Evaluating the success of test automation has always been a challenge and an important issue too. Objectives of test automation are always vital, as they ultimately determine the direction a team of developers is headed in. It also determines the end result of all the funding as well as the assessment of any particular project and last but not the least, the probability of success or failure in meeting the intended mission objectives. One of the mainstays of measurement of success is the AROI or Automation Return on Investment, which is at times misconstrued as the benefits or advantages of automation. Let us discuss how to evaluate the success of test automation.
Previously, a crude process of evaluation was followed. It included measurement of the percentage of test cases that were automated. However, this at times turned out to have a fair bit of loopholes, and was soon discarded and a new method was adopted.
Before we get into that, let us at first know why we need to do test automation? The main objective of test automation measurement is to improve the test efficiency so as to save time along with effort, along with a substantial amount of costs at the end of the day.
Now what are the most appropriate ways of measuring the success of automatic evaluation of software? Rather than measuring the percentage of evaluation cases to be automated, the essential metrics of automatic evaluation should put more emphasis on the savings that can be acquired from successful execution of those automatic evaluation cases in terms of time as well as efforts.
The entire process is though easier said than done. Actually, correctly calculating the time along with effort saved through execution of automatic evaluation is an extremely complicated process. For accurate calculation, it is imperative to know the amount of time as well as the efforts it takes for execution of each and every manual test case. Besides, once those figures are available, it becomes necessary to map the data to the actual scripts of the automatic evaluations that are being executed, followed by a holistic calculation of all the parameters of the evaluations.
In order to reach a concrete conclusion through this entire process, what is needed is a sizable amount of time, effort as well as a seamless collaboration with the team that executes manual tests.
However, one might not forget that there is always the presence of a certain amount of tests that are not yielding the desired results in spite of being automated. Hence, in order to bring this percentage into consideration it is imperative to change things into Value Metrics of Test Automation.
This new process of evaluation has been pretty effective, albeit the strenuous effort that is needed to collate all the required information. However, the test management tool used needs to be appropriate and should be such that it will readily support capturing the relevant information, aggregating the same and returning the desired metrics alongside the trend. For this, MS Excel is a wonderful tool that comes in handy.
However, just as a footnote perhaps it will not be inappropriate to mention here that in order to get maximum ROI for automatic evaluation, the following parameters need to be maintained:
The scope of the Automation will have to be determined in details before getting off with the project.
The appropriate automation tool needs to be selected on the basis of the fact whether it is appropriate for the assessment. Do not select tools on the basis of its popularity.
The framework needs to be appropriate. The standards for scripting will have to be maintained in a proper way. The scripts, comments as well as the code indentation to need to be uniform, and finally, exceptions should be handled adequately.
Selection of the right automatic evaluation tool, assessment process as well as a testing team is extremely important factors when it comes to a successful evaluation. Moreover, when it comes to successfully evaluate the achievement of these tests, maintenance of these parameters properly also makes the evaluation easier as well as quicker.
You can hire testers from top certified automation testing company in India who can help you accomplish testing within allocated budgets and time schedules.
We provide outsource automated testing services. If you would like to hire automation testers from us or would just like to speak to one of our expert software testers, please reach out to us at Mindfire Solutions.
HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT) software is used widely by developers across the world to automate testing process. The software application makes it easier for the QA professionals to carry out a variety of testing including functional testing and regression testing. The testers can further write test scripts using Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) scripting language. The scripting language simplifies the process of manipulating the objects and controls of the application and specifying a test procedure. The integrated development environment (IDE) provided by the application helps testing professionals to write and validate test scripts more effectively. With more and more organizations automating their testing process, the demand for HP UFT software is increasing at a steady pace.
Why Automate Your Test Process with HP Unified Functional Testing Software
Effective in Testing both Front-end and Back-end of the Application
HP has designed the Unified Functional Testing software application as a comprehensive testing platform to test both GUI and API. The combination of GUI testing and API testing makes the software useful for testing both front-end (User interface) and back-end of a software application. The QA professionals can use the GUI testing method to evaluate the front-end of the software application, whereas the back-end of the application can be tested using the API testing method.
Simple and Easy-to-Use
Often organizations have to provide training to software developers and testers while adopting a new technology. Despite being effective in functional testing and regression testing automation, UFT is still simple and easy-to-use. So your workers can learn its features and navigation option easily, and start generating reports and validate the user-friendly results. Further, UFT can be combined seamlessly with Test Management Tool (Hp-Quality Center). So the users can easily schedule tests and monitor the test results.
