XtremeDreamers: Test Automation – When and when not!!!!

“Test Automation is not our silver bullet, but it can help us solving our problems.” 

- Couldn’t recall the reference

If it isn’t a silver bullet then what is it? 

Test Automation is the key to solve our major problems related timed delivery, but that cannot replace manual testing. Manual testing is unavoidable, but should be minimized, whose part is carried over by Test Automation. Thus test automation is just a monkey wrench of your garage and it can never replace the skilled mechanic who does all your jobs. Automating the test cases nowadays is misunderstood to assumptions like

• We will be able to automate all testing! 
• Test automation will increase productivity so much that we’ll be able to do all the testing with fewer people (eliminate staff). 
• Test automation is so easy that we won’t need to do any training. 
• Automation will reduce our whole testing workload. 
• We won’t need to do any test planning. 
• That time-intensive test design effort will no longer be necessary. 

When a manager has perceptions like these, he/she is strictly warned in not planning for automating the process.

So where does test automation fits in? As I said earlier, it is just a tool in the toolbox which will assist us, but not take over the whole job a manual tester can do and that doesn’t mean we can automate all testing!

Automation is the concept which is applicable for highly redundant/recursive tasks or scenarios in a routine which may tend to cause human error, tasks that are repetitive and in need to reduce the effort and costs involved and focus on more testing than regressing things. These should be the motive behind automating things and not ROI alone.

Automation means less effort on regressing things and more effort on testing…

Process or Delivery?

Process or delivery… Which one would anyone choose between these two, considering the time factor is a shortage? This blog I write, is because I was inspired by the QA legend Shrini’s (as most of the testing geeks know) one of the post asked this to the reader. The choice I believe is the war between the development and QA team across the organizations all over the world. The real understanding of this will throw the light on the ignorance which both sides have.

 “The choice is already made. Understand the choice.” – Oracle to Neo in Matrix Returns

 The above dialogue is posted here because we are speaking about choices and that the choice is already made. Understanding the choice is the maze here. “How?” is the only question that goes though the mind of anyone who came this far. I can explain this with a simple logic. “Motive” is the keyword behind that. Motive is the one which decides destiny and destiny is made when we make a choice. So the real motive behind any development of a product is delivery. Thus process is one which adheres to the standards to bring out the delivery on time.

 Process is nothing but like a liquid or gas which takes its form according to the vessel it is kept on. This was referred to metrics by Shrini in his blog which I adopted to this. Thus process can be bent to make the right delivery and also to stress on, it can never be neglected.

 

Has the spine of India been changed?

Mahatma’s words marked “Farming is the spine of this country”. Is this really true? Does the economy of the country at present state, rely on this? When I think on these I get this feel like are we going in a right path obeying all those Mother Nature’s rules? Then I could say never, because we don’t even follow the traffic rules, then how in miracle we would follow the rules of nature?

 I could recall those dialogues from the famous movie ‘Wall – E’ “These are called plants. Vegetable plants, Pizza plants…” and goes on. Will this ever happen to us? Will our children forget what we’ve done for our survival in this so called green planet? Nowadays the country I believe run behind the mania called IT and related services and I hope the major part of our economical growth relies there. This IT Titan ‘Goliath’ took all our country’s economy on its shoulders but and for a term we all felt high and now I believe is the time of ‘David’ who could slay this Titan down. What I call as David is the economic glitch, financial crisis moreover the Obama factor that’s happening around us.

 IT - this word ruled this country for the past years. This was like a crown for the GDP growth of ours. The economic blooms, the hike in rates, the inflation for everything it was IT which was addressed and that’s the truth too. But is what we did all right? We focused largely on one sector which gave us all creamy pies and now when a financial crisis happens, the infrastructure of ours stands helpless against all evils. Why can’t we make up an infrastructure which helps us to grow far better than helping some one who lives far yet being the deciding factor for our growth?

 India the land of plateaus is rich in for resources needed for vegetation. Why can’t these technological developments bring in those ecological improvements to the country which would bring trade? My view on this is like, why a country with marvelous minds is always a slave to people who knew us 200 years before. Why can’t we bring in a change that could be a roar to this world? 

All UN Nations are really afraid of one small country called CUBA. Ever wondered a reason for that? It’s not the country powered with nuclear energy, powered with real good infrastructure but with real good people. It is the individual that needs a change to make the change really happen.

 It is the awareness for a individual about the ecological state which on failing tends to this filthy economical state of ours. So “Go Green!!! Go High!!!”