Test automation is a work of diligence, especially when it has to be performed in continuous agile cycles. In agile deliveries, it is crucial to release apps in continuous iterations and short cycles and hence, performing testing in a continuous agile environment requires careful planning and execution to achieve the pre-defined testing goals.
1. Follow Test-Driven Development: Choose test-driven development in which tests are written even before product code is created. This gives a head-start to the entire project since the test scripts and product features are created simultaneously. Thus, testers do not need to revise or recreate the test scripts in case there are some changes in the software.
2. Create Scenario/Story-based Test Cases: Many times, detailed specifications are not available to users, unlike the conventional development model. In these cases, tests are created using specific scenarios and stories rather than based on a strict set of cases. With the help scenario-based tests, testers can cover a wide range of tests that may not be necessarily documented.
3. Keep Customer Perspective in Mind: Testing from the customer perspective would help you ensure the quality of the product is standard and it meets their expectations.
4. Identify Architecture & Customer Expectations: Being an agile tester, it is important that you understand how the end user will interact with the application. Dividing application based on its architecture and customer expectation will help you test critical issues that are likely to affect the end-users experience.
5. Perform Test Automation at System Level: User interface and front-end of the applications keep on changing. In order to ensure that the app performs well at user interface (UI) level, it is crucial to perform testing at the system-level since the front-end operates important functions directly through backend system.
6. Perform Coverage-based Test Automation: While testing in an agile environment, it is important to concentrate on code coverage runs since it allows you to analyze, identify and trace the tests and find out the critical areas requiring attention. Coverage-based testing also helps in attaining accuracy and depth in tests, allowing your team to be more productive.
7. Be Prepared for Changes: Agile has been always about making incremental and sequential changes in apps and releasing them in sprints. Thus, for testing in an agile environment, you have to be ready to make changes in test requirements and scenarios as and when your application undergoes changes.
Today, more and more teams are adopting agile cycles and they're realizing that approach to test automation plays a crucial role in the project success. Therefore, if you're planning to test applications in an agile environment, ensure you follow all the best practices discussed here.
To learn more about optimizing the testing process in a continuous agile environment, check out our webinar on - Web UI & Functional Test Automation for Continuous Agile Deliveries.
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