Ever since Scrum Methodology was introduced, it has been
adopted by majority of development teams there by emphasizing on in-sprint
deliverables decreasing the time lag between Dev & QA. While it is
important to deliver the working components at speed, it is equally important
to maintain quality. This is where Test
automation is crucial decreasing the time of execution and capturing defects
while performing a regression check. Since agile has shorter life cycles and
the agility it carries while building, it is super important to build
sustainable and reliable regression suits with the same pace. The user stories
must be automated by testers within the sprint covering all the layers like
Unit testing, API and UI. But this can be achieved if the teams are able to build
matured frameworks with in-built test accelerators that can reduce the script
development life cycle across multiple browsers and platforms. This also
requires a continuous collaboration between all the stakeholders there by
converting Automation as a Team goal rather than a QA goal.
Test accelerators: It is indeed essential to have Test accelerators
which helps in reducing the Script development efforts with minimal cost as
most of the companies/clients face investment challenges in the process of adopting
new tools. Test Accelerators provided an edge to kick start your Test automation
projects /Business requirements almost in no time ensuring quality with In-sprint
automation. Accelerators carry all the required and re suable test components and
assets supporting automation at a faster pace, covering continuous integration /deployment
with cross platform and device compatibilities which are scalable. It is also
important to design your test accelerators as loosely coupled with open for
customizations and third-party integrations wherever required.
Best Practices:
1. Ensure to have a proper Test design & Automation plan
2. Have a clear Business goal of automation Test coverage while
automating
3. Design Test accelerators which speed up the development
process of Automation scripts
4. Make all the scrum team members as responsible for Product
quality
5. Be open for design
changes and utilize test accelerators for quick building of business cases with
respect to test scripts
6. Keep Acceptance
criteria for the User stories simple and straight ensuring proper coverage of Business
goals
7. Target to automate
the requirements not Test cases
Challenges:
1.
Often collaboration within team is a major challenge
keeping in view of sprint timelines, where in which teams are distributed across
multiple geographic locations
2.
Requirement volatility is a major challenge with
respect to shorter life cycles
3.
Although it is agreed that Framework or
accelerators reduce the script development time box, it is equally important to
decide most suitable tool and framework applicable
4.
Often there is a challenge with the team if not
trained enough or skilful to work with the tool or technology opted
5.
Since Automation maturity is a time taking Process
and the scrum team should be matured enough to accept the challenges
“In sprint automation may be challenging to an extent while
implementing but it is definitely possible with defined sprint framework and
Test accelerators”
