These days, the test automation strategies help to strengthen the business models by converting labor-intensive and lengthy testing methods into streamlined processes of automation. Besides, companies are now adding automation security testing as an important part of the development method in DevOps strategies. Besides, a robust test automation suite allows businesses to validate simple security test cases and functionality with each execution of the DevOps pipeline. As a result, businesses can concentrate more on regular activities while ensuring that the teams can work more effectively without the requirement of investing a lot of time into some repetitive jobs.

This article offers a discussion on devising the right test automation strategy, which helps to prevent the usual test automation failures.

1. Identify the test automation goals and then measure success: Automation testing without the right goal has no meaning. So, the first part of developing the right test automation strategy is to identify all the goals, which can help you to measure success. Once you identify, make it sure that the automation goals are proven. You can simplify the job by joining a professional selenium online training.
2. Select the right testing approach: The term testing approach represents a complete set of guidelines and rules that you need to follow while writing and running tests. There are five major approaches to automation, which decide how the tests are performed:

• Module based- Here the testers divide the systems into different independent modules and then write scripts to test every module separately.
• Linear- This is known as the most basic framework where testers manually perform every step and record those without using any automation tool. They can replay those steps later as many times as required.
• Data-driven testing- Here in this approach, data is separated from the automated test scripts and then those are stored in the external files. It allows the testers to perform tests with different data sets without the need of rewriting any scripts.
• Test library architecture- After recording the actions in the apps, here the testers group all the common steps into the functions. Later the testers can use the library of some common functions to develop modular tests.
• Hybrid approach- Here some of the above-mentioned approaches are combined in the effort to compensate for all the weaknesses. As time passes, the majority of companies adopt a more hybrid approach that fits their unique requirements. But while deciding the right test automation framework, it is important to consider all the technologies used in the projects, the costs associated with it, the project requirements, and the available talent.

3. Select the right testing tools: The next step to build a good test automation strategy is to choose the testing tool, which suits your project requirements while meeting the decided approach. Joining a professional java selenium training in Bangalore can make you knowledgeable about the right testing tools. Besides, there are the steps you need to follow to select the same:

• Think about the tech stack first. The tools should support the programming languages that are used on the projects and the operating systems that the testers feel comfortable with. It is also important to consider the supported platforms in the case of mobile apps. In case you are planning to target both platforms, you can either select a tool that supports both Android and iOS or you can use some separate testing suites.
• Therefore, check whether the tools you have selected have the right balance between the advanced features and the ease of use based on your team skills and the project requirements.
• Next, decide your budget. There are different types of tools including both commercial and open-source that you can select. The former often offer better teaching resources and support. If you want to spend money on commercial tools, you can begin with a free trial and experiment on a small project before purchasing the entire project. Besides, there are two kinds of licenses that are associated with commercial tools. The development licenses can limit the total number of machines on which the scripts can be written. The runtime licenses perform the same thing for executing scripts. You need to purchase both the licenses to automate the tests in case you decide to purchase commercial tools.
• Other important things that you need to consider are the availability of training resources, customer support, and whether the tools properly incorporate with your project management software and Continuous Integration suite.

4. Design and execute tests: After developing the automation strategy and choosing the right tools, the subsequent step is to start writing scripts. It is important to have a team of QA engineers or a dedicated automation specialist for this purpose. But in case you lack the talent, then you can choose professional automation specialists to augment the team. Here are the steps that you can follow in this regard to increase the automation testing ROI.

• Adopt BDD or Behavior-Driven Development– This is an approach to software development, which helps both the stakeholders and engineers to be on the same page. The team writes the requirements as user stories when it comes to designing apps. It allows the entire development team to check the products through the eyes of the users and understand the ways to build and test it better. BBD makes the applications more testable by breaking these systems into some independent features.
• Use the page object pattern in the GUI tests– The main goal of automation is to save time. Resolving conflicts and updating scripts won’t take a longer time than the one saved on automating your tests. With the page object pattern, the developer will be able to separate the code, which works together with UI from the test logic and then wrap it in the app-specific API. This way, page object pattern successfully complements the Behavior-driven development that enhances test readability and decreases code duplication.
• Run the test in parallel– Automated GUI tests are quite slower than API/Unit tests. This is why it is necessary to run the scripts in parallel for increasing the speed of testing. For CI development tools. Then it is possible to automatically trigger the tests and their results are then stored together with the relevant tasks.
• Data-driven the tests– Data-driven approach allows the developer to reuse automated test scripts. It is possible to generate new cases by changing the stored data in the external files. One can parametrize both the expected output data and the input data to get the most out of the approach. This step can help a developer to write maintainable and efficient scripts.

5. Maintain the automation testing suite: Without the right maintenance, automation scripts often break while a certain part of the app changes. This is why it becomes important to plan the automation test. Besides, creating small test cases helps to make maintenance easier. Huge cases never work for automated tests. So, it is better to break those cases into smaller ones, each part focused on a single objective. Therefore, pressing the button would separate it from the navigation, and so on. This way, making small changes to the system will not break the entire chain of action. After that, you can combine all the changes into some complex workflows. It is also important to maintain the proper balance between API/Unit/GUI tests.