5 minutes to read
The cost of ignoring best practices in test automation
Anastasiia Sokolinska
Chief Operating Officer
The importance of adhering to best practices in test automation may seem obvious to experienced engineers. However, we frequently encounter situations where clients and some engineers overlook this fundamental principle. This often leads to significant challenges down the line.
How things typically go wrong
Often, issues start when a product owner realizes that their product is unstable. This discovery leads to stress and a rush to resolve the issue, with test automation often seen as the solution. The owner might quickly find a QA outsourcing company or hire QA engineers, expecting fast results. Initially, everything seems to be going well, but several problems can arise:
Rapid onboarding and automation: The engineer starts automating everything quickly, but without a structured plan.
Initial success: Early results might show a rise in the number of automated tests and bug discoveries, giving a false sense of progress.
Long-term issues: Without a solid foundation, the automation effort may fail, leading to wasted time and resources.
The risks of neglecting best practices
If an engineer lacks the necessary qualifications or isn’t fully engaged in setting up well-working processes, their attempts to create automated scripts can end up being ineffective. This typically occurs for three key reasons:
Lack of test cases: Without clearly defined test cases, it’s impossible to gauge how well a feature is covered. Critical scenarios may be missed entirely.
Uncovered functionality: If the engineer is unaware of certain features, those areas may remain untested and vulnerable.
Upcoming refactoring: If the code is soon to be refactored, the automation scripts will need to be reworked, rendering the initial effort redundant.
Statistics reveal the impact of neglecting best practices:
High failure rate: Approximately 50% of test automation projects fail to meet expectations due to inadequate planning and execution, according to the World Quality Report.
Increased costs: Companies that ignore structured test automation practices face 30-40% higher maintenance costs as a result of inefficient processes and frequent script rework according to Capgemini.
Lower ROI: A survey by Forrester found that 60% of organizations investing in test automation without a clear strategy experience lower-than-expected return on investment due to incomplete test coverage and increased maintenance efforts.
Missed bugs: 70% of testers in the TechWell report state that poor test case management and lack of comprehensive test coverage lead to critical bugs being missed and only discovered in production.
Project delays: Gartner found that projects suffering from ineffective automation practices are up to 25% more likely to miss deadlines, leading to extended timelines and budget overruns.
Best practices for successful automation
To avoid these pitfalls, it’s crucial to adhere to a structured sequence of actions when automating an application and striving to enhance its stability:
Step 1: Plan
Develop current project documentation
We understand that deadlines become tighter every year. However, it is essential to provide at least a minimal set of documents. This can significantly reduce errors and accelerate the process. The minimal documentation set includes:
Project overview: Clearly defined objectives, goals, and expected outcomes.
Project plan: Key stages, deadlines, and milestones.
Architectural and technical description: Core components of the system, their interactions, and detailed technical implementations.
Test plan: A strategy outlining how and what will be tested.
Test scenarios and cases: Specific scenarios and test cases that will be utilized.
Step 2: Develop/Stabilize
Ensure the application is stable
During development and testing, the team must maintain a high level of feature quality. The overall functionality should be stable. Without this, automation is pointless, as the scripts will fail to execute properly. Some additional tips:
Thorough unit testing: Ensure comprehensive unit tests are in place to validate the functionality of individual components before moving to automation.
Bug triage process: Implement a bug triage process to prioritize and address defects systematically, ensuring critical issues are resolved before automation begins.
Version Control: Maintain version control of code to ensure any changes can be tracked, reviewed, and, if necessary, reverted.
Step 3: Automate
Implement automation & improve
Do with a clear plan. The good news is that this plan should be provided by the hired engineer. A competent engineer will identify potential issues during the project familiarization stage and develop a plan that addresses all risks and meets client requirements.
Let’s visualize this in a graph. It’s a good idea to remember it every time you’re tempted to ‘fix everything faster’ and overlook the golden rules.
Some additional tips:
Prioritize test cases: Prioritize automation for high-risk areas and frequently executed test cases to maximize impact.
Modular test scripts: Develop modular and reusable test scripts to make maintenance easier and reduce redundancy.
Integration with CI/CD: Integrate automated tests into the CI/CD pipeline to catch issues early in the development process.
Test data management: Establish a robust test data management strategy to ensure that test scripts have access to the necessary data in a controlled environment.
Regularly review & update scripts: Continuously review and update automation scripts to accommodate changes in the application and to improve test coverage.
Reporting & analytics: Implement comprehensive reporting and analytics to track test results and identify trends, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement.
Post-deployment testing: Set up automated post-deployment tests to verify that the application works correctly in the production environment.
Conclusion
These simple steps not only make the automation process more successful but also help to structure the overall development process, minimizing losses and errors. High-quality automation doesn’t come cheap, and this plan helps you save time and, consequently, money.
And remember, if you need real professionals on your team, we’re always here to help.