Software development methodology according to Agile philosophy/model is becoming more and more popular around the world. Companies, enterprises and project teams therefore also need a new way of software testing to fit the Agile working model – which is known as a philosophy or a framework of thinking to quickly adapt and respond to change.
Although test automation is not designed to support Agile projects, it does make Agile testing – a key component of Agile projects – possible. This article will help you understand the importance of Automation Testing – Automated testing in Agile and guide the necessary steps to set up to apply test automation to project teams working under the Agile model.
1. What was pre-Agile?
Before the emergence of Agile development concepts, the Waterfall Model was often used in software development. It can be said that Waterfall is really the first widely used model for software development. As the name suggests, the Waterfall methodology is a project management methodology based on a sequential and sequential design process, like a flowing waterfall. Each step in the development process must be completed before moving on to the next.
As the image illustrates, testing is the step that completes all the work in the Waterfall model. So, before testing a new feature (say a new product requirement), your team needs to complete the development process. If an error occurs, the development team will need to go back through their code line by line and check for the error(s).
2. What is the Agile Model?
According to wikipedia, Agile is a method of implementing software engineering projects, this method encourages change when developing projects and bringing products to users as quickly as possible.
The goal of Agile is to publish software by function. To complete and publish functional applications, developers and testers need to collaborate as a team. Instead of developing and deploying the entire application at once, you now only need to complete each part of the application such as the database, business logic and user interface..etc.
Collaboration to complete tasks is an inevitable part of the Agile model. Between the team and the team members need to communicate regularly so that everyone is aware of what the team is building and developing, as well as the responsibilities of each individual in the team.
3. 4 Core Values in the Agile Manifesto
3.1. Individuals and interactions rather than processes and tools (Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools)
People are valued more than processes or tools because people can fulfill business needs and drive development. Teams will be less adaptable to change and less able to meet customer expectations if they rely solely on processes or tools to drive growth.
3.2. Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
In an Agile project, although documentation is encouraged, the software that works is more important. In an Agile project the documentation is simplified and presented in a way that is easy to understand so that the development team can complete the requirements without any problems. bogged down in detail. Agile creates user stories from requirements, which are enough for a programmer to start working on a new function.
3.3. Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
The Agile Manifesto defines customers as participants and working with development teams on projects. Developing products that satisfy customer needs also becomes much simpler. In an Agile project, the customer can also be the end user who attends all meetings and demos to ensure that the developing functions meet/satisfy the customer’s needs. .
3.4. Responding to changes rather than following a plan (Responding to Change Over Following a Plan)
Most projects have adjustment changes when implementing such as changes in requirements, changes in tech stack, changes in personnel, changes in deadlines, changes in working methods, etc. even though the plan was clearly laid out from the start. Although not encouraging change, Agile encourages us to adapt and respond to change.
The agile project team often works directly with the customer, which helps the project understand the priority between the requirements and update the changes from the customer to make timely adjustments. As a result, agile projects often help customers optimize the value of the project. Agile helps projects significantly increase customer satisfaction.
4. Benefits of applying Test Automation to Agile team
4.1 Optimizing resources for regression testing
Regression testing is the most important type of automation. Instead of executing time-consuming repetitive test cases, testers can prepare test scenarios for automated test execution.
4.2 Increasing test coverage
Automated testing gives QA teams the opportunity to run tests on a number of different platforms and browsers. So by using the latest suitable automation tool, the team can test all the potential components in the project.
4.3. Improve communication and teamwork
Every Agile project requires teams to work together. With QA’s deeper involvement in every level of SDLC, communication between developers and testers has to be more frequent to keep up with updates. Using automated testing tools empowers teams to connect, update, and report more powerfully than ever before.
5. Implement Automation Test into the project
5.1. Plan automation.
A successful Aglie project requires an automated test plan that includes all the necessary automation frameworks. Also make sure your team of developers and project quality managers work well together.
5.2. Identify which test cases can be automated.
Not all test cases can be automated so the second most important thing when implementing test automation is that you need to know in advance which cases can be automated.
5.3. Completing parallel testing
With test automation, the QA team can run multiple tests on several devices, browsers, and operating systems at the same time. In particular, teams save a significant amount of time through parallel testing.
5.4. DevOps integration
DevOps makes it easy for teams to work together. Testing is more effective when combining automation tool with CI/CD combination.
5.5. Selecting the right test automation tool
Choosing the right test automation tool is very important. Though automated testing solutions save time in regression testing and ensure that high quality software is tested quickly. However, that only really comes into play when the automation tool they use matches their technical capabilities, software testing requirements, existing IT infrastructure, etc.