Dinakar
Good morning good evening good afternoon to everybody who's logged in from different parts of the world uh hello and welcome to yet another exciting
Dinakar
Webinar from the change leader series Break Free uh today we'll be looking at Seven Habits of Highly Effective test automation teams and my name
Dinakar
Is dinakar and I'll be the host for today before we get started I would like to go to a few housekeeping rules if you've
Dinakar
Noticed your line is currently muted however you can submit your questions during the webinar through the chat option at the bottom of the screen
Dinakar
We will answer your questions as part of the Q a session at the end of the webinar and please do note that this webinar
Dinakar
Is recorded is being recorded and we will send out the link of the recording to share with your colleagues later now with that said
Dinakar
Uh let me frequently introduce let me quickly share a bit about the series uh so you know Break Free uh on our next slide
Dinakar
Even as we look at Break Free was uh it was an idea that was that birth daughter the Need For Change leaders change in
Dinakar
The testing domain right we have seen the testing industry evolve uh over the decades as just a few leaders took the risk and embraced
Dinakar
Change however we believe that this change can be accelerated at a much faster pace right and so we took the liberty of identifying these
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Change leaders and you know inviting these leaders onto the stage to break the mold and embrace change in the Q a space uh and
Dinakar
That is what became uh Break Free a change leader series our hope is that these sessions would spark ideas in each of you to
Dinakar
Be a change in the QA industry for the better now with that said let me quickly introduce our change leader for today soumya Sri
Dinakar
Dharamurthy soumya is a seasoned product quality leader she currently works as an estate manager at lito he carries 15 years of Rich experience in
Dinakar
Handling products right from inception to delivery she you know she handles teams and she helps teams build strategies and implementation to achieve Roi through
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Test automation and being an accessibility Advocate Samia is Keen on driving inclusive software development Samia is also an active member Community Builder and runs
Dinakar
The APNs a meat group from Amsterdam uh Sonia doesn't have cats so don't be fooled by her handle but she uh she I mean
Dinakar
She's she just she she used to be called a meow and different sorts of names and that's why that handle stuck but with that
Dinakar
Let me hand it over to our speaker soumya over to you
Soumya
No I think that was a rich um introduction already and quite beefed up uh and I shouldn't be taking pride in again talking about
Soumya
Myself though I am ogling into my own photo but then today uh we will be talking about the test automation everything about test automation
Soumya
Having said that I would like to limit respecting the time of that we have for this webinar and Diving deep into the seven habits
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That I have worked with the teams who made it work uh test automation as a whole we all know there's no Silver Bullet we
Soumya
Know we all know that there's no fundamental things that we can say okay and put it in the bracket and say this is going
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To work for everybody but we try and hear out other side of the story just to know people have the same challenges as what
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I have and so we're all humans it's okay to have the problem it worked for them so which means it motivates me to go
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And find some solution which works for me that's the whole idea of sharing uh the learnings that we that we have collected over a
Soumya
Period of time and today I'll be sharing my experience with regards to test automation with the teams that I have worked with for over
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The last 15 years and I see I have collected some quite a bit of good you know experience working with some great teams now
Soumya
Before I move ahead talking about all the seven points in detail I would like to set the bed of a common understanding during the
Soumya
Start of this webinar so when we talk about the test automation there are so many myths and understandings and theories that goes behind but
Soumya
When I speak in my perspective test automation is nothing but it's not a bug mining activity most of them start test automation with an
Soumya
Intention of going in search of the bug it's for our regression that's not why automation is used even if you see in the production
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Industry automation or automation is basically for the things which are redundant you kind of see happening over and over again those tasks are automated
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Not the stuff which needs human skills cognitive abilities and human reasoning that is not possible to automate so having said that when we design
Soumya
Or come up with a framework our whole goal is to ensure to check the application's health Not Go In Search of a bug mining
Soumya
Right so anything which is not working as expected is a bug so the idea is we do the health check for the maintenance if
Soumya
It is not working as per expectation then it is a bug or a defect second is a shared activity when I started 15 years
Soumya
Ago working with my first team I remember testing is all about just a bunch of Engineers sitting very far away from the development team
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And doing the testing and then slowly agile transformation taking place into the different domains and industries we see co-located teams developers testers product owners
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Share a same stage and now there is the furtherance of it where we see it's a shared activity where quality is everybody's responsibility and
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Likewise test automation is also everybody's responsibility there is something from a product owner there is something from a developer for something from a test
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Engineer it's a shared activity the third thing is it's a it's it's like a puppy if you bring a puppy home it needs care
