Imagine being able to create a manual test, providing the usual information for navigating through the application ("step name", "step description", and "expected result") and for application verification ("object", "property" and "value") but never needing to perform manual test execution. How could this be possible? Because test execution is automated. This is not a manual test and it is not an automated test, but instead a hybrid of them both called a "Gooey Test".
By sticking together the cheap and easy components of functional GUI testing's manual and automated test types we have combined the cheap development of a manual test with the cheap execution of an automated test. This means that Gooey Test are created by the manual test team, but no testing resource is required during test execution as Gooey Test utilises your existing automation tools.
The Gooey Test removes all the quandaries that are associated with the Return On Investment (ROI) and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of purchasing and supporting an automation tool. If your company has already purchased licenses for any automated testing tool then the software vendor’s sales team you would have already provided information about the benefits of using automation and the ROI in the long term. The ROI is associated to the costs involved and also to the quality of delivery of application development. However the costs involved do not stop at just the purchasing of the licenses but extends much further to the implementation of the software, initial training of internal staff, the hiring of external consultants, or of an entire test team from automation service provider. What happens to the ROI in these cases?
The discussion of the ROI of automation tools dominates websites, blogs and forums and by simply searching the internet for "automation tools ROI" will provide a staggering amount of information. Organisations and companies are bound by the united quest for the best way to implement an automation testing framework that provides an increase in the quality of application of delivery whilst reducing testing costs, even more so now that the practice of Agile testing has become a mature discipline.
Whilst in an Agile GUI testing environment, using your existing automation test strategy, not only has the time taken to develop automation tests been a concern but also the unavoidable issue of "Automation Test Maintenance" - the necessity to modify some automation tests prior to being executed against a newer build of the tested application due to the changes made in development, which is especially true when running automations test as part of a regression suite. |