Facilitates Data-Driven Testing
HP has further designed the UFT software with support for data-driven testing. So it allows the data to be stored as a data table to be reused for another project. The QA professionals even have option to implement data-driven testing as a Microsoft Excel workbook, which can be accessed from the UFT application. The application further supports two distinct data table types, i.e., local or action data sheets and global data sheets.
Quick Scripting Process
The amount of time required for completing functional or regression testing is impacted by the time required to write test scripts. HP UFT allows testing professionals to write test scripts using VBScript. In comparison to object oriented programming languages, VBScript is easier to learn and code. Thus, the UFT scripting can be completed by the professionals within a shorter span of time.
Enhanced Code Reusability
Like other powerful test automation tools, HP UFT also enables QA professionals to save the test scripts, function libraries, objects, components and application areas. It comes with a centralized quality control solution known as ALM. The developers can store the test scripts, function libraries, objects and components with the with the ALM project. The details stores with ALM project can be shared with other QA professionals, and reused for other testing projects.
Extensible to Several Development Environments
Despite being used by QA professionals to automate both web based and windows based client-server applications, HP UFT still does not support all operating systems and web browsers by default. But the testers have option to install corresponding add–in to make the software compatible with a particular development environment. The application comes with three default add-ins, i.e., ActiveX, Visual Basic and Web. But users can still load corresponding add–ins to use UFT with Java, .NET, SAP, Oracle Apps, Delphi, Web Services and Flex.
HP further allows organizations to use Unified Functional Testing software either the seat or concurrent license. The seat license is specific to a computer on which the UFT software is installed, whereas the concurrent license is a network based license that enables multiple users to use the application at a time. So an organization has option to choose the licensing according to its specific needs and budget. If you are planning to hire services of offshore software testing companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide QA testing services. We have expert testing team with 100% certification ratio. To hire software quality assurance tester from us, please reach out to us at Mindfire Solutions.
Before we get into the depth of the best API automation testing practices, let us start with – what API automation actually is. An API or Application Programming Interface can be defined as a collection or set of functions as well as procedures known as API calls, that are executable by various software applications. Now, coming to API automation testing, it is the mechanism in which a test support application that links API and systematically exercises the functionality thereof, is created for simulating the end user application of the API.
Now, let us discuss the best tried as well as tested practices of API automation testing. The practice generally should involve the following steps in a chronological manner.
Planning the test
Before starting off with the testing as well as writing test codes, one should at first spend a certain amount of time, chalking out strategies about the ways that need to be adapted during testing and more importantly, about the things that needs to be evaluated.
Now, depending upon the complexity of the tests, the process of planning should vary. A thorough design documentation needs to be done as this will make the process of testing much easier along with less time consuming.
Organizing the entire thing
This is the second step of the assessment. You need to organize the evaluation in a proper way so much so that it will have a positive impact on the productivity, efficacy, as well as maintenance of the tests. It helps in the betterment of the software performance. For example, all the tests that are to be conducted for a particular API should be under a single file. Then again, the file in question should be named after the API that is subjected to evaluation. What happens because of this is that it makes easier for the other users to locate all the test cases, and spend the up-front expenditure for ensuring that the foundation is firm as well as clean. While some procedures need to be tested in pairs and groups, there are certain procedures that need to be tested in singles.
Each and every case needs to be self-contained as well as isolated from the dependencies as much as possible, It helps the developers when it comes to copying individual cases into a definite stand-alone application or in the individual unit-test framework of a user.
Setting the Priorities
As and when the test cases are developed, against the popular practice of going straight away to an invalid test, it is important to set priorities. It makes easier for the testers to put more emphasis on the mainline cases at first, before opting for any other issue.
In fact, one should ascertain the test cases that need to be conducted at first. This purely depends upon the instinct of the tester. It is the tester who will have to ascertain which cases that will have to be tested first. Prioritizing the tests will only make the process simpler.
Development
Depending upon the mode of evaluation, it might turn out beneficial for the tester to store the state information in variables that can easily be accessed. If the test breaks when stressed, it is imperative that a proper investigation is done on the machine along with all the variables involved in the tests. During development, it is better to keep all the previous state information handy, particularly if the test case in question deals mainly with arbitrary data.
