Why Test Automation in Agile Project?

Test automation is a critical component of agile testing, as there are frequent releases and short sprint cycles. In an agile project, \ a new feature is added/integrated with existing feature in every new sprint. Hence, it is very important to conduct regression testing for all features to ensure that all components are working as expected. It is only possible to do this through test automation.

Need of Test Automation in Agile Project

• Short release cycles:In the Agile methodology, in every sprint there are a few features that need to be delivered to the customer limited timeframes.
• Maximum test coverage:It is very important to test every feature of the application to ensure that it is working according to the defined business requirement.
• Continuous Integration:In Agile, It is important to automate the testing process from build deployment to reporting as it helps to share the execution results in quick timeframes.
• Quick turnaround time:In an Agile project, it is very important to share the quick feedback of build stability, so that the team can take decisions based on feedback shared by the QA team.
• Reusability:Execute same test case execution on multiple platform and browsers.
• Higher ROI:Test Automation helps to reduce the manual test execution cycle timelines. As a result, ROI increases. .
• Maintain automated regression pack at product level.

Test Automation Approach in Agile Project:

Adapt Changes: Understand the new enhancements or features to be implemented in every sprint and plan for the test case design or update accordingly.

Implement Changes: Implement the requested enhancements or changes and integrate the same in the existing product.

Maintain Test Cases: Document the test cases for new enhancements and features based on the application. Also, conduct the impact analysis due to new enhancements and identify the regression test cases to test the impacted areas.

Test Case Automation: Automate the test cases for new features or changes and integrate the same with the existing automated suite. Also, make sure that every identified defect has automated test cases.

Daily/Weekly Automated Test Scripts Execution: Execute the automated test scripts based on the identified regression scope. Test scripts will be executed based on defined execution cycles,which may be daily or weekly.

Below parameters should be considered while implementing test automation in an Agile project:

• Business critical functionality: Identify the key functional test cases for test automation
• Functions that are used frequently by many users
• Configuration testing in which tests will be run with different configurations
• Test cases which will be run several times with different test data or conditions
• Test cases which will be run on multiple platforms and browsers

Benefits of Test Automation in Agile Projects:

• Improve productivity and speed in sprints: Automated testing helps the tester to concentrate on exploratory testing as automation testing can be run in parallel with manual testing.
• Reusability: Same scripts can be run multiple times on multiple platforms and used again in next sprints.
• Reduce the cost of testing: Manual testing efforts reduce significantly.
• Reduce time spent in regression testing: Automated regression testing is much faster than the manual process.