Due to frequent releases and shorter sprint cycles, Agile testing depends on test automation. In an agile project, every sprint adds/integrates a new feature. It is, therefore, important to perform regression testing on all features to verify that they are all working as expected. This can only be done through automated testing.
Test Automation for Agile Projects
Short Release Cycles: In the Agile methodology, several features must be delivered within a limited timeframe to the customer.
Maximum coverage of tests: It is important to test all application features to ensure that they are working as per the business requirements.
Continuous integration: In agile, automating testing from build deployment to report is important, as this helps share execution results quickly.
Quick turnaround: In Agile projects, it’s important to share feedback quickly to build stability so that the team can make decisions based on the feedback provided by the QA Team.
Reusability: Execute the same test case on multiple platforms and browsers.
Increased ROI: Test Automation reduces the manual testing cycle time. The ROI is increased.
Maintain an automated regression pack for each product.
Test Automation in Agile Projects
Adapt Changes Understand new enhancements and features implemented during each sprint and plan the test cases or updates accordingly.
Implement Changes Implement enhancements and changes requested by the customer and integrate them into the product.
Maintain test cases: Document new features and enhancements based on your application. Conduct an impact analysis of the new enhancements and identify regression test cases for the affected areas.
Test case Automation: Automate test cases for changes or new features and integrate them with the automated suite. Also, ensure that automated test cases accompany each defect.
Daily/Weekly Automated Test Scripts Execution Execute automated test scripts according to the scope of regression identified. The test scripts are executed according to defined execution cycles. These can be either daily or weekly.
When implementing test automation for an Agile project, the following parameters should be taken into consideration:
Business critical functionality: Identify key functional test cases to automate
Many users use the same functions.
Testing with different configurations
Test cases that will be repeated with different data or conditions
Tests that will run on different platforms and browsers
Benefits from Test Automation in Agile Projects
Increase productivity and speed of sprints: Automation testing allows the tester to focus on exploratory testing, as it can be run parallel with manual testing.
Reusability: The same scripts can run on multiple platforms.
A significant amount reduces manual testing.
Automate regression testing to reduce time.: The automated process is faster than manual testing.
