Research & Implementation Of Software Test Automation Framework

Software test automation is one the most important areas in software engineering. As well as the development of software engineering, theory of software test automation is developed rapidly recently. Currently, the most practical approach for test automation is using test automation framework.Till now, Data Driven Engine (DDE) by Carl Nagle and Test Plan Driven (TPD) by Keith Zambelich is the top 2 popular test automation framework in industry. Both of them make the test automation independent from test design.Base on Data Driven Engine (DDE) and Test Plan Driven (TPD), a new test automation framework is introduced in this article. This new framework is Functional Driven Framework (FDF). FDF enhances the TPD, with the consideration of organization of test cases. FDF is more practical then TPD and DDE and easy to implement.With the guidance of FDF, this article use a real project as example, discuss how to use FDF framework to implement test automation. It includes deciding test case organization, selecting test automation framework and implement test scripts. In the example, a robust, easy to maintain software test automation set is implemented successfully.Then this article refers to Douglas Hoffman's cost benefit analysis method, to conduct cost benefit analysis for the test automation implementation. Results show that, after 1 year (after 2 system releases), the ROI is 122%. And after 3 years, the ROI is 236%. That result is reviewed and approved by customer.In the meantime, an assessment based on Test Process Improvement (TPI) model is conducted on the test automation implementation. After the assessment, the test automation set implemented using FDF framework achieve the Effective Level of TPI model.Finally, this article discusses some lessons learnt from the implementation using FDF, and expects the future of test automation framework.From the point view of engineering, some points of this article are:Base on the study of industry popular test automation framework, with theconsideration of best practice of test cases organization, the article introduce a practical framework - Function Driven Framework (FDF). By a real test automation project, the article discussed how to use FDF to implement test automation in real word. Meanwhile, the article conducts cost benefit analysis for the test automation implementation. And verify the feasibility of using FDF to implement test automation from the economical point of view. Finally, an assessment based on Test Process Improvement (TPI) model is conducted on the test automation implementation.Currently, the FDF introduced in this article is already widely used with author's organization, which brings significant benefit to the organization.