What objects are suitable for automated testing?

Automated testing is to realize the testing process through manual operation and software , Control the test execution process through software . But in fact, only using software to simulate the process of manual testing is not enough . A complete automation , It also needs to be able to automatically judge the test results , That is to compare whether the actual results are consistent with the expected results , Set the preconditions of the test and other test control conditions , And output the test report . Usually , Automated testing needs to automate the formalized manual testing process at the right time .

This chapter mainly includes the following contents ：

· Purpose and scope of automated testing

·  Degree of automation test

·  Objects suitable for automated testing

1、 Purpose and scope of automated testing

From the perspective of the automated test team , The purpose of automated testing is to develop a set of tools that can support automated testing . The automation test team is responsible for designing and implementing the data-driven automation test framework , More Than This , You also need to design and build automated test suites for regression testing . From the perspective of enterprises , The purpose of automated testing is to improve testing efficiency , Reduce the workload of manual testing , So as to save the test cost .

In the process of automated testing , In order to support the development of automated test scripts and test related maintenance activities , The automated testing framework must be specially deployed . The automated test framework must support unit testing 、 Integration testing 、 System test and regression test . Automation efforts should focus on the deployment of a specific area .

The chosen deployment method should be able to cover all the work of automated testing . Manual testing activities can be used as a precursor to automated testing , The goal is to test all the features of the application using manual testing . meanwhile , In the test process, we need to develop some test conditions and test data , These test conditions and test data can be realized through the automatic test framework of regression test .

2、 Degree of automation test

To what extent does automated testing need to be ？ This problem was raised in the initial stage of the development of automated testing tools .

▲ First , You must understand the test process of automatic test tools and the test process of the tested system （ Refers to the test process during manual test ）. The testing tool is different from the testing process , Tools are used to facilitate the testing process , Various specifications that can be used to implement a process and execute the test process . In many cases , The built-in program of the tool can be understood as a process , However, they are often incomplete , Does not correctly reflect the process , The best automated test tool is the ability to agree the tool to the test requirements , It also provides highly customizable workflow and tracking and reporting capabilities .

▲ secondly , You must understand several links involved in the test process ： test plan 、 Test design 、 Test build 、 The test execution 、 Capture and analysis of test results 、 Test result verification and test report . These activities are inseparable throughout the testing process , Only by combining these testing links with the automated testing process , In order to better determine the degree of automated testing .

▲ Last , Automated testing in all areas should ensure that the time and cost are within a certain control range . The higher the degree of Automation , The better the testing process 、 The more effective , But the more time and cost it takes , The progress and cost of the project affect the degree of automatic testing .

The cost of automated testing consists of two parts ： Fixed and variable costs .

Fixed costs usually include the following aspects ：

· Hardware ;

·  Automated test tool ;

·  Automated test training ;

·  Design and construction of automatic test environment ;

·  Automated test environment maintenance .

Variable costs usually include the following aspects ：

·  Automated test plan ;

·  Automated test case design ;

·  Automated test script development ;

·  Automated test script maintenance ;

·  Automated test script running ;

·  Automated test result analysis ;

·  Defect report ;

·  Automated test execution data storage .

3、 Objects suitable for automated testing

In practice , What kind of system or project is suitable for automated testing ？ Generally speaking, we can consider it from two aspects ：

One is the degree of repeatability and mechanization ; The second is to judge the intelligence of the result . The more repetitive and mechanical the project, the more suitable for automated testing , The higher the intelligence level, the less suitable for automated testing .

The objects suitable for automated testing can be summarized into the following categories ：

v High repeatability and mechanical function ：

The more repetitive and mechanical the project, the more suitable for automated testing , Because the more repetitive and mechanical , It shows that the more times the regression test is , And the more tired the test engineer may be , This situation is very suitable for automated testing .

Product life cycle ：

Generally, projects with longer product life cycle are more suitable for automatic testing , Because the product life cycle is long , Note that the script can also be used after later software upgrade , Of course, if the function and boundary of each upgraded version change greatly, it is not suitable , But this usually doesn't happen , But some new functions , In this way, previous versions of scripts can be used directly , You can focus more on the testing of new functions .

Multiple execution Build edition ：

If in the process of a release （ If forthcoming V2.0）, There are many. Build Tested version , And each Build There are few interfaces for modifying the same function between versions , This situation is suitable for automated testing .

Multi platform testing ：

If the software is to support multi platform operation （ If the software needs to be in  Windows XP、Windows Vista、 Windows 7 and Windows 8 System operation ）, The test cases executed by each platform are consistent , This allows automated testing , Just run the script on different platforms , This can improve efficiency .

In fact, study whether a software is suitable for automated testing , The main research is the income ratio （Return On Investment,ROI）, That is, the relationship between the cost of automatic testing and the cost of manual testing , Obviously, when the cost of automated testing is lower than that of manual testing , You can implement automated testing .

Here is a simple calculation method of return on investment in automated testing ：

（1） Automated testing costs = Hardware and software costs + Script development costs +（ The cost of executing the script once × Number of script executions ）+ （ Every Build Maintenance cost of version script × Number of script executions ）;

（2） Manual testing costs = Test case design cost +（ The cost of performing a manual test × Number of test cases executed ）+（ Every time individual Build Maintenance time of version test cases × Number of test cases executed ）;

（3） earnings = Manual testing costs - Automated testing costs ;

（4）ROI（ Revenue ratio ）= earnings / Automated testing costs .