Tag: automation

How to Decide if You Should Automate a Test Case

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Test automation is imperative for the fast-paced agile projects of today. Testers need to continuously plan, design and execute automated tests to ensure the quality of the software. But the most important task is to decide what to automate first.

In my article published on the TestRail Quality Hub, I have compiled & shared a list of questions to help you prioritise what you should automate next and guide your test automation strategy.

Here is a checklist of questions to ask yourself as you decide on automating a Test Case–

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Is the test going to be repeated?

Is it a high-priority feature? 

Do you need to run the test with multiple datasets or paths? 

Is it a Regression or Smoke Test?

Does this automation lie within the feasibility of your chosen test automation tool?

Is the area of your app that this is testing prone to change?

Is it a Random Negative Test?

Can these tests be executed in parallel, or only in sequential order?

Are you doing it only for the reports?

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For the detailed explanation of each of these points, read the complete article here –>

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How to Decide if You Should Automate a Test Case

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Test automation is imperative for the fast-paced agile projects of today. Testers need to continuously plan, design and execute automated tests to ensure the quality of the software. But the most important task is to decide what to automate first. 

In my article published at the Gurock Blog website, I have have compiled a list of questions to help you prioritize what you should automate next and guide your test automation strategy.

Think of this like a checklist that helps you make automation decisions quickly and effectively and create a standard process around them for your team to follow. Here are the list of questions to ask yourself.

Do check out the complete article for a detailed discussion on each of these-

Is the test going to be repeated?

Is it a high-priority feature?

Do you need to run the test with multiple datasets or paths? 

Is it a Regression or Smoke Test?

Does this automation lie within the feasibility of your chosen test automation tool?

Is the area of your app that this is testing prone to change?

Is it a Random Negative Test?

Can these tests be executed in parallel, or only in sequential order?

Are you doing it only for the reports?

Test automation tools will provide you with useful insights into the quality of the software that you can showcase with the use of some insightful reports. But are these reports the only reason you are looking at automation? Just looking at the red or green status results of the test reports might not be the best way to assess the software quality. You will need to spend time analyzing the tests that failed, why they failed, and what needs to be corrected. Tests created once will need maintenance and continuous monitoring to keep them up to date. All of that needs to be kept in mind and the effort needs to be accounted for.

There is more to test automation than just the fancy reports!

Looking at the questions above, analyse the state of your test case, the intent behind its automation, and its feasibility, as well as the value that you might get out of it. Hope that helps you decide what tests you should or should not be picking for automation!

<Image credits – https://unsplash.com/photos/FlPc9_VocJ4 >

Introduction to ERP Testing and its Importance

Nishi Grover Garg2 Comments

<This is a guest post by Sohaib Zaidi>

In this era of cut-throat competition, global enterprises are facing tremendous pressure to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, increase sales and profitability. For this, more and more enterprises are embracing ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Apart from enabling enterprises to make accurate, informed and strategic decisions, ERP also helps them to stay compliant. Though the benefits of introducing cloud ERP solutions to your business are countless, yet these benefits come with several challenges.

Enterprises that have already embraced cloud are struggling to keep pace with the frequency of ERP software updates. ERP vendors like Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce, etc are rolling out new releases and patches on monthly, quarterly, or biannually. Since cloud updates are rolled out at quick succession, enterprises are finding it hard to quickly test the updates and deploy these to production. Here arises the need of ERP testing. 

Why is it necessary to test ERP updates before deployment to production?

ERP updates bring new features and functionality, customer enhancement requests, and patches from previous releases. These updates need to be tested regressively since there are chances that they can impact a variety of functions that may cause disruption to business continuity. So, it is always recommended that before rolling out the ERP updates, QA teams should test critical business processes, validate reports, key workflows and test critical integrations with other applications.

Though manual application testing approach is still prevalent but it cannot be considered as a reliable solution in case of ERP testing. To understand this better, let us discuss an example of Oracle ERP. Oracle rolls out quarterly updates. These updates are first introduced to non-production environments. Oracle offers two weeks’ time to test these updates and raise issues. After two weeks, these get applied to the production environment. So, performing Oracle testing manually for these updates is non-feasible. Apart from time-consuming, manual testing is error prone, fragile and costly. Another disadvantage associated with manual testing is that it can adversely impact business continuity due to limited test coverage and its inability to identify change impact.

Embrace Automation Testing for seamless cloud adoption

Test automation not only reduces testing time of complex ERP systems but also ensures robust software quality. The biggest perks associated with test automation are maximum accuracy with minimum efforts, quick feedback, accelerated results, lower costs, and maximum coverage. Most of the test automation tools perform post release impact analysis to identify the impacted areas. Based on the impact assessment, QA teams can generate most relevant tests to execute validation. This not only defines the accurate testing scope but also delivers wider coverage which is not possible while performing manual testing.