Configuration
Another very common as well as useful practice of API testing is changing the run-time behavior. As the testing starts, logging out of the system along with the assessment parameters is an imperative. The exact configuration as well parameters can be recreated from a log file. If each and every evaluation case performs its own configuration setup and initialization, it is imperative to evaluate the real life scenarios.
Validation
Validation of the test's behavior is another important practice, though at times, testers tend to ignore it and this leads to false positives and negatives or presence of non-actionable bugs even after testing is completed. When evaluating the test cases, one should assume that it will fail initially and then the real challenge is to prove that it works or does not work in a proper way. If you are planning to hire service of automation testing companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide test automation services. If you would like to get your application tested by our certified automation testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
With the introduction of state of the art smart phones and mobile phones, newer avenues of game development have opened up. The games that are now developed for these devices come up with a string of value added features that make them all the more attractive to the gamers. Now, as these games get increasingly high tech, the testing techniques also get increasingly complex. Let us discuss some of the best practices that a tester is required to carry out, for evaluating these games.
User Interface and Functionality testing
When it comes to evaluating modern high end mobile gaming, the QA or Quality Analysis along with functionality testing is extremely important. They need to be extensive as it is imperative to test quite a number of parameters like UI and functionality, graphics performance, multiplayer experience, cross platform performance, consumption of the battery and last but not the least, memory leakage or usage.
Again, when we speak of functionality along with UI testing of the mobile gaming, the two main elements that need to be tested are visual appeal along with game play. Thus, the main aspects of a mobile game that need to be elaborately examined include:
Screen
It needs to be seen that the title screen is properly designed so that it never causes eye sore for the gamer as the individual logs in to play the gaming package in question. The first impression is always the best impression.
Menu Functions
This is another aspect that needs to be evaluated properly. It needs to be examined whether the menu functions are working properly or whether it is easy to navigate through the menu.
Flow of the Game and the rules of playing the game
The gaming package play needs to be absolutely progressive without any jerk and it is to be seen that the game itself is not too hard to play for it may deter the gamers. Again, a too simple game will cause boredom for the gamer. A right balance needs to be struck.
The parameters that need to be evaluated include the character models along with the levels of the gaming, designing of the scenes and secondary characters (if any), creation of the right ambiance, the opponents from the gamers’ perspective (in case of first person gaming), collectibles (if any) and how hard or simple it is to collect them, the variety of collectibles, their frequency, the scoring mechanism (it needs to be accurate as well as simple), the extent of social networking interactions, the background music along with the overall ambiance that is created. The finesse along with the compactness of the gaming package also needs to be evaluated as they play a pivotal role in keeping the gamers glued to the game.
If all these parameters are needed to be checked, there are other aspects of mobile game testing as well. Other parameters that are to be tested should include the graphics and the UI of the gaming package, the usability of the buttons as well as the navigational flow, grammatical texts as well as the fonts, special effects as well as the animation of the characters, the sound effects, screen orientation, screen resolution and the likes. Now that we have discussed the parameters that need to be checked, let us turn our attention to the other testing practices that are to be maintained.
1) Play the game first hand: Playing the game is not that easy for a tester. The first step of the evaluation is running a string of assessments, some of which are very specific and consists of a series of step-by-step instructions.
2) Identifying the bugs: Testing a mobile gaming package basically has two principle objectives. While one of them is detecting the defects that are embedded in the gaming codes as well as designs, the other is demonstrating the parts of the game that are functioning in a proper way. If the examination does not detect any glitch, the game “passes” the test and when the evaluation detects any issue, then the game “fails”.
3) Amplification: This practice involves narrowing down all the likely scenarios for a particular bug or glitch to occur. Now this can be performed in two feasible ways – early testing and checking all the points.
4) Notification: Once a glitch or a bug is detected, it is imperative that the developers are instantly notified so that it can be taken care of without any delay whatsoever.
Once that is done, the buck passes on to the developers who will take care of the glitch, eliminate it and send it back to the testers’ desk for another round of testing. If you are planning to hire service of game testing companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide Game testing services. If you would like to get your games tested by our Game testing experts, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
To ensure flawless user experience, it is an absolute essential to test the web applications. Constant changes have to be made to applications as well as websites; even the number of browsers supporting are increasing continuously. These facilitate the necessity of having efficient as well as effective test automation solution so that ongoing testing is made possible which leads to rapid bug isolation and ultimately exceptional performance.
