Uniform Platform for Test Automation 

 
qLabs 
 

Uniform Platform for Test 
Automation 
Test Automation 
Ashok Holani 
 

09

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Abstract
This article describes several approaches used for Test Automation and their advantages
and disadvantages. It also explains how the qLabs Uniform Platform has changed the entire
spectrum of automation testing and has reduced the dependency on automation engineers
by a significant measure. This framework supports a wide variety of popular commercial and
Open Source tools to meet various technical and budgetary requirements. It encourages
applying standard software development processes to test automation.

Introduction
Testing is the main validation activity used by the software development industry, and there
is an urgent need to improve its effectiveness with respect to resource usage (time, people
and money) and the effectiveness of the testing process, measured in terms of number of
errors found. Software test automation has the capability to decrease the overall cost of
testing, while also improving software quality. However, most of the organization have
failure situation, when it comes to the test automation. As per some industry estimates, less
than 15% of test automation initiatives are successful. But the right efforts can improve
software quality by upto 50% and significantly speed up time-to-market at one-third the
cost of manual testing.

There are various pitfalls of automation and additional challenges come into the picture
owing to the inherent characteristics of software products and the complexity of the
software product development life cycle. This article will explain the benefits of the qLabs
Uniform Platform in a product development situation, while comparing it with other
traditional approaches.

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Automation Philosophies
Different approaches have been used by product companies for automation of software
testing. Some have been discussed here:

Traditional Scripting Approach

In this approach, no ground work is done before one starts scripting the test cases. There is
no framework and the functional tools capabilities are utilized for performing script
integration and execution work. Since the automation project is no less complex than a
software development project, lack of preparatory work brings up many challenges. The
approach is simply un-scalable. Above all, as there is no framework, there are no standard
practices followed for automation and every member of automation team writes test scripts
based on his/her knowledge. And if the application undergoes any changes, it becomes
costly to maintain these scripts and one does not get adequate ROI from automation.

Most of such initiatives are wound up as people see no ROI from automation and
organizations go back to manual testing.

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Traditional Framework Approach

To overcome the scripting challenges there are various types of frameworks that have come
into existence. These frameworks try to standardize the automation process by defining a
set of guidelines but still are not able to remove the dependency on scripting. The typical
process followed during this approach is:

Advantages

• A structured way for test automation

Disadvantages

• Significant overhead due to communication between manual and automation

engineer. The quality and reliability of automation tool depend on the quality of
communication between automation and manual test engineer.
• Enhancements/modifications are not timely communicated to the automation team,
which makes the scripts unreliable.

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• Frequent or incremental changes in the application requires changes in the scripts
resulting in lower ROI
• Significant time goes in developing a framework.
• Scripts are prone to brake in case of tool upgrade, may require significant effort to
fix them.

qLabs Uniform Platform

qLabs – the Quality and Testing Center of Excellence at Impetus - has designed a Uniform
Platform for Automation by keeping pitfalls of automation in mind. The platform takes care
of additional challenges which are posed due to the complexity of product development life
cycle. Some of these challenges are –
• Software products evolve and with each new feature addition and enhancement,
there are bound to be changes in the UI.
• Most of the functional and domain knowledge stays with manual test engineer and
may not get communicated effectively to automation test engineers
• A product may have variants or customized applications, and the testing solution
needs to address all the variants in order to be effective.
• Another challenge is due to the fact that the underlying tool itself may undergo
upgradation over time. Vendors might try to make the tool backward compatible,
but that may not always happen.

To take care of these challenges, we have designed the automation platform in such a way
that the scripting efforts are brought down to zero. This changes the whole spectrum of
automation testing and reduces the dependency on automation engineers to a significant
extent. With the help of qLabs automation platform, it is possible for a manual test engineer
to develop the complete test suite without recording or writing any code. The process for
developing the automation suite is depicted in the following diagram and being described
subsequent paragraph:

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To understand this better, here is the brief description of the responsibilities of manual and
automation engineers when the qLabs Uniform Platform is used for test automation.

1. Manual Test Engineer creates Object Repository – This is a plain MS ExcelTM File and
all the objects used in the applications are defined here.
2. Manual Test Engineer creates Data Repository – This is a plain MS ExcelTM File and
the data that needs to successfully execute the test cases is organized here.

3. Manual Test Engineer creates Action Sequence – This is a plain MS ExcelTM File and
all the test steps needed to automate a test case are specified in a sequential form in
simple language within this file.
4. Automation Engineer implements the qLabs Uniform Platform and debugs if there are
any failures due to scripts.
5. Manual Test Engineer maintains Test – Using Action Sequence and Data Repository,
the manual test engineer executes, maintains and enhances the Test suite.

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Advantages

• Empowering Manual Test Engineer – Manual Test Engineer designs the tests in
MS ExcelTM. No code and no scripts are required, just business logic and data of the
application.
• No Framework Development – The qLabs Uniform Platform removes any
dependency on framework as it showcases the capabilities of Keyword-driven, Data-
driven and Functional Decomposition approach.
• Highly Scalable – By removing the dependency on scripting, qLabs Uniform
Platform makes it easier to add more test cases in the spreadsheets.
• Reduced Implementation Cost – As compared to the previous discussed
approaches, qLabs Uniform Platform involves manual test engineers to perform most
of the automation, hence giving quicker ROI.
• No Communication Overhead – No dependency on manual test engineer for
product knowledge transfer.
• Minimum Maintenance – The change in application does not require change in
code. Only test cases needs to be updated, if any functionality changes. qLabs
platform brings down the test suite maintenance cost by 60%.
• Minimize tool dependency – The test cases created using qLabs Uniform Platform
are compatible with most of the functional test tools available in the market. So,
migration from one tool to other is possible with minimum efforts.
• Higher productivity – With qLabs automation platform, your pace of developing
automation suite goes up by 40-50%.

Conclusion
qLabs has taken Test Automation to the next level by designing this platform. It is a next-
generation functional testing platform for software teams.

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About qLabs
qLabs is Impetus’ Testing Centre of Excellence that works on defining and creating QA and
Test strategies. The team's expertise ranges from drawing up an overall Test strategy to
defining testing requirements, formulating test implementation plan and identifying the
most appropriate test tools.

The specialist engineers have expertise in Test Management, Test Automation, White Box
Testing of web and mobile applications, Code Coverage Analysis, Security Testing, Database
Testing, Migration Testing, Internationalization testing, to name a few important ones.
Backed by comprehensive quality assurance, quality control and testing experience, qLabs
offers deep technology expertise, a proven approach, best practices, and global
infrastructure to enable effective and efficient execution of critical testing activities offshore,
with near-zero risk. The team has also developed a set of frameworks and tools that can
come in handy for various kinds of testing requirements.

About Impetus
Headquartered in San Jose (CA), Impetus Technologies provides outsourced software
product design, development, testing, QA, consulting, product migration and related support
services to leading global software product companies. With greater than 1100 employees
and a 15 year association with clients ranging from enterprise class companies to innovative
technology start-ups, Impetus has been involved hundreds of successful product launches of
award winning software.

Impetus works on cutting-edge technologies to develop a variety of next-generation

products for a range of vertical domains. From enterprise applications that optimize supply
chains and credit portfolios, to solutions for the emerging rich media and digital content
verticals; and from products for wireless networks and mobile handsets to software for
network forensics and communication monitoring, Impetus’ emphasis on continuous
innovation adds significant value to its clients’ technology initiatives.

For more information, visits www.impetus.com or write to qlabs@impetus.com.

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