1. Analyse and find solutions to your automation management issues

Dorothy Graham

Dorothy Graham has been in software testing for over 40 years, and is co-author of 4 books: Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing and Experiences of Test Automation, and currently helps develop TestAutomationPatterns.wikispaces.com. Dot has been on the boards of conferences and publications in software testing, including programme chair for EuroStar (twice). She was a founder member of the ISEB Software Testing Board and helped develop the first ISTQB Foundation Syllabus. She was awarded the European Excellence Award in Software Testing in 1999 and the first ISTQB Excellence Award in 2012.

Seretta Gamba

Seretta has more than 30 years experience in software development and testing. As test manager at Steria Mummert ISS GmbH, she improved the test automation process, and developed Command-Driven Testing and a supporting framework, later enhanced to enable the test automation team to “harvest” test case information by supporting manual testing. A description of this experience became Chapter 21 in the book “Experiences of Test Automation” by Dorothy Graham and Mark Fewster. In 2012 she started writing about Test Automation Patterns, which she is now working on along with Dorothy Graham.

NOTE: Laptops or tablets required for this workshop

In this workshop Dorothy Graham and Seretta Gamba will use patterns to help attendees to learn to automate – how to do system-level test automation better, based on what others have learned before.

There are many problems in automating system level test execution. The surprising thing is that many people encounter the same problems, yet they are not aware of common solutions that have worked well for others – these are the “patterns”.

Although unit test patterns are known elsewhere, our patterns address more general issues. They cover the categories of management, process, design and execution to help you recognize common test automation issues and show you how to identify appropriate patterns to solve the problems. Issues such as UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS or HIGH TEST MAINTENANCE COST are addressed by patterns such as CLEAR GOALS, MAINTAINABLE TESTWARE, TESTWARE ARCHITECTURE and MANAGEMENT SUPPORT. Bring your laptop or internet-enabled tablet to gain access to the wiki during the tutorial.

The workshop uses a mix of lecture, exercises and group discussion to explore the wiki and find solutions for common issues. A few selected patterns are covered in depth, and there is time for delegates to address the issues and problems they most want to learn more about.

Outline of the workshop:

• Introduction & delegate problems
• Test Automation Issues and Patterns
• Using the wiki
• Patterns in depth
• Management Support
• SET CLEAR GOALS (with exercise)
• TESTWARE ARCHITECTURE
• MAINTAINABLE TESTWARE
• Exploring of issues and patterns most relevant to delegates