows testers to save time and effort by avoiding redundant work and promotes efficiency in the testing process.

Benefits of reusability include:

• Cost Saving: It reduces the need for redundant development and maintenance efforts, leading to cost savings.

• Time Efficiency: With reusable test components, the team can develop and execute scripts more quickly accelerating overall time to market for software products.

• Improved Quality: Proven test components can enhance the quality of applications through consistent testing.
• Scalability: Reusable test scripts can be easily scaled to accommodate changes in project scope, requirement, and team size.
• Resource Management: New members can quickly familiarize themselves with existing test cases and methodologies, reducing time and resource training.

The 7 pillars in test automation reusability are as below:

1. Best Practices

Following industry standards, guidelines, and QA procedures improves code efficiency: Establishing clear guidelines for component design, versioning, test and validation of components before release.

Solutions, tools, and practices to manage code maintainability in automation: Maintain clear and consistent naming conventions. Follow a consistent naming convention for your test scripts, test cases, and test data. This makes it easier to identify and reuse specific test cases or test data sets.

Develop reusable functions, libraries, or utility classes that encapsulate common actions or operations (e.g., login, data validation, API calls). These reusable components can be shared across multiple test scripts and projects.

2. Change Management

Let’s start with an example to see how change management is one of the essential pillars in reusability.

Scenario:

Imagine you are a project manager overseeing a software development project for a large e-commerce company. As part of the project, you have decided to implement automation testing to ensure the quality and efficiency of the software being developed.

However, you realize that there is a lack of reusability in the automation testing process. Each time a new feature or functionality is added to the software, the testing team has to create new automated test scripts from scratch, resulting in duplicated efforts and increased workload.

To address this issue, you decide to implement change management strategies in automation testing reusability. Here is how you approach it:

1. Analyse and Identify Opportunities for Reusability: Start by analysing the existing automated test scripts and identifying common functionalities or scenarios that are being tested repeatedly. This could include login functionality, product search, adding items to the cart, and so on.
2. Create a Test Automation Framework: Develop a test automation framework that allows for modular and reusable test script development. This framework should provide a foundation for creating reusable components, such as libraries, functions, and modules that can be easily utilized across different test scripts.
3. Implement Version Control: Introduce version control system, such as GitHub, Bitbucket etc. to manage and track changes in the automation testing scripts. This enables the testing team to collaborate effectively, track modifications, and revert to previous versions if necessary.
4. Document and Share Best Practices: Encourage the testing team to document their experiences, learnings, and best practices related to automation testing. This documentation can be shared internally to promote knowledge sharing and facilitate reusability.
5. Establish a Centralized Repository: Set up a centralized repository or a shared location where the reusable components, test scripts, and related documentation can be stored and accessed by the testing team. This ensures easy access and promotes reuse across different projects.
6. Continuous Integration and Continuous Testing: Integrate the automation testing process into the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. This ensures that automated tests are executed at every stage of the software development lifecycle, allowing for early detection of issues and faster feedback loops.
7. Regular Maintenance and Updates: Regularly review and update the reusable components and test scripts to keep them aligned with the evolving software requirements. This includes addressing any changes in the application under test and updating the automation framework as needed.

By implementing these change management strategies in automation testing reusability, you can significantly improve efficiency, reduce duplicated effort, and enhance the overall quality of the software being developed.

3. Flexibility

Flexibility is essential for an automation framework architecture to adapt to changing business requirements. Businesses like yours must embrace new technologies and integrate them with various systems, tools, and platforms. So, you should build an architecture that can easily integrate with these systems and technologies. This flexibility enables the framework to support multiple automation approaches, such as Worksoft Certify, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). It also allows you to use emerging technologies as they become available, allowing organizations to stay at the forefront of automation advancements.

4. Modularity
Modularity is a key design principle for an effective automation framework architecture. Structuring the architecture in a modular manner, organizations can achieve component reusability and minimize duplication of effort. Modularity allows organizations to break down complex automation processesinto smaller, manageable modules. In effect, this enables the independent development, maintenance, and testing of individual automation modules, improving efficiency, and reducing the impact of changes or updates on the entire framework. Modularity also promotes collaboration and fosters a culture of innovation, as different teams can work on specific modules concurrently, accelerating the development and deployment of automation solutions.          

5. Parameterization
Define variables globally with different values instead of hard coding at a specific process level. This makes the process more reusable, adaptable and versatile. Passing parameters allows you to customize for different scenarios. This can be done from external sources such as spreadsheets, csv files, and databases allowing same script to be executed with different sets of data. Separate test data from test scripts by using external data sources or test data files. This allows you to easily modify and reuse test cases with different sets of test data.

6. Extensibility

An automation framework architecture should be designed with extensibility in mind. It should incorporate new functionalities and technologies as needed without requiring major rework or disruptions. With automation evolving rapidly, organizations must be adaptable and ready to embrace advancements in automation tools and techniques.

You can seamlessly integrate future technologies and expand the capabilities of their automation framework. This ensures the framework remains relevant and future-proof, capable of addressing emerging business needs and leveraging innovative automation solutions.

7. Impact Analysis

Comprehensive monitoring and reporting capabilities are essential for evaluating the performance and effectiveness of automated processes. Monitoring and reporting give IT leaders visibility into the health and efficiency of automation processes, enabling them to make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement. These capabilities help organizations proactively identify and address issues, optimize automation workflows, and enhance the overall performance of their automation initiatives.

Summary:

We can build a solid foundation for automation initiatives by incorporating these seven key elements into our automation framework architecture. This foundation enables organizations to unlock the full potential of automation, streamline processes, improve efficiency, and drive digital transformation. Additionally, a well-designed automation framework architecture is crucial for organizations looking to harness the transformative power of automation. IT leaders can build a robust foundation for their automation initiatives with elements of scalability, flexibility, modularity, extensibility, security, monitoring and reporting, and governance and control.

With an optimized automation framework architecture in place, organizations can maximize the benefits of automation, streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation in the digital age.