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It needs uh love it needs maintenance you know and most of quality is a lot of patience so is your test automation so when
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You start with the test automation you have to ensure that you are regularly maintaining these scripts else there's absolutely no written of value that
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You see and it gets a stale and last but not the least it's a Time intensive activity I will not dive deep into the
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Fourth Point simply because after speaking the seven uh habits you naturally will try and find out and connect to this point why I say
Soumya
It is a Time intensive activity now without further Ado let's go with the first oh I slipped this this first one is a decommissioning
Soumya
Of the test well many of us know and we come across where we speak in various conferences meetups it's a general understanding that we
Soumya
Have to decommission the test which means we have to remove the test which is not required from our test Suite theoretically it's great but
Soumya
How many of us are actually doing it practically uh there is upgrade there is a hot fix there is a new feature there is
Soumya
Something else there is more shiny things and then I may have to stretch across all these things it's okay I'll come back tomorrow and
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Then clean this up or I'll remove the test now let me take one example to explain this when I come up with the test
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Framework I usually do it with action driven test framework what does it mean people choose keyword driven a page object model or data driven
Soumya
Depending on the type of application and the environment setup there are multiple factors which plays a role but in my case I as much
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Try and fix into the action action driven test automation framework which means every simple Atomic action is captured as a part of a function
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And each action is called in order to achieve a feature so my entire test framework drives around this Atomic Atomic actions it can be
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Searched in its atomicity uh adding a product in its atomicity clicking on a save button it can be any of these These are Atomic
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Actions to generate the crude operations towards the databases and that's how I'm gonna collect these poles in a single file and call these actions
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To form a feature and this feature can be executed in its uh what they say uh it can be executed alone uh which makes
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A future test and they can be stringed together to form the process integration tests now when we come up with the test automation framework
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Nowadays from the last two to three years you see there's a rise in other form of testings as well like a visual checks preliminary
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Performance checks API texts a11y which is accessibility test so we are no more restricted to the functionality we are much beyond that so we
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Try and be for power test automation framework adding in more checks which is kind of like supplement to your existing functional tests now if
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This is how complex my test automation framework is tomorrow my team decides there is something some action is not required we're going to enhancing
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It to something else let me bring in a real world example
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When I was working in one of uh one of the Enterprise applications we work on a sales and distribution module
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And we were heavily on-premise so which means there is a form which comes up a user will key in the details vendor details item
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Details the cost of it and then we're gonna click save where this data gets saved into the database now this whole feature got upgraded
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When we moved to the cloud which means we introduced auto save functionality there is no more save button clicking there is no more nothing
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Any such thing happening as and when the key user keys in the data the data is pulled on a regular basis from the back
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End and it is stored into the database so the whole concept and the feature of this execution is changed when that is the case
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When my actual 4 is about saving something and that is an action it is redundant or I I cannot sense it on it it's
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Not required it's obsolete so all the functions that is using it or clicking on the save explicitly does not work uh the way it
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Should because now we have changed it to auto save so it's anyways gonna change the entire behavior is changed the functionality is changed the
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Backend call is changed uh so I have to diligently before going on adding some new feature my priority would be to come and check
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This feature which is making use of this hair functionality and all the supplement checks that goes along with it preliminary performance checks visual checks
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Accessibility checks all the relevant checks supplementary checks which is I have added as part of my script also to be eliminated in this way
Soumya
Um I keep my core clean I keep my test automation framework clean and it is always leaner I don't have to beef up things
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Which is not required most importantly when there is a team you have team members walking in leaving the team anyone who walks in and
