This question appears in Mumbai University > Software Testing & Quality Assurance Subject

Marks: 10 M

Year: Dec 2013,

Components of test automation infrastructure:

• A test automation infrastructure, or framework, consists of test tools, equipment, test scripts, procedures, and people needed to make test automation efficient and effective.

• The creation and maintenance of test automation framework are key to the success of any test automation project within an organization.

• The idea behind an automation infrastructure is to ensure the following:

1. Different test tools and equipment are coordinated to work together.

2. The library of the existing test case scripts can be reused for different test projects, thus minimizing the duplication of development effort.

3. Nobody creates test scripts in their own way.

4. Consistency is maintained across test scripts.

5. The test suite automation process is coordinated such that it is available just in time for regression testing

6. People understand their responsibilities in automated testing.

• The six components of test automation infrastructure are as follows:

  1. System to be tested :

  • This is the first component of an automation infrastructure. The subsystem of the system to be tested must be stable, otherwise , test automation will not be cost effective.

  2. Test Platform :

  • The test platform and facilities, that is, the network setup, on which the system will be tested, must be in place to carry out the test automation project.

  • For example, configuration management utilities, servers, clients, routers and switches and hubs are necessary to set up the automation environment to execute the test scripts.

  3. Test Case Library :

  • It is useful to compile libraries of reusable test steps of basic utilities to be used as the building blocks of automated test scripts.

  • Each utility typically performs a distinct task to assist the automation of test cases.

  • Examples of such utilities are ssh (secure shell) from client to server, response capture, error logging, clean up and setup.

  4.Tools :

  • Different types of tools are required for the development of test scripts.

  • Examples of such tools are test automation tools, traffic generation tool, traffic monitoring tool and support tool.

  • The support tools include test factory, requirement analysis, defect tracking, and configuration management tools.

  • Integration of test automation and support tools is critical for the automatic reporting of defects for failed test cases.

  • Similarly, the test factory tool can generate automated test execution trends and result patterns.

  5. Automated Testing Practices :

  • The procedures describing how to automate test cases using test tools and test case libraries must be documented.
  • A template of an automated test case is useful in order to have consistency across all the automated test cases developed by different engineers.
  • A list of all the utilities and guidelines for using them will enable us to have better efficiency in test automation.
  • In addition, the maintenance procedure for the library must be documented.

  6. Administrator :

  • The automation framework administrator (i) manages test case libraries, test platforms and test tools (ii) maintains the inventory of templates, (iii)provides tutorials, (iv) helps test engineers in writing test scripts using the test case libraries.

  • In addition the administrator provides tutorial assistance to the users of test tools and maintains a liaison with the tool vendors and the users.