What Automation tool to choose

A small conversation between Client and Manager

Client: Hi !!!! How are you ?

Manager: Hi !!! I am doing well. How about you?

Client: I am fine. Doing well. Economy is growing have some money to spend on.

Manager : Wow!!!  (Thinks he take increase the billing rate by taking some more work). That sounds good. Any updates on the release of the product

Client: Yeah the release is expected on the planned date. I believe entire testing is completed and we are ready to rock the market !!!!!!

Manager: Yeah!!! How many release are you planning in an year? (Thinking of Automating the regression cycle)

Client: It depends on the enhancements and bug fixes.. Planned 3 releases in an year.

Manager: Oh!!! sounds good!!! If you are planning 3 releases I propose we automate the regression cycle so that the regression time decreases

Client: Great Idea!!!! Sounds good. Even I had that in my mind. So what kind of tool you want use for automation

Manager: (Very Happy since Client made a mention of Automation). That depends on various factors

Client: What factors are you taking into consideration. Could you elaborate it

Manger: Seeing that this is his chance to get the work for his team, he explains the factors to the client.

—————————————–End of Conversation——————————————-

What factors would have influenced the client to go for a particular  Automation Tool ?   Let’s discuss

1. Compatability of tool : Nowadays many Automation tools are storming in but one has to choose a tool that is compatible with the technology that the product uses. The tool should recognise atleast 70% of the objects of  the application.

For ex: Take QuickTestProfessional. Say a Siebel Application needs to be automated and the team uses QTP. QTP as such doesnt support Siebel. So an Addin is used (Siebel Addin)  to recognise the siebel objects. If such provision is not provided QTP is useless for Automating Siebel Application

2. Compatibility with Test Management Suite:  The automation tool selected must be compatible to the test management suite used. This is to ensure that all the data is at one place and to ensure that tracebility is achieved.

For ex: A team is using RFT (Rational Functional test) to develop the scripts and HP’s QC  for test management, In this case a cross compatibility issue occurs since RFT and QC are from different vendors. So it’s always advisable to maintain compatibility in terms of test management suite

3. Cost of the Tool:  Cost of the tool is very important that should be taken into consideration. Many client aren’t comfortable about the cost of the tool. Though the tool satisfies all other factors it fails at the cost. The cost is so high that  clients now a days are turning to OPEN SOURCE TOOLS like  WATIR, SELENIUM

Test Automation Framework

Automation!!!!! framework!!! maintainence!!!!!!ROI!!!! …. These are the terms generally heard by many automation specialists in their day to day activity. In this post I would like to discuss on what exactly these terms mean and I appreciate additional information from the fellow bloggers on this topic

First, Automation as name suggests automation in testing jargon means zero manual intervention. Many testers are mislead by this techinal word and think that anything and everything can be automated and they can happily take rest thinking that automation is taking care of everything. This kind of thinking is wrong. Let me explain what automation is all about.  Automation is duplicating the manual testing work through a tool. It has got some rules to be followed else it will be a headache for a tester

The basic thumb rules for automation are .. 100%  Automation is not possible – practically. Rule number two.. Automation should only be done when the product attained stability in terms of functionality, perfomance and behaviour. Rule number three automation should be done only when there are many  regression cycles.

These three rules are very important in determining whether one can proceed to automate an appliation.

Coming to Framework, a term thats used very frequently has a very important role to play in automation. Framework  actually means  the strategy, method, rules or policy that are proposed for automation. It doesnt mean any files, folder structure etc. Framework  may vary depending on the type of tools the tester use.  Designing a Framework means designing a strategy, rules, method  before proceeding to developing scripts.  Generally framework can be categorized into 3 types

 1. Keyword Driven

2. DataDriven

3. Hybrid Framework

Keyword Driven Framework deals with keywords. Keywords are functions used to perform an action. For Example

Login

Navigate

Validate

Logout

The above mentioned functions are keywords that are used to perform series of actions. This is the essence of Keyword driven framework

DataDriven Framework deals with loads of data. In this framework a data driver file exists that inputs data to the script. This data can be test data or object data(Object properties). The whole framework depends on data driver script

Hybrid Framework is a combination of keyword and data driven framework. It uses keywords and data driver scripts.

