Every software application under development needs to be tested on various parameters to ensure they meet the exact quality standards envisaged by the client and the development team. It is also done with the objective of making the software application acceptable to the end-user. However, given the scale and the number of software applications that are released to the market courtesy the use of Agile and DevOps methodologies, the testing process is always under stress. The traditional waterfall method of manually testing the software post-development is fraught with errors and inadequacies. Besides being extremely complex and time-consuming, it is incapable of delivering a flawless software application to the end-users.

To rule out such issues and ensure the software application meets every quality parameter and regulatory standard, a test automation framework is integrated into the development cum testing process. With mobile and web applications being churned out like hot cakes, it is only by leveraging software test automation services that quality considerations are not lost count of in the overall scheme of things. These help businesses to test any software application under development across devices, operating systems, browsers, and networks within an omnichannel environment. A test automation framework helps testers to standardize every test automation asset and drive the testing process seamlessly, quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Let us understand the framework in some detail.

What is a test automation framework?

An automation framework is a set of processes and tools used to execute software QA automation of any software application. It is also a set of guidelines, rules, protocols, or best practices to create automated test cases and make efficient use of test resources. The framework comprises elements such as test data, libraries, and various reusable modules.

Why use an automated QA testing framework?

To understand the need for employing an enterprise intelligent automation framework, let us consider a scenario. If the testing team comprises members who are used to working with different automation testing tools, they may find it difficult to understand the scripts or code updated by one of the team members for a specific project. This is where an enterprise process automation framework can offer the option of reusing the code or script in various scenarios as well as writing the script in a standard format. Further, the framework can help to reuse the test scripts many times for different builds. The other benefits of using such a framework are as follows:

• Follow a standardized policy to achieve design uniformity across test suites
• Drive the testing process quickly and efficiently
• Enable root-cause analysis for the application under test
• Easy maintenance and reusability of test scripts
• Achieve optimal utilization of resources and maximum test coverage
• Achieve continuous testing and delivery of code as per DevOps
• Achieve accuracy in testing

What are the types of software QA automation frameworks?

The various types of test automation frameworks are as given below:

Linear automation framework: Also called the record and playback framework, it is commonly used to test small applications in a linear manner. It does not entail the writing of custom code and automation scripting is executed incrementally with new interaction being added to the tests.

Modular testing framework: Here, the entire application is broken down into smaller modules based on the client’s requirements to create independent test scripts. The scripts so written are easy to maintain and scale. Further, for each component or module, an abstraction layer is built that is hidden from the software application under test. The abstraction layer ensures the changes made to other parts of the application do not impact the underlying components.

Data-driven testing framework: In this type of enterprise intelligent automation framework, test data is loaded into variables inside the script after being read from external files, namely, text files, excel files, ODBC sources, CSV files, and DAO objects. It allows testers to create test scripts by using different test data sets. Here, a single script can execute multiple test cases with different data sets.

Behaviour-driven development framework: This type of framework creates a platform wherein every stakeholder in the project can participate, namely, developers, QA testers, and business analysts, among others. The testers can use natural language to build test specifications, which can be easily understood and analyzed by non-technical people.

Keyword-driven testing framework: Also known as table-driven testing, the framework is useful to test applications for smaller projects. In this application-independent framework, which is an extension of the data-driven testing framework, keywords and data tables are used to execute actions on the application. Also, since a single keyword can be used across test scripts, the code can be reused.

Hybrid test automation framework: It is a combination of data-driven, modular, and keyword test automation frameworks, which leverages the benefits of other frameworks. It is a flexible framework that can be custom used to test different applications with different processes.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned automated QA testing frameworks can be utilized efficiently to test the code as per the project requirements, budget, and team expertise. These help to boost productivity, efficiency, and test coverage through standardization.

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James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies. I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality that yields strong results and always happy to create valuable content & share thoughts.

Article Source: medium.com