Test Automation is a form of software testing that uses specific tools to improve the testing in the arenas like speed and testing coverage. This is often used in combination with manual testing with the objective to improve the quality of the application or the product.
Automation has become one of the most sought forms of testing nowadays. Therefore testers should be striving to make it boom much more. It may often happen that your tests run but then seldom fail too and this may keep occurring if no action or any reliable techniques are applied. Go through the below techniques and take your test automation more robust.
Debugging and trials
Test 1, Test 2, Test 3, even if after trying thrice, the test has failed, give it a last retry itself. This is turn will increase the run time of the tests, but it’s the best quick fix until you check with the real cause in detail. Continue doing so till a level of test stability is reached.
Test Individually
Testers are well aware that in end-to-end tests, the failure of individual components can possibly fail the whole suite. In such a scenario, it’s advisable to write tiny tests that are capable of checking the failing component individually before running the end-to-end tests.
Retrospective fixes
Under continuous integration setup, please keep in mind if the executed tests truly should fail the build stopping the integration. When you are done with almost 30% of the test coverage, you will find that there are likely some tests that are not worthwhile to cause the stop. Here, you can start your inspection after your build goes out to retrospectively fix the problem.
Custom exceptions
Beware; your exceptions’ names are revealing more than required. Creating a class which extends from an exception class allows you to make up your own custom exceptions and give yourself or other person running your tests much more information for debugging them.
Intuitive stack-trace messaging
It is always beneficial to create page object models with details like ‘search box’ and ‘homepage’ because such descriptions are able to link together to make sense as a language and thus make your stack-trace messaging more helpful for other testers to debug. This can be considered handy for automation game beginners who are not acquainted with your tests, and most probably will find stack traces too confusing.
Perform Pre-test checks
Odd tests cannot be considered as the root cause of problems all the time, but the seasonal disinterested atmosphere usually does. The solution to this problem could possibly be to create a set of tests to serve as a sort of ‘pre-flight’ check. This test suite is to be run before integration tests to assure that all the essentials your tests rely on are perfect and in place. And, remember this check has to be very quick as it has to check only HTTP statuses, and your integration tests will only run if these tests have passed.
Go for tagging
It’s recommended to tag the tests in order to mention their run frequency. The tags are not restricted to a number; each test can be added with multiple tags.
We will not say that the aforesaid techniques are the only which will help your test automation scale heights but certainly, these are quick tips to implement when your automated tests fail to impress.
