Mykhailo Poliarush, a technical entrepreneur and test automation engineer, spoke about test automation, collaboration issues in manual testing, and the process of integrating automated tests into a test management system.
Table of Contents
Difficulties at performing automated tests
- Manual and automated tests differ entirely and out of sync.
- Automated tests are isolated — they do not interact with members of other teams and the customer.
- They have their own set of commands.
- There is no single source of truth.
- Test automation is not integrated.
But still, computerized testing should be an integral part of the quality control process.
Test Management Systems
There are numerous test management systems on the market, but most of them are built for manual testing. Their key issues are:
- No built-in support for automated tests.
- Custom integration is necessary.
- Not available to non-technical professionals.
Modern development demands a shift to the left, so you need to test and automate testing as early as possible.
Modern test management tools are too complex, but ideally they should allow you to focus on the process of testing, not on its learning:
- they should be simple and accessible to all team members;
- native integration of test automation should be provided;
- CI/CD options must be enabled.
This approach avoids misunderstandings, confusion and ambiguity, and shortens the feedback loop.
Meeting of the three amigos
A good example of working together on test automation is the meeting of three amigos: a tester, a developer, and a business analyst. At these meetings, they discuss the requirements they would like to implement, decide what should be tested, and how to implement automated test cases. Each of them contributes to this process:
- The business analyst (product owner) creates user stories and characteristics.
- The tester (QA) clarifies controversial issues and adds details.
- The developer must ensure implementation.
Testomate.io
Testomate.io is an example of a test management system designed with automated testing and left shift in mind. You can add manual test cases, turn them into automated ones, and everything will be visible through live documentation and up-to-date results. And most importantly, everyone will have access to this system: BA, PO, developer, and QA. Also, this tool supports many modern automated frameworks such as Cypress, Cucumber, Webdriverio, and others.
