Choosing a Test Automation Framework

Purpose of this article to give a brief description about the automation frame work. Various types of frameworks and analysis of the frame work which is suitable for AUT.

When we talk about automation most of the guys think about Record\ Playback. This have only one advantage, you don’t need any technical knowledge about the scripting and much logical thinking but have lot of disadvantages, it is not machine independent, don’t have any facility to rerun any particular set of tests, you have to re record all the test if the application interface changes a bit.

I am talking about the scripting/descriptive programming. If you could master this method you can make wonders, your code can be ported to any machine, doesn’t matter if the GUI layout is changed, in the worst case if the screen added with new controls need very little editing in code, can easily accommodate the changes, so maintenance is easy.

Types of framework

• Test Script Modularity
• Test Library Architecture
• Data Driven Testing
• Key Word Driven or Table Driven Testing
• Hybrid Test automation

Test Script Modularity Framework

This is the most basic of all the frameworks. The basic idea behind this framework is to divide the AUT into modules, sections and functions ie to the most possible low level component. These small scripts can be combine together and make a larger tests. These frameworks give utmost modularity to the test script/codes and give a high degree of maintainability.

Test Library Architecture Framework

This framework is also same as Test script Modularity frame work. But divides AUT into procedures and functions. These common procedures and functions can be called directly from the scripts. So this frame work is also offers highest modularity and maintainability.

Data Driven Testing Framework

Data Driven testing frame work uses input parameters from a data files. Data can be accessed from ODBC connections, CSV files, excel files or formatted sequential files. Advantage of these scripts we can test the application with different types of data, actually the test case implemented in the data file not in scripts (Confusing ??????). Here we are using the same scripts but the set of inputs are varying. You can test type definitions, boundary testing, data conversions etc. If the business logic changes in between, it is easy to incorporate it into the scripts.

Key Word Driven/Table Driven Framework

IT is similar to manual test cases and this requires development of data tables and Key words. In this we can to document step by step functionality of the AUT. A sample test table is given below

This data table can be used in two ways. (1 ) It can be used to create step by step code (2) We can use a script to read this table ,test according the instruction in the table and log the result. The second method is not always a good idea.

Hybrid Automation Frame work

Most commonly used/implemented automation framework, this is a combination of all the frameworks mentioned above. It uses the strengths of all the frameworks. Data driven and Key word driven framework uses the libraries and utilities.

This article can be found at the blog section of my personal site www.dileepk.info

Standardized Defect Submission

Did you ever face any problem in defect review meeting; you were not able to explain the defect submitted by your own team members? You were in a situation to answer lot of questions from development and management which you are not sure or you don’t know?

I am sure you felt like you had answers for these questions like, “Is it happening for all the modules?”, “ Is it reproducible, if it is not reproducible what is the frequency of the specified defect ?”, “what is the impact” , “Is it on a particular hardware or environment ?”. Some times team members should have given all these details, but you don’t have the time to scan through the entire defect document and find in a shorter time you have in the defect review meeting.

The solution you can have to manage these kinds of circumstances, implement a standard format to submit the defect, so that you have most of the information handy, you can avoid the searching for the answers.

I am attaching a sample defect submission document which I made for our recent project, it was very helpful for us, and I had lots of fresher in my team, so it helped me to implement a standardized defect submission culture for the team, hope this will help you too. If the template is not much suitable for your scenarios, modify it or customize it to suite your needs.

Download the file from here : DefectSubmissionForamt.doc


This article can be found at the blog section of my personal site www.dileepk.info

Testers Sharpen your Soft Skills

Do testers need soft skills? hmm it’s a question right ?. I think yes testers need soft skills to survive in the field. It just like an athlete train himself for perfection and fitness. In the
game court the player needs to use his skills perfectly otherwise he never be a star, As a Tester you are a knowledge worker and need your skills to empower your career in long run, need to keep your fitness in the domain . Gathering necessary skills will make a top performer.

Key areas to improve your skills

Key areas you should concentrate to improve your skills are Team work and Communication. Skills in these areas will help you a lot to climb the organizational hierarchy ladder.

Team Work.

Testing is all about collective team work. Tester should be a solid contributor to the team and at the same time he should be an independent achiever. I am sure you guys have heard few of the comments following in your career some where. “He is having bad attitude while testing”, “Answering and debugging his defects take so much of development time unnecessarily “, “He is always do negative testing, never consider the good side”, “He is not a team player”. It’s natural to hear all these because you are trying to prove the system is not stable where others are trying hard to build. Never mind do your duty to deliver a quality product, it’s your responsibility at the same time try to be in harmony with other departments.