When enterprises use test automation for security testing and constant maintenance, they get the opportunity to easily recognize defects. This approach significantly reduces vulnerabilities, helping enterprises to keep huge losses at bay. Automated testing also helps enterprises to overcome challenges of drowsy routine procedures crop up due to manual testing. Leveraging test automation tools, enterprises can accelerate routine procedures that consume time and cost to ensure a quick turnaround and superior ROI.

Author – Sohaib Zaidi – in his own words-
 
I am a technology enthusiast and professional writer with experience across niches like digital transformation, AI, IoT, & test automation. I love to write technology in simple tone so that readers can easily understand how embracing technology can deliver greater outcomes.    

Is Test Automation Alienating Your Business Testers?

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

With numerous test automation tools and frameworks available today, many in the software testing industry are focused on learning them all. It is important to stay updated with new technology. But are testers losing something in the race to become more technical and equipped with automation skills?

In my article published at TestRail blog, I examine ways to see if your test automation is becoming so technical and code-intensive that it’s in danger of alienating the subject-matter expert testers who best know the core of your business?

Technology should serve people

It is important to understand and remember that test automation tools have been designed to make testers’ lives easier and better. They are not intended to replace testers or overpower them. They make tests execute faster, with more accuracy and fewer errors, so if they eliminate anything, it is redundancy and repetitive work. This technology is meant to serve testers — to save their time and effort and give them more freedom.

To this end, the first intent behind adopting any technology must be its fitness for use in the project, not its popularity in the market. The skills needed to adopt the tool and begin using it in the project should be easily obtained by hands-on learning or training. Read full article ->

Testing is creative

Testing is a creative job, and it always has been. The advent of new tools and technology has not changed this fact. Tools can do part of a tester’s job, but they still cannot test. Although some people may argue on behalf of artificial intelligence and machine learning that can take over many actively creative aspects, we are not there yet. We still want and need a human to capture the creative tests, discuss the pros and cons of design aspects, peer-review test cases, and report problems.

Everyone can contribute to test automation

When we look at testers’ resumes, the tendency is to look for tools they can work with. But the more important skill we need is their ability to contribute to test automation in one way or another. We cannot judge this fact just by asking if a person is able to write test automation scripts or knows a certain programming language. They may be able to learn the Gherkin format to design and write feature files for Cucumber tests. Or if you decide to adopt a keyword-driven framework, they could pick up the keywords and begin writing tests so that the same test cases can double as test scripts.

Read More »

Four Things That Can Sabotage a Sprint

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Success and failure are a part of any journey. For agile teams, continuous delivery is the expectation, and that may be a hard thing to achieve. As sprints go on and tasks pile up, we may deter from the path.

Whether your team is beginning their agile journey or are already agile pros, you are bound to encounter a failed sprint at some point.

When do you deem a sprint as failed? Why does a sprint fail? What are the possible reasons, and how can you learn from the mistakes to avoid them in the future? In my article published at TestRail blog – I examine four possible reasons for a failed sprint.

Read the complete article at https://blog.gurock.com/four-things-sabotage-sprint/

Bad Estimation

Estimates cannot be completely accurate every time. But when the agile team fails to see the correct depth or complexity of a task or a user story, the estimates may go haywire, leading to a big diversion from planned timelines within the sprint.

Incoherent Definition of Done

To ensure true completeness, we must list coherent and agreed-upon definitions of done for each type of task we undertake within a sprint, be it development, testing, design, review tasks or test automation. This makes it easier to keep track of the quality of work and get every person’s understanding of the expected work on the same page.

Incomplete Stories

More often than not, user stories being developed in the sprint get stuck at some tricky juncture toward the end. Situations may arise where you reached the last day of the sprint but there are still things holding up the team:

  • Development of the story was completed but testing is still underway
  • Developers and testers paired to conduct tests but some critical issues remain in the feature that need fixing
  • Development and testing are completed but the automation script is yet to be created for regression of the feature (and automation was part of the exit criteria for the user story)
  • Code review is pending, although it is already checked in and working fine
  • Tests for the user story were not added to the test management system even though the tester has performed exploratory tests

Due to any of these reasons or a similar situation, the user story will be incomplete at the end of the sprint. At this point, that feature cannot be deemed fit for release and cannot be counted as delivered.

Technical Debt

In a fast-paced agile environment, we cannot shirk off any part of our work or leave it for later. This becomes technical debt that is hard to pay off. The longer we do not pick up the task, the harder it gets to find the time and spend the effort on it while working on ongoing tasks at the same pace… Continue Reading

Speaking at the DevOps & Agile Testing Summit – 8Nov’19, Bangalore

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

I was invited to speak at the DevOps and Agile testing Summit organised and conducted by 1.21GWs on 8th Nov 2019 at Bangalore. It was a great event which brought together many keen minds as delegates and many inspiring speakers. https://1point21gws.com/devops/bangalore/

My talk was on “The Building Blocks of a Robust Test Automation Strategy”. As we know testing teams are faced with a number of questions, decisions and challenges throughout their test automation journey. But there is no single solution for their varied problems! In this talk I outlined a number of strategies that agile teams can follow– be it their selection of what to automate and how much, what approaches to follow, whom to involve, and when to schedule these tasks so that the releases are of best quality.

