 AUTOMATED
REGRESSION TESTING |
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THE NEED
Software regresses! Something that was working in the earlier build breaks down in the current build. This is because when one defect is fixed or any such change is made, there is a side effect somewhere else. For this reason, each and every build of software being developed needs to be tested completely for regression. THE PROBLEMS
Automated testing! A number of record and playback tools are available in the market. The manual interactions with the GUI required to execute the testing can be recorded, the expected result stored. On each subsequent build, the script can be played back and results verified. This saves a lot of manual effort and time, besides ensures coverage of the testing. Some of the well known tools that Verisoft has handled are Mercury Interactive’s Winrunner or Quick Test Pro, Rational’s Team Test, Segue’s Silk Test, Empirix’s e-Test. THE PROBLEMS WITH SOLUTION Just record and playback is never enough. In fact, it turns out to be a very small part. The automation scripts should be usable a number of times to justify themselves. They should run on different machines, under different scenarios and on number of builds. They should be able to handle all kinds of expected and unexpected behavior. In short, they have to be extremely robust, data-driven and maintainable. Otherwise, the effort of developing and maintaining the automation scripts will far outweigh any benefits. THE REAL SOLUTION At Verisoft, we have executed a number of automated testing projects on all of the tools mentioned above. We have excellent skills with the tools and their programming languages to make the recorded scripts robust, data-driven and maintainable. But more importantly, we have the process established to evaluate automation tools, design, develop, test and deploy these automation suites, independent of the particular tool to be used. Our customers have been running the automation suite nightly and unmanned! (One of the largest projects that Verisoft handled was Development of Automated test case suite development using Winrunner & sitting in Verisoft. This was run unmanned & nightly in USA, which was about 150+ man-months effort, a perfect model of a true association). More interestingly, when our customers do not have the tools, we can offer not only to develop and maintain the automation suites but also to execute them for each build and submit the regression test reports. Since we have the tools like Rational suite, Mercury Quick Test Pro & QARun, the customers do not have to invest in the tools, and still get the benefit of automated regression testing. The QA and testing team on the customer side, with their expertise of the domain and technology, can focus on the new features and more critical testing. The repetitive testing of the stable features is done with automation. As expertise with the automation tools cannot be the core-competency of a software company, the automation suite development is best outsourced to the experts in that area. This in turn leads to quick and complete regression testing, which is so crucial to have the confidence to release. OUR AUTOMATED REGRESSION TESTING EXPERTISE
Gireendra@verisoftindia.com |