Automated Testing
One of the important part of automated testing in organization is continuous integration.Quick feedback of test results as well as automatically running tests on different browsers is an import cog that needs to work to keep the Agile process running smoothly.
Let’s look at some of the key parts and then soon I will do a post on how I integrated Selenium Tests with Hudson
1)Continuous build server
A continuous build server will make your life lot easier.Tools such as Hudson,CruiseControl are quite commonplace in small to medium size organzations and helps in neatly arranging and scheduling tests along with numerous other benefits.This will help to set dependencies and schedule your automated tests.E.g I want to run Smoke tests after every checkin of code.This fits nicely into the paragdim of “build deploy test”.Additionally this tools provide numerous plugins which integrates nicely with other open source tools such as Selenium Grid and makes your life easier in terms of execution and reporting.
2)Execution Strategy
One of the key benefits of automation is to code once and then run on multiple browsers/devices.To integrate this in your continuous integration strategy it’s important to understand which option will be better for your organization
a)Setup In-house machines
While this might be costly overall (initial investment in hardware/software,maintenance etc),it gives you greater control over how you want to execute your automated testcases and reporting to a wider team.Lot of companies use virtualization to optimize their use of machines.Smart scheduling of execution,neat error handling in your testcases are other factors which if implemented correctly can be a right choice for your execution strategy
b)Execution in Cloud
Last couple of years companies have driven toward shifting their IT infrastructure to cloud and QA teams have taken a leaf from their IT counterparts and are taking advantage of Cloud by shifting their automation execution to cloud.The needs to automated testing fits nicely into Cloud paradigm.Companies such as Amazon EC2 and SauceLabs are popular in this area.
In the next post I will go into a real life example of Hudson integration with Selenium tests and setting it up in-house architecture.
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