The open source toolset called Selenium enables efficient as well as effective GUI or Graphical User Interface test automation for web applications. This set contains various software tools, all of which have various approaches in support of test automation. However, mostly engineers focus on one or at the most two tools to meet their project’s needs. But learning about all of them offers a person with various options to approach varying problems since each has particular roles to play. Using this tool offers a multitude of benefits. Some of the notable features are given below.
One time scripting that can be run on multiple browsers- The benefits and features may not be the same with the same script running on multiple browsers, but it does save a lot of hassles. When testing the application on various browser versions, you will definitely feel the enormous advantage of running the same script sets in multiple browsers.
Choosing the language of your taste- With this advantage you get the indirect benefit of easy plugging into the engineering architecture. For example, those familiar with Java, can reap benefits of technical expertise as well as knowledge related to that topic. You can also take advantage of the various tools like reporting tools, build systems, IDE, etc used by your development branch. All you have to do is simply transfer the know-how to the QA team; in fact, in all probability they are already familiar with it.
Integration with ecosystem- If you need to integrate with various suite of tools such as QMetry, Hudson, etc you can easily avail of the solutions which are already out there, making the integration process easier. You do not need to make any investment for purchasing of tools; a test automation infrastructure can be easily created at par with commercial tool suites. If the tests have to be run in parallel, then also there are plenty of solutions available.
Supporting multiple test frameworks- Selenium is actually sort of a GUI driving library and not just a testing tool. Users are allowed by this tool to wrap test scripts in a framework of their taste. They can use whatever framework they like and reap advantages offered by the particular capabilities of the framework.
Software suite with community support- Selenium users are able to take advantage of a number of tools. Firefox plugins can assist you in running as well as recording of your tests. Another tool helps in the taking of tests so that they may be deployed in clustered environment to optimize your resource usage.
Applicability to AJAX- This feature is an inherent one; when the tool works in your browser, the main technology that drives the test case and AUT or application under tests work side by side. This enables immense control over AJAX web application testing.
Through this automation testing tool total test cycle is reduced to 8 hours from 2 weeks. The release cycles become shorter and the nearshore model leads to overall cost reduction by 60%. Testing cases are not only low maintenance but they may be reused as well. There are a multitude of other advantages and features associated with Selenium web testing tool which can be reaped during usage. It also makes it possible for you to introduce benchmarks so that software quality may be increased. For any kind of problem or information, you can always turn to the several web communities as well as excellent quality documents.
We provide Selenium web application testing services. If you would like to discuss with a certified Selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.
Android application developers find it extremely important to ensure that only a thoroughly tested Android app gets released in the market. With so many different devices running a variety of potential version of Android OS, it may become particularly difficult to make sure that the app is running properly on every device. Nevertheless, it is important that the users find the app smooth and give lots of stars to generate downloads. Thorough unit testing is trusted by many software developers for that. There are many places that have an amount of unit testing but implementation is quite an important step as well, so that they can ensure that the app is functioning just the way they expect it to. The unit tests must be written early on so that you plan the objects while coding; it also forces the resolution of ambiguities.
Another Android automation tool often used is MonkeyRunner which uses a Python implementation in Java, known as Jython for walking through the applications. It is best used when you want to walk through multiple emulators or devices. Its approach is not based on pass or fail testing; rather it walks through the application and clicks on buttons to take screenshots throughout, at designated points. After the running of the script, the screenshots can be compared with the ones that you had expected to see to find out the problems. This is a very easy approach but its main problem is its lack of a tight UI integration.
There are several other evaluation tools but amongst the various Android Automation tools, the most loved as well as trusted is the Robotium. This test framework is meant for the creation of easily written, robust as well as powerful automatic test cases for applications. Robotium helps test case developers write functions, acceptance and system test scenarios that cover multiple Android activities. By virtue of this, further details related to the implemented classes or structure of Android apps are not needed by test developers. The main class name along with the path linking it, are all that is needed. Full support is provided by it for the testing of hybrid as well as native applications.
Installing as well as using Robotium is extremely easy. It can be downloaded as single JAR file and then placed in whichever folder you want. To use it, you only have to put the JAR in the test project's classpath. Several differently build automation tools can use it. In fact, it may be used for both application testing with the source code available as well as for applications where just apk is available. To use it, just create Android test project to add test class.