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Wants to do some enhancement puts their hands on they get overwhelmed with the type of code that we have such maintenance such leaner code
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Helps um to keep track of an effective and efficient uh test automation uh within the team so that's the first one let's move on to
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The second one the second one is a concept of principle of less is more I think many um industry leaders they always come up
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With this idea of you have to gain more by doing little less and I know some of my good friends in the same webinar
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Have addressed some things with regards to testing and I want to bring the same concept towards test automation what do I mean by this
Soumya
So when you walk in some organization some some application offerings are not just limited to the desktop browser they are hosted onto the desktop
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Browser they can be accessed to the mobile native apps they can come with a progressive web app which is like somewhere in between which
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Is not native it is not uh desktop web browser but somewhere in between right um and you see the adoption of the Mobile Solutions is
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Faster as compared to the desktop browser unless it is absolute necessary to deal with the desktop browser because of the ease um and the
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Proximity of the device availability is more when it comes to the mobile or tablets as compared to the desktop browser which is a no-brainer
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Everybody knows it and our lifestyle have changed over a period of time not just for the B2B as well as a b2c b2c and
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B2B applications so now if you are a test engineer and you have to cover this spread of tests for the native mobile apps for
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The web applications for the progressive web app and everything around it it can get a little too much onto the plate but having said
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That not every team is blessed with having a separate resource handling separate tests I've seen the startups where they do this Grand entry of
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Hosting the application into various platforms and they have hardly two test Engineers three test Engineers um and it gets very tricky to manage the tests
Soumya
In such setups I have tried to portray the types of tests that goes against these browser applications native mobile apps and Progressive web apps
Soumya
It already looks ugly for me myself but if you see uh more closely look look towards the desktop browser there are some functionalities which
Soumya
Is specific to the desktop browser and you will not be able to emulate it or see such a behavior in any other uh hosting
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Like platform like a mobile likewise a mobile if you see there are some things which is specifically for the mobile and you will not
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Be able to do Justice by emulating it just on some simulators you have to do it on the device to see uh and do
Soumya
Justice for your testing correct now this is a little too much uh if you see the entire curve the caching OS versioning uh I
Soumya
Have repeated the viewports there and I'm sorry about that so how should you approach such a solution uh and how can you come up
Soumya
With a better test automation strategy is identify the places which is native to it like for example caching caching is more native to the
Soumya
Web browser and applies to both um desktop browser and the progressive web app Solutions and when you have any tests which is specific for that
Soumya
Surround your tests by focusing uh those checks onto the web browser something like API this is generic whether you use mobile app or you
Soumya
Use desktop browser the business functional execution or the the handling of the data the backend or the middle layer is gonna remain the same
Soumya
So these things can have a single Suite you don't have to replicate the same API test in every possible way you know how you
Soumya
Can group it and how you can degroup it now for example taking the native mobile app security is one major importance when it comes
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To the native mobile apps I don't want my data to be leaked into other integrated apps just like that it matters to me and
Soumya
Having said that the security execution when it comes to the mobile native apps versus the browser applications slightly varies at some points though there
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Are many overlays but there are some places where it strictly follows in a different protocols in these two places likewise uh the battery consumption
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You will not be able to emulate this entire thing um if you're running in a simulator but you really have to run it on
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The device to see how much battery it's consuming and how long it runs and and things like that uh it 'll be easier to
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Clock things between a desktop browser and a progressive web apps because it's mostly the same browser but the device is what is the difference
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Um try and group and compartmentalize these things so it helps you uh to achieve things faster and with the reduced and leaner code
Soumya
Now moving to the next one which is a healthy spread of tests now connecting back to my first slide or the first decommissioning of
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The test you would have seen when we come up with the test it's not just functional anymore you think of how fast it's loading
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Onto the screen how the Dom elements are rendered which is a visual check so we are supposed to do visual regression and then we
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Check a11y which is accessibility checks we also did a left shift on the performance test by including a preliminary performance checks on some API
