A Guided Tour of Automation for Testers

30-minute Talk

Beginner session

Timetable

4:55 p.m.-5:25 p.m.

Tuesday 13th

Room

Room F2 - Track 2: Talks

Audience

Particularly for experienced testers & test managers interested in test automation. Suitable for all

Key-Learning

- What the pieces to test automation are, and how they go together

- How to choose which pieces to use

- Important considerations where automated and manual testing differ

- A low-risk environment to learn new terms and ask your questions

With heuristics to guide your choices along the way

A conceptual tour of automation for testers, with hints about choices you can make.

Many good testers have a limited understanding of test automation. I think that's a shame, because it often keeps them out of discussions where their skills would be valuable.

One of the difficulties of venturing into a new area is understanding the lingo. Which words are general and enduring? Which words are specific to a particular technological solution?

Another issue is that, as you grapple with specific issues, it's often hard to relate these issues to the big picture in a meaningful way. Indeed, what is The Big Picture? You're likely to have a better view of some parts than others. It takes time to build up a complete and balanced picture from experience.And when you learn the material from context, you may worry that there are holes in your knowledge even when you've got considerable experience in other areas.

In this session, we'll start with a simple Big Picture and then disassemble it to see how it's made. We'll look at both the concepts and some representative examples of technologies that implement those concepts. We'll look at some heuristics for choosing automation practices and compare them with manual ones to see how they are similar and how they differ.