Test automation frameworks are used for automated software testing, offering advantages over manual testing. They allow developers to create, run and analyze tests. Code-based, GUI-based and data-driven frameworks are commonly used, with the latter providing separation of data and logic. Rapid software development has increased the need for rapid testing, making test automation frameworks essential.
A test automation framework is a set of tools used to perform automated software testing. Test automation frameworks offer significant advantages over manual testing and are commonly used in rapid software development. These frameworks allow software developers to create tests, run tests, and analyze test results. A test automation framework could be driven by code, data, a graphical user interface (GUI), or a combination of these.
Test automation frameworks are required to meet the demands of rapid software development. In the classic waterfall software development lifecycle, software testing was a discrete stage performed after implementation or coding. Thus, human-performed tests were typical.
Many development teams have replaced the waterfall model with various agile software development methodologies, which typically require rapid, iterative development. Rapid development has created the need for rapid testing. A test automation framework allows a software team to run frequent, automated tests on a code base. For example, instead of requiring a separate test phase after development, a team using a test automation framework might choose to run a full suite of tests overnight, as well as smaller blocks of automated tests during the day as they develop. that changes are made to the source code.
The most commonly used type of framework is the code-based framework, which is used to run white-box tests. Code-based frameworks require developers to write small snippets of code, in the form of unit tests, to test software functionality or performance. Developers using code-based frameworks must take care to write their software in a testable way, i.e. the code must be modularized in such a way that a unit test can call a snippet of code and verify the result. These frameworks typically include an implementation of xUnit, where “x” varies based on the programming language tested.
GUI-based test frameworks are used to run black-box tests, using a software tool as a user would, via mouse and keyboard input. They could consist of scripts written by developers to perform a variety of functions, or they could consist of scripts generated by tools, such as record and playback scripts. A potential disadvantage of these frameworks is that the script will break whenever the GUI changes. Some GUI automation frameworks might generate a script that can be modified by a developer in case of GUI changes, and others might require the user to create a new record and playback session.
Data-driven testing frameworks test software using data, and these tests typically work with data tables that specify both inputs and outputs. Data can be held in various locations, such as databases, spreadsheets or text files. Scripts can be written to execute software methods that take inputs as parameters and to validate the return value of the software method against the output. Anything else that can be varied, such as the environment in which the test is being run, can be stored with the data and separate from the test script. One benefit these frameworks provide is the separation of data and logic, which often leads to less maintenance in the long run.
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