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Calls or some crude operations we try and do as much possible
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So when you check the entire test automation it's not just restricted to checking the business function or the functionality overall but you are also
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Having the supplementary test when this is the case your team is doing a PR which is a pull request pull request is a process
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Where you merge the code with the master repository or the developed Branch or something and there is a continuous array of core coming in
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For the code merge and in your CI CD pipeline you're trying to trigger every possible test in the pipeline you're keeping the agents very
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Busy and the next developer who is ready to push the code have to sit there three hours until all the test runs and the
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Merge happens so we have to be a little more um smarter in the way we come up with the triggering of these testimers in
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Our CI CD pipeline I have taken through example one is a team who use who generates multiple PR in a day and then one
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Other team who just have one PR in a day so multiple PRS I can create my own Branch I add my own code I
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Push the code and then the CI tools builds the score which means it also triggers my test into the CI CD pipeline when I
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Do this and there are it's a busy pipeline there are many developers who keeps adding the code I have to be a little more
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Intelligent in reducing my tests you all know how to do it by using tags or by providing the priority depending on what framework you're
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Using you definitely will be having some solutions for that so run only the prior one business checks and prayer one API checks no need
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To run every other possible tests I have seen a team running 500 tests and they had like six to seven PRS in a day
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And all agents were super busy and it was not uh yielding any results at all it was not a quick feedback at all um
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So you have to keep only the prior one checks when there's a multiple PRS going in a day and then in the nightly runs
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When things comes down everybody logs off they just go back to their life is when you can comprehensively trigger the visual checks end-to-end tests
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Preliminary performance checks security tests API tests wherever possible all those things should happen at the end of the day when storm has taken a
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Break and then the next day morning when you come back you can check the comprehensive results of all these supplemental tests uh in in
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Your CI pipeline and let's not forget if uh the offering is cross browser and across device you're gone for the tasks and it definitely
Soumya
Should not be part of the execution during the pr bid it eats up a lot of time I've seen teams do this mistake over
Soumya
And again uh and they have their Theory to prove it but I all I do not encourage that that you trigger a cross browser
Soumya
Test during every PR build it makes absolute no sense it has to go into the maintenance part of it mostly you usually during your
Soumya
Nightly bills and the last one um so when it comes to the Cross device and the cross browser um maybe Solutions like Pcloudy
Soumya
Who has a device form can help you in achieving the same and also to achieve the faster results let's look at the single PR
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In a day which means maybe a senior developer or an architect they will create a feature branch and all the developers in the team
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They Branch out from the switcher Branch they code the whole day and they merged this feature branch and this feature Branch goes into the
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Develop Branch like this all these are part of a branching strategy right so which means at the end of the day before they log
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Off they're gonna Club the code if this is the case then you are pretty much a free hand but the catch comes in if
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You're doing this at the end of the day like just you want to log off at four five o'clock and you're trying to merge
Soumya
Everything at 4 30. we did this in one of the retail companies that I worked with uh very super competitive retail company it was
Soumya
And every day there was a quote push happening at 4 30 and we all used to log off at five so my window was
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Only 30 minutes so when my window is 30 minutes uh again I cannot trigger every possible test during the pr build and I have
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To make an intelligent choice or a smarter choice on what test I execute when and so that I can get a faster feedback merge
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The code the rest of the tests of course during the later build uh to be scheduled at some point in the day
Soumya
Now moving on to the to the next one which is a vanilla environment this is a very interesting thing and may not be applicable
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To everybody here in the room why I say this because you may be working uh on a legacy applications which is purely on-premise or
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It can be desktop based applications uh or it can be hybrid Cloud applications so in these cases I think you will not be able
Soumya
To harness the benefit of vanilla involvement first let me tell you what is a vanilla environment it is an absolute clean clean slate test
