Automation strategy and metrics

Tracks: Band 6 quality assurance, Band 7 test engineering (contribute), Band 7 test management (own). Programme hours: 112.5 to 150.

Outcomes: contribute to (Band 6 quality assurance, Band 7 test engineering) or own (Band 7 test management) the automation strategy for an area; define metrics for monitoring and controlling test activities.

Evidence: a strategy document and a metrics proposal, reviewed by the head of test. For Band 7 test management these feed the capstone.

• Automation strategy template
• Metrics proposal template

Activities

1. Hours 200.5–208: read the testingexamples articles on the testing pyramid, CI, DevOps, and flow metrics again, with your area in mind. Collect the Module 7 automation candidate analyses from your area.
2. Hours 208–215.5: draft the strategy with the template. Interview a developer, a product owner, and the clinical safety officer.
3. Hours 215.5–223: draft the metrics proposal. Collect baseline numbers where you can, without new tools.
4. Hours 223–230.5: review both drafts with your mentor and with the people you interviewed.
5. Hours 230.5–238: submit to the head of test for review. Band 7 test management: carry both into the Module 16 capstone.

Review criteria for the head of test

• The strategy is based on risk, including clinical risk, not on test counts.
• It pushes tests down the pyramid, and reserves browser tests for critical user journeys.
• It says what stays manual, and why.
• It covers test data, environments, CI, traceability, and ownership.
• The metrics measure flow and outcomes, not activity, and each one has an owner and a decision it supports.
• Both documents are written for a non-technical reader.

View this document on GitHub materials/tracks/automation-strategy-and-metrics/index.md