You are an anomaly. Developers have a negative feeling for finding flaws in the system. Never be personal in testing, you are part of a team, share the knowledge in the team, presenting the defects is an art, this need a good degree of communication skills. Always try to make allies not enemies

Communication

This is the key in the profession. If you can’t communicate well, it does matters, even if you are a wonderful tester. You should be able to convey the ideas and your result to the team and to the management. The better communication skills will help you in writing good test cases (It is your job as a tester) and bug reporting, the problem you face in the bug reporting even though you have a good defect and if you are unable to convey the severity and its implication, nobody will consider it in the defect review meeting, or it will be set aside with comments such as not enough information, can’t reproduce. This is not a good thing any way.




Clarity.

You need to ensure the crystal clear clarity in your communication. Try to stick to the following tips, it can make wonders in your communication and obviously it will reflect in your career.

Written communication.

Well, when you are writing a test case, bug report or presentation make sure you present your idea and thoughts in a clear, unambiguous and logical order. Use Simple terms never try to show your depth of vocabulary, all your team members may not be as smart as you, they may be fresher, just keep in mind what ever you say or present should be understood by anybody. This will really help you, if your test cases are used in some hostile environment. Never give a chance to misinterpretation.

When you write a defect report, summarize the most important information about the defect at first. Then ensure completeness about the problem, Don’t miss anything, Describe the issue completely, how do you found the problem. For supporting evidence attach Screen shot, data used for your test.

Oral communication

If you have to present in status meetings, talk on official meetings or asking questions in a requirement presentation or to clarify your doubts with your team lead, interviewing people for your team, do a presentation to the team about some topic, you need a fair communication skill.

When you present something, stay focused, but remember never jump straight to the point or beating the bush around, if you do any of this you are going have boring attendees. First give a summary, then details, give room for questions, remember to present in logical sequence. Write down the points before presentation so it will help you to present the things in logical order or to remind you the point if you forgot something, anticipate the questions. You can have a self assessment about your performance and improve those areas you feel you are feeble.

Listening

When you attend a meeting or presentation don’t approach with prejudice or never stick to your agenda. Be a good listener. Listening skills are very important; if you didn’t listen in a requirement presentation you will loose crucial information. Imagine what happens if you go to your lead with a requirement as a defect?. When you are attend meetings listen to questions and answers. Listening skills are very important in Job interviews. While taking interviews if the interviewee is answering with out listening to interviewer’s questions, normally interviewer will drop the interview fast, simply because he can’t withstand a boring period and a bad listener.

There are ways to improve the listening skills, never loose a chance to prepare meeting minutes, if you are not asked, just tell voluntarily. For few days you will get edited meeting minutes from team members after review. If you are getting less editing in your meeting minutes you are a good listener.


This article can be found at the blog section of my personal site www.dileepk.info

How to find duplicate values in Excel sheet

Did you ever face a problem to find duplicates in MS Excel? Certainly I had problems in finding duplicates, in my report, in resolved defect list, release notes and in traceability matrix. At first I was doing it manually and it is very time consuming and boring job, but now I can do in 1-2 minutes, we can use excel functionality to find duplicates, I was not aware about this. I would like to share this information to every person who faced the same situation. When you have to generate various kinds of reports for Testing/QA this will be helpful.

Herez the steps to find duplicates

1. Open the sheet





2. Select the fist cell in the column to find duplicate





3. Click on Format menu and select the option “Conditional Formatting”





4. Select Formula Is option in the dialog box





5. Enter formula as follows =COUNTIF ($B$2:$B2, B2)>1 (Where B is the column selected and 2 is the row number. >1 means if the count of the cell value is greater than 1





6. Then select Format button on the dialog box and select any color of your choice (It will help you to identify the duplicate cell)



7. Click OK on the dialog box





8. Now copy the cell (You can use Edit -> Copy or Ctrl + C)


9. Press Ctrl + Space to select the entire column ( Now we are going to apply this format to all the cells, then it will find all the duplicates, i.e. the format will look for the duplicate with each and every cell value in the selected column)





10. Select Edit -> Paste Special option





11. Select Formats Radio button from the pop up and click OK





12. Now the duplicates will be shown as below




Now you can easily identify the duplicate values. Enjoy



This article can be found at the blog section of my personal site www.dileepk.info