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Environment it's freshly brewed freshly spinned up test environment and I think you would have guessed already how you can do this it's mostly using
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Uh the cloud Solutions it may be gcp AWS or Azure if the applications are posted posted there and your devops has done a job
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Of automating the entire flow of a system setup then just in a single button click you will be able to spin up a whole
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New test environment for yourself and Trigger the tests so there is some advantages of a vanilla environment you get a clean slate like I
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Said so you don't have to deal with a stale data or broken test data or to imagine that maybe someone else logged in and
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They changed and it interfered into my test automation these are the usual thing that we would see right so we want to have a
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Serine test environment where nobody is touching anything and it you can continue the execution without any distractions so in those cases this is going
Soumya
To definitely help where you can spin up a test environment on the Fly you can spin up another test environment to do your performance
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Test so you have a clean slate and you can perform the tests
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Um in such cases apis come handy and it's usually API driven um because when it is a clean slate you have to set up
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The entire test bed from the scratch um so you may I don't know there may be some configurations required there may be some uh
Soumya
Test data already set up required at like though we deal with a lot of high density images so our application the basic need is
Soumya
To have some high density images in our applications so I have to first fill in these images before even triggering my tests so the
Soumya
Your before each statement will usually be way too busy calling in this multiple apis and setting up this test where um there is one downside
Soumya
However that in fact too first one being the cost there is the flexibility of spinning up the test environment at any time but there
Soumya
Is also a challenge um uh that you're very far from uh the reality um production systems are not something which is Sprint up every day
Soumya
It stays there it's a long living environment so when you are testing on a vanilla environment you're far from the Native way of how
Soumya
Customers are behaving but most often what happens some applications need a continuous reset especially when you're working with a cross um or a hybrid
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Kind of solutions where you have some part of um a physical applications it may be a watch or a smart watch or a mobile
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Or something like that and it needs a reset every time you have to start execution for those things it can definitely come handy um
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The second thing is if you forget to tear down this environment then you'll be charged extra um so you have to be very careful
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While spinning up the tests and also tearing down after all the tests are done
Soumya
Data-led automation I cannot stress enough this is the new trend and we should like how we have evidence-based treatment like you'll be asked by
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Your doctor to take MRI scan full body checkup blood checks that this and then after seeing all the comprehensive results they say maybe this
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Is a problem so let's let's go ahead treating you uh in this direction likewise your test automation strategy should be uh simplistic in the
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Room discussing okay let's just go ahead this this is a complex functionality and this needs test automation is not the way to drive automation
Soumya
Anymore you literally have to collaborate with your data analytics team if you have access to the analytics platform already I think that's the best
Soumya
Thing but if not get in touch with your data analytics team try and understand where the customers are logging in more the foot falls
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How deep they are going how frequently they are going this understanding is very important this image what I am showing you is some rigid
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Data however what you're seeing on the left hand side is from our application where we have where we are using a tags um and
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We try and check how frequently customer is using certain part of our application and when it is used some part of our applications are
Soumya
Heavily used during the end of the year some part of our applications are used heavily during mid of the Year depending on the domain
Soumya
Because we serve Healthcare education um marketing and design so it depends on the season sometimes it can Peak and sometimes it can slow down
Soumya
Sometimes we may not have any footfalls at all so understanding my customer Behavior makes it very important for me to know prior one prior
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To in fact we also have to change the priority every six months depending on how it's gonna pick so that is the reason why
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You have to get back to your data analytics team to check how you can key in and how you can come up with the
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Strategy it's very important not many are actually doing it so I have to stress it two level validation
Soumya
Well it's the best explained with an example let's see what I have seen people do in automation is you go into a screen you
Soumya
Can something you do some action and you want to triggered something happens and then a new screen comes up you validate on this new
Soumya
Screen that's all is automation hell no that's not automation at all so what you have to do uh this is this is just record
Soumya
And Playback a thing uh test automation should go much Beyond level so
Soumya
When you initiate an action on a screen yes you have to check what has changed in the new screen after some action has happened