Now the important aspect of Automation is maintainence time. What is the time required to maintain and fix the scripts for errors. Maintainence time of the scripts should be a minimum as possible so that the lapse in execution is prevented. For  minimal maintainence the framework should be foolproof.  Maintainence is dependent on Framework.

Let us take a scenario to explain the dependency. Let us say after first cycle of regression of some 70 scripts, the login page changed and now has 3 text inputs instead of two.  Now if your framework cant handle this change with minimum changes then the maintainence and fix time for the 70 scripts will increase many folds thereby pushing forward the release cycle.  Seeing the other side of this if the framework handles this change with minimum code change, maintainence time would be lesser than it would be in the earlier case.

Now coming the term most managers use knowingly or unknowingly is ROI. ROI is  Return on Investment.

 Companies spend lot of money on Automation tool and obviously look for returns from that tool. In my opinion, I may be wrong, ROI is linked with time. One cant expect ROI immediately after buying the tool.

SOFTWARE TESTING……….

Hi….. its been almost 2 years since I have logged into WordPress..  I almost forgot that I used to maintain a blog until I somehow through google reached wordpress. Thanks to my guessing power I guessed my password and I have decided to update it regularly from today.

Our President not taken seriously

Our honoured President Pratibha Patil addressed to an almost empty chairs in Brazilian Senate.  Only 20 members out of 81 were present when the President was addressing.

Here is the entire story

The Big Three Dropped-Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman

IMO india is going to have tough time in the ODI series and also its the wrong time to declare the ODI squad. Dropping Ganguly and Dravid will prove costly to India esp the younger players dont have exp of playing in Australia. The young players are not used to australian climate and the pitch conditions. Dropping Dravid was shock to me. He is the only player who can consolidate the innings with can get runs at a fine pace in the ODI’s and no other player can do that. BCCI should re-think their strategy. They should have the mix of youth and experience and should not depen entirely on youth.

Declaring ODI squad before 4th test will definetly demolarise the big three and will definetly effect their performance in the all important test match. VVS Laxman should have been included in the ODI squad to gain the pshycological advantage.

 Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla

Source cricinfo

Apple’s MacBook Air

Apple has done it again. The much awaited ultra thin Laptop is now available and all the lappie lovers would like to get their hand on this masterpiece. The unique feature of the laptop is its weight. It barely weighs over 3 pounds.

Here is a video that demonstrates MacBook

Kumble’s 600

Haaa a sigh of relief for JUMBO when he picked Andrew Symonds wicket. Its the wicket number 600 for Anil Kumble. The wicket came at the right time when Symonds looked dangerous. He was consolidating the Australian innings  with Gilli after a collapse . Australia are now 6 down and are fighting.

Here is an extract ” Kumble to Symonds, OUT, wicket No. 600 for Anil Kumble! He fires in a shorter, faster one just outside off stump, Symonds is hurried and cramped into his cut shot, gets a thick outside-edge into Dhoni’s gloves, he fails to snap it up but Dravid is sharp at slip, moving to his right and holding the ball after it balloons up in the air, much to India’s relief and Kumble’s satisfaction! They appeal and appeal and finally Asad Rauf lifts the finger, and Kumble explodes in celebration” from cric info website.

Kudos to the Jumbo……………..

Happy Sankranthi

I wish all the bloggers a happy Sankranthi/Pongal/Lohri

Google’s Indic Transliteration

Google got a new feather in its crown. English to Hindi translation tool known as Indic Transliteration

Its an editor wherein you type english words and hit space to convert them in hindi. A Cool tool

A Costly BreakFast

Its been months since I had a good breakfast and I put the blame on the MMTS. Today I decided to have a good, satisfactory breakfast.  I started off @ 8:00 and drove for half an hour to reach Chutneys @ Punjagutta. There I ate Babai Hotel Idli and Steamed Dosa.  The idli was so delicious and soft that it slipped into when I ate it. There was lot of butter on it and in addition it was served with Karampodi, – Powder made of spices and coriander leaves. To compensate the amount of butter in the Idly I ate Steamed Dosa. After a long time I had a very good breakfast. It was costly breakfast though..