Manual testing to automatic testing A formal training programme for testers at Bands 3 to 7

8.1.3 Restructure the Automated Testware to Align with System Under Test Updates

Part of 8 Continuous Improvement, 8.1 Continuous Improvement Opportunities for Test Automation.

Learning objective: TAE-8.1.3 (K3).

In short

When the system changes, change the test automation with it, in small, measured steps, so that tests keep running reliably.

Key ideas

  • Any change, however small, can affect the reliability and performance of the TAS.
  • Identify what changes: testware, custom function libraries, or the operating system.
  • Change incrementally, with a minimum viable product mindset: measure the effect on a limited run of tests, then roll out fully, and finish with a full regression run. Find the root cause of any new failures, to make sure the improvement did not cause them.
  • Improve core libraries with new, more efficient techniques, for this project and future ones.
  • Consolidate functions that act on the same kind of control, such as several functions that each read one type of dropdown, into fewer, more general ones.
  • Refactor the architecture to fit the changed SUT, rather than bolting new features on.
  • Keep naming consistent with the standards already in place.
  • Review existing tests: split tests that are complex and slow, and remove tests that rarely run or no longer add value.

In this programme

When your team's product changes a page, the page object from Module 11 is where you make the change: update its locator, run that page's tests, then the full regression suite in CI.

Teach it (45 minutes)

Change one id on a copy of a page used by the suite. Pairs make the smallest change to the testware that fixes it, run a limited set of tests, then the full suite, and note how many files they had to touch.

Check yourself

  1. Why change test automation incrementally?
  2. What is the final step that shows a change had no adverse effect?
  3. When should an existing test be split, or removed?

Previous: 8.1.2 Analyze the Technical Aspects of a Deployed Test Automation Solution and Provide Recommendations for Improvement · Contents · Next: 8.1.4 Summarize Opportunities for Use of Test Automation Tools

Based on the ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Automation Engineering (CTAL-TAE) syllabus, version 2.0, section 8.1.3. The syllabus is © International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB®); ISTQB® is a registered trademark of the ISTQB. Copyright © 2024 the authors of the syllabus: Andrew Pollner (Chair), Péter Földházi, Patrick Quilter, Gergely Ágnecz, and László Szikszai. This page explains its concepts in our own words, for teaching, and is not an accredited course or a substitute for the syllabus.

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