Conquer the Murky Waters of Test Automation

A solid test automation implementation is key to any foray into continuous delivery. Although the test automation waters may look peaceful and pristine, anyone who has jumped in to automate testing complex systems has found the waters to be troubled and murky. Tests take too long to run, they periodically break for mysterious reasons, or they fail to catch business critical problems. Over time this leads to automated tests becoming outdated and irrelevant. Brian Saylor has studied a number of test automation projects—and far too many lines of test code—to identify the fundamental concepts that are frequently missing. The test automation quagmire can be conquered by applying specific concepts. Brian uses a complex large scale website as an example and walks through identifying automated test goals, what tests should be automated and more importantly which should not, how to prioritize a test backlog, and how to identify good test code. Come away with practical fundamentals and coding guidelines to keep your own test automation project from sinking beneath the murky waters.