Enterprises are clamoring for quality and faster release. And therefore, software testing technologies and methodologies are progressing at a highly increased rate. However, the manual testing capabilities were not able to meet the rapid pace at which tech is growing. At this point, automation testing and automation test frameworks entered the picture!
Automation not only delivered the necessary speed to the testing operation but allowed developers and testers to collaborate more effectively. However, there are still many organizations that do not have a clear perspective on the selection and significance of automation frameworks as a part of quality assurance solutions.
In this blog, we will aim at underlining the basics of automation frameworks while highlighting their significance and other necessary details. Let’s begin.
Automation Frameworks: Definition & Significance
A framework is described as a group of guidelines or best practices that may be applied and organized to guarantee the achievement of the desired outcomes.
According to Techopedia, a test automation framework is a set of rules for developing and planning test cases. It is a conceptual component of automated testing that enables testers to use available resources in a better way.
Typically, a more thorough explanation of test automation frameworks reveals that they consist of a collection of procedures, instruments, and protocols that may all be used to test software applications under various conditions.
An automation testing framework is a platform created by integrating different hardware and software resources, employing multiple tools for automation testing, and building a web service automation framework, all based on a set of well-founded assumptions.
What is the significance of the automation test framework?
From facilitating the reuse of parts or code during the creation and development of automated test scripts to allowing a systematic development technique to guarantee design consistency across numerous test scripts, test automation frameworks lessen reliance on individual test cases.
Besides, the right choice of automation test framework could offer a more significant purpose to the test process:
- Provides accurate root-cause analysis with the least amount of human intervention for the system being tested, enabling dependable issue and bug discovery
- Decreases reliance on teams by autonomously deciding which test to run based on test scenarios
- Adjusts test scope dynamically in response to modifications to the test plan or the system’s circumstances.
- Enables optimum returns on efforts and enhances the exploitation of various resources.
- Test automation frameworks Require minimal human intervention to maintain an automated testing procedure.
- By leveraging automation test frameworks, it is likely to have minimal manual intervention, which further reduces pressure on the developer or tester.
- Smart designing and programming are facilitated by automation frameworks. With this early detection of bugs and issues can be achieved.
- Despite the high initial cost of the automation test framework, the latter part of maintenance is quite low.
- Catering to Cloud automation frameworks, they facilitate accessing data from anywhere anytime.
Test Automation Frameworks As A Gamechanger Of Software Testing
Be it Early detection of faults, or efficient bug and issue detection, employing the right test automation framework provides optimum test coverage. They not only decrease manual work because tests are automated but even offer maximum code reuse is the most critical application.
More importantly, automating the testing process increases efficiency by cutting down on testing time. Automated scripts ensure quality is maintained and delivered while saving a significant amount of QA time. Also, DevOps teams can benefit from the thorough reporting that bug tracking reports provide with automation frameworks.
Above all, the automation framework serves as the key to ensuring continuous testing is achieved using agile, DevOps, continuous deployment, test automation, and continuous integration.
Types Of Test Automation Frameworks
When it comes to testing automation frameworks, there are six leading frameworks that are easily available these days.
- Linear automation framework
- Modular-driven framework
- Library architecture framework
- Data-driven framework
- Keyword-driven framework
- Hybrid testing framework
Based on the above types, here we bring you some of the most renowned automation frameworks available:
- Robot Framework
Robot Framework is ideal if you can use a Python test automation framework for your test automation efforts. The Robot Framework makes it simple to develop tests using a keyword-driven methodology. One can utilize Jython (Java) or Iron Python in addition to the Python-based Robot Framework (.NET).
- Selenium
One of the most well-liked open-source frameworks for web app test automation. Due to its cross-platform and cross-browser flexibility, Selenium also acts as a foundation for many other testing tools. Java, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, and many other programming languages are supported by Selenium. It features one of the most extensive online support networks, making maintenance simple. Selenium may be easily customized to fit any user’s needs and expectations by utilizing various libraries and APIs.
- WebDriver
Web Driver is-based test automation framework is called WebdriverIO. You can perform automated tests for online and native mobile apps because it has an integrated test runner. Additionally, it can operate on both the WebDriver protocol and the Chrome Devtools protocol, making it practical for Chromium-based automation and Selenium-based cross-browser testing.
- RaptorVista
It is one of the most renowned web automation frameworks that excels in quality engineering. It is a proprietary web testing automation framework by BugRaptors. It uses hybrid test automation framework which can be customized as per users and their requirements. Its features include:
- Multiple browser support
- Flexible and fast execution
- Code reuse
- Well integrated with CI
- Highly expandable
Conclusion
Catering to the significance automation framework holds, it becomes important for the companies to process and choose the right automation framework is to choose the right tool. All the frameworks have their advantages and disadvantages however, it is up to the QA professional to choose one that suits AUT the best.
Nevertheless, making the right selection could do wonders in enhancing the speed of the process and reducing maintenance costs. Besides, taking such measures cuts off the risk of errors in the process at the earliest.
Author Bio: Kanika Vatsyayan is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate audience about automation and manual testing.