I am grateful that my talk was so well received and led to great discussions later with many participants. I enjoyed the day and am always glad to be invited by the 1.21GWs team.

A peek into the event – pictures from my session

@Sahi Pro was also a knowledge partner at the event and delegates also got a peek into Sahi Pro via video and brochure handouts.

Looking forward to many more successful events! 🙂

I am speaking at ‘Targeting Quality 2019’ , Canada

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

I am super excited to be speaking at this grand event TQ2019 being organised by KWSQA on 23-24 Sep in Canada!

On top of that I get to present not one but 2 talks!! My topics are

“The What, When & How of Test Automation” 45 mins

In this I will talk about preparing robust automation strategies. Agile means pace and agile means change. With frequent time boxed releases and flexible requirements, test automation faces numerous challenges. Haven’t we all asked what to automate and how to go about the daily tasks with the automation cloud looming over our heads. Here we’ll discuss answers to some of these questions and try to outline a number of approaches that agile teams can take in their selection of what to automate, how to go about their automation and whom to involve, and when to schedule these tasks so that the releases are debt free and of best quality.

“Gamify your Agile workplace”    15 mins

In this I’ll present live some innovation games and have audience volunteers engage and play games based on known scenarios. Let’s Play and learn some useful Innovation Games that can help you gamify your agile team and workplace, making the team meetings shorter and communication more fun!

Both these topics are close to my heart and I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with a wider audience.

I am also excited to meet all the awesome speakers at the event , as well as get to know the fantastic team of organizers behind this event!

Check out the detailed agenda here – https://kwsqa.org/tq2019/schedule/

Follow me at @testwithnishi, @KWSQA and #TQ2019 on twitter for more updates on the event!

Also check out & support other initiatives by KWSQA at https://kwsqa.org/kwalitytalks/

Wish me luck! 🙂

I am speaking at the ‘World Test Engineering Summit’, Bangalore

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at the upcoming ‘World Test Engineering Summit’ being organised by 1.21GWs at Bangalore. It sure is an impressive lineup of speakers and I am glad to be a part of it! Check out the details of the event here-

https://1point21gws.com/testingsummit/bangalore/testengineering/

I will be speaking on –

“Layers in Test Automation – Best Practices for Separation and Integration”

About my topic –

“Often a testing team consists of a mix of subject matter experts, some manual testers and testers with some automation experience. Writing tests in the language of the business allows all stake holders to participate and derive value out of the automation process. If you are a nervous beginner or an expert at test automation, you need to know and understand the layers of test automation and how to separate the code from the test. Let us discuss the best approaches and practices for creation of a robust automation framework with correct separation as well integration of these layers. We will also see a demo on how to implement this with a case study!“

Also, Sahi Pro is partnering with the event and setting up a demo booth at the event! So, we’ll have our team there to showcase the capabilities of the unique tool and answer all questions.

Be sure to stop by the booth to chat and catch a demo!

Looking forward to a wonderful event! 🙂

Four Questions to ask yourself when planning Test Automation

Nishi Grover GargLeave a comment

Test automation poses its own challenges different from manual testing. Teams struggle to get the most out of their test automation due to many hurdles along the way.

Good planning can act as a solid foundation for your test automation project and help you fully reap the benefits. Consequently, there are many things to consider and discuss prior to jumping into test automation to ensure you are following the right path.

In my article published at Gurock TestRail Blog, I have discussed four main questions to ask yourself before starting with test automation-

  1. What is your team’s goal for test automation?
  2. What about implementation?
  3. What is your execution strategy?
  4. Who will focus on maintenance?

Read the full article here to find more on each of these questions and how these help to finalize on a test automation strategy which will help lead your team to success!

Please give this article a read and share your thoughts!

Cheers

Nishi

A Day in the Life of an Agile Tester

Nishi Grover Garg1 Comment

An agile tester’s work life is intriguing, busy and challenging. A typical day is filled with varied activities like design discussions, test planning, strategizing for upcoming sprints, collaborating with developers on current user stories, peer reviews for teammates, test execution, working with business analysts for requirement analysis and planning automation strategies.

In my article for Gurock TestRail blog, I have explored a typical day in the life of an agile tester and how varied activities and tasks keep her engaged, busy and on her toes all the time!

agile tester.png

Let’s sneak a peek into a day in the life of an agile tester — > You will go through the daily routine of an agile tester and will experience their complicated schedule in real time.

Read full article

https://blog.gurock.com/agile-tester-work-life/