Planning to Select Test Automation Software

Selecting a test automation tool requires planning and actually testing the tool for compatibility. The white paper link below covers many items that should be considered before selecting a test automation tool.

White Paper

Summary:
Planning to automate testing requires and understanding of the Windows GUI interface composed of Text and Objects. Modern tools have essential components and associated automated testing methodologies. As development technologies have evolved so have automated test tools. Development environment, test requirements, test methodologies and skill level should be the basis for selecting a particular product.

Good Test Plan Development is a Team Effort

The Software Engineering Institute provides courses on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which is a methodology, used to develop and refine an organization's software development process. Since 1984, the SEISM has been identifying, developing, and advocating practices for designing high-quality software and protecting networked systems.

However, The Blog below in my opinion is excellent, outlining what a good process would be for the planning side of testing. It does an excellent job to incorporate the considerations that are needed to properly implement automated testing.

Test Planning Process

Test Planning the Details

Method Labs creator of ReadySET Pro - a set of templates for use cases, test plans, and other software engineering documents. They have an excellent white paper on the need for Test Plans

http://readysetpro.com/whitepapers/testplans.html


Another excellent article that gets right to the point "Effective Automation Test Script Design"

http://www.softtest.org/sigs/material/jphillips1.htm


This is a fantastic article about creating test plans when requirement are at best poor. It does a great job explaining real world reasons for such a situation. I would like to be charitable and say that this is not the norm, but I think I will leave it alone.


Requirements and Test Plans


Nice information on developing test cases and test case samples.

http://www.sqatester.com/documentation/testcasesmpl.htm

Other examples:

Purpose

Although Test Tool vendors offer training, it is normally the case that too little training and consulting is purchased. Hey, we all have a budget and when it comes to testing, that budget is usually thin. Given budget limitations, Training is usually becomes a feature dump, if the budget is good you possibly get a day or two of real hands on use use of the tool with your application. Most of the causes for test automation problems are usually planning issues.

This Blog was put together to educate our Sales Team and help them assist customers. It will cover test planning and test automation topics. It will be focused on specific types of testing. Primarily testing described as regression, functional and system testing. We hope it is also a good resource for those test, and especially for those with limited resources that want to automate testing.