Robotium usage has the following benefits as well as features:
- Powerful tests cases can be quickly written even with very little information about the application that you will be testing.
- APIs are offered so that direct interaction can be done with UI controls in the application.
- Android 1.6 as well as above versions are officially supported by it.
- Robotium does not modify the Android platform.
- Command prompt may be used for the execution of the test.
- Smooth integration of the framework may be done with Ant or Maven, helping in the addition of the framework to build the automation process of the project.
- Screenshots may be captured as well.
- There is no need for source code.
- Other measurement tools for code coverage like Emma and Cobertura can work with this.
- Quick implementation can be done.
- The test case can be read prominently when compared to other tests.
Robotium testing may also have certain shortcomings but despite those, the list of benefits is quite lengthy, making it a much-loved automation testing tool. Currently, it can be said to be the best Automation Testing Framework with many open source developers contributing to the introduction of many newer as well as better features in it to enrich the user experience even further. Android testing with Robotium can be executed with a customizable framework based on clients’ needs.
We provide Android automation testing services. If you would like to get your application tested by our certified Robotium testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
The software industry's trends keep on changing on a daily basis and with that, trends related to testing change as well. There was a time when software testing did not have much prominence; some evaluation was manually carried out while the rest of the testing was outsourced. But gradually, people are waking up to the importance of software testing and as a result, this has become a professional career for many. New testing paths opened up with trends such as SOA or Service Oriented Architectures, Web-based applications, Wireless Technologies, SaaS or Software as a Service, Mobile Technologies along with an increased emphasis on robustness, re-use, reliability and repeatability. Everywhere, evaluation strategies are being changed so that the trends can be accommodated, making the sphere more and more professional.
The changes are being implemented for efficient as well as effective application development for quality systems. In fact, for that, huge amount of emphasis is being placed on improvement of Analysis as well as Design phases so that the early evaluation in the areas can be ensured. When capture tools of analysis as well as design requirements are built-in, Static Testing are robotized to lend clarity, better chances of completeness and facilitate eradication of ambiguity as well as assumptions. The product will surely become more robust, reliable as well as reusable.
Under the changing circumstances, professional testers would have to concentrate further so that value can be added both to software development lifecycle as well as to the business. They should operate in elevated positions by combining creativity, a process-driven structured approach, ability to define and articulate evaluation criteria and quality in the models as well as inquisitiveness. The tester's role is slowly becoming more essential as well as interesting. With that, software evaluation has become a great career option for many professionals. There is high a demand of skilled testers in the area so that they can analyze the test results, identify bottlenecks so that tuning techniques can be suggested.
To make professional evaluation a good career option, a tester should specialize in some main areas.
Knowledge of automation evaluation tools- Automation along with performance testers have a great demand in the market. As such, to succeed in test automation you need to have a good experience or knowledge of scripting languages that the tools come up with. A very basic requirement is the knowledge on enhancement, validation as well as creation of test automation framework.
Domain knowledge- This is one of the foremost requirements as good knowledge regarding the application's domain area leads to addition of value in the resume of any professional. Several popular domains are there like telecom, BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, embedded, etc and every area has quite a number of certifications so that testers can be trained as well as certified.
Certifications- There are several institutes that offer certifications based on specific testings which help in the improvement of the client's confidence on the evaluation of the professionals. Managerial certifications will certainly help them to scale up the ladder to success by increasing their technical competency.
Niche testing areas- The evaluation of the niche areas such as Security testing, mobile testing along with SOA testing, is gaining a lot of momentum in recent times. These areas are seeing the emergence of a number of tools. Evaluation professionals must be aware of the direction that the industry is heading for and update their knowledge accordingly, so that they can be ahead of others.
Test automation tools have become entwined with software testing's evolution in such a manner that the the developers mustget familiar with the tools, so that evaluation knowledge can easily be dispersed. It must be remembered that the capabilities along with the reach of functional testing is advanced by the tool but the paradigms for driving the evaluation effort are not advanced. For that, tests must be created and test automation's success is affected by the intelligence that is needed for the creation. As such, professional software testing as well as professional testers are gaining much popularity which is here to stay. If you are planning to hire testing software companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide web application testing services. If you would like to hire software quality assurance tester for your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
Previously, a crude process of evaluation was followed. It included measurement of the percentage of test cases that were automated. However, this at times turned out to have a fair bit of loopholes, and was soon discarded and a new method was adopted.
