Automation tests question

[Jelena Mehmedovic]

Hello Gojko,

I am currently thinking about test automation strategy on a project, and not quite sure which approach would make more sense in this situation... so I thought I could ask for help.

The situation on the project is like this:

- Project started 5 years ago

- There are no automated tests on UI or integration/api/contract

- Writing of unit tests started a couple of months ago (backwards)

- It is a microservices architecture and there are many clients and each one of them is using different combination of assembly versions

I am thinking about prioritization of automated UI and api tests (api tests which could be done by QA - for example, testing of internal endpoints through Postman - tests which do not communicate directly with developers code).

Would it be better to start with UI automation (e.g. Selenium tests), or first to do automated tests in Postman (e.g. calling internal endpoints and verification of status codes, schema, functional tests, etc).

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Jelena

[Gojko Adzic]

Hi Jelena,

The question I'd probably ask is where is the biggest value from automated testing - what user capabilities are worth covering with such tests first? Usually this is some combination of how frequently things change, and what's the damage if the related user capability is disrupted. Find an area that at the same time changes a lot (so there's a solid risk of bugs being introduced) and that supports critical user capabilities (so catching bugs potentially has a big impact). 

You can then decide for each use case if the best way to test it is through the UI, API or even something lower, depending on where the risk is and how easy/difficult it is to automate different layers.

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[Chris]

Great answer Gojko

Hi Jelena

Building on Gojko’s response… You most likely to encounter a bug in the code that has just been changed. So having tests around code you just changed is valuable. You can prepare the automated tests in advance of the code change by working closely with the product owner to identify where they next want to change the systems. A developer can help translate where a change the PO wants Is likely to land in the code base. I hear you name this approach three Amigos. ;-)

Regards

Chris

(Sent from my iphone.) 

On 22 Nov 2022, at 6:51 am, Gojko Adzic <goj...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Jelena Mehmedovic]

Thank you Gojko for the quick and valuable response. I will drive the discussion around the things you've mentioned and collect feedback and then proceed.

Chris, thanks for the advice, I agree with you. Spec by example and TDD/BDD and automation which resonates with the automation testing pyramid is something that I'd always choose if someone asks me. :) 

Kind regards,

Jelena

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