Soumya
But it is also important to check your backend calls to your DB are the calls going in the right format are you having the
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Headers pre-filled is it uh following uh maybe sometimes we even check the time the turnaround time or the overall time to send these calls
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Uh to the back end are the right endpoints being called are these endpoints again hitting the right DB spots are the tables being filled
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Properly and the data being sent back is the schema right and yes this schema is fetching me the right details and are these details
Soumya
Being showed uh in a proper spots in my um HTML uh screen all this entire check is what makes test Automation and this is
Soumya
How it is technically intensive and connecting back to the point where I said it's a Time intensive activity it's because of that um if
Soumya
The idea is to check your screens changing and then asserting and validating
Soumya
You call that automation I would say no it's just a preview it's good to start with and I also understand why people connect to
Soumya
That as an automation simply because either you take any YouTube videos or any other sort of uh courses or tutorials they kind of restrict
Soumya
You with that understanding that you spin up a framework you call a screen you do something and you assert and you're done it's not
Soumya
So try and go layers Beyond and that is all the more reason why you have to choose a right framework tool browser-based browser and
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Application needs a browser relevant framework backend based uh codes which is running more closely with the DB needs a back-end code so this differentiation
Soumya
Is very important um so that you can harness the complete ability of that programming language or the framework in its Nativity so having said
Soumya
That coming to the last one which is valuing the history this is very favorite of mine because I am pretty sure 99 of the
Soumya
Team would never do this uh but so that is the main point why I want to bring this here that please do it uh
Soumya
We have to run fast we have to run leaner we have to run stronger but when we do it at some point we have
Soumya
To pause take a breath look back look at our data and try and mine the Gold bits that we have missed over a period
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Of time we have been performing but how are we performing is something that you can know only if you look back uh in the
Soumya
Past so this is these are some things that I would like to try and mine from my analytics or the history by running our
Soumya
Automation tests I would like to see what's the impact that I'm trying to create is it even fetching am I able to find or
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Keep up keep the maintenance of my application how frequently am I seeing the false positives um do we have any challenges simply because the
Soumya
Screen is changing or we genuinely have issue with our test framework the way we have designed it what's the percentage of two usage I
Soumya
Know most of you uh are happy and would like to do a free or open source um Solutions but trust me not many Enterprise
Soumya
Solutions or organization would promote it because safety is must security is necessary usually by and large they go for the paid tools it is
Soumya
Important so when we're using and paying the budget for it you should also import it is important to know uh what's the usage that
Soumya
Is happening uh so the tool usage is also important how frequently you're using the speed of execution if my test if my 400 tests
Soumya
Are taking 40 minutes can I cut down some tests how can I cut down these tests how can I reduce the test to 20
Soumya
Minutes um how can I efficiently run my test so that I can handle the hooks statement in a better way all these are some things
Soumya
Which I have to always look back and see if I can improve so
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I highly recommend people to go ahead and look at your history of the executions mind some important key parameters discuss with your wider team
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How you can improve it or if you're already doing great which is better it's a good learning curve for you guys if not please
Soumya
Take a look now that's the last coming up this entire last 25 to 30 minutes these are the seven valuable points that I would
Soumya
Like to live in this webinar first is the decommissioning of the test do it regularly I prefer doing it quarterly once apply the principle
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Of lessons more try and achieve more results with less effort as possible by bunching grouping and compartmentalizing your tests as much possible follow healthy
Soumya
Spread of tests uh don't be too engaged in just doing a business function test come come up with a supplemental test along with the
Soumya
Existing functional test so that you're harnessing the entire test Spectrum are not restricted to a point harness the the possibility of vanilla environment as
Soumya
As much possible it makes your tests quicker it makes your test easy you can run leaner uh and you can also tear down whenever
Soumya
It is not required a data lit automation which is collaborate with your data analytics analytics team even better if you get access to the
Soumya
System so that you can track the customer usage get to know their emotions behind using our applications how they interact how frequently they interact
Soumya
So that you can come up with a better strategy in leading uh the entire automation suite two level validation do not restrict yourself between
Soumya
Two screens please check the calls that goes behind and the calls that's coming forward before rendering onto the screen as well last but not
Soumya
The least my favorite which is value in your history please look back take a deep breath uh pause uh pause a little while and
Soumya
Mine your history for the progressing your Automation in towards the better Direction now having said that I think we have come to the last
Soumya
Slide uh I'm on these channels please buzz me I'm happy to connect and would love to meet people um so I think this is a
Soumya
Good time to shower some questions and uh yeah can have some q a
Dinakar
Thank you okay if you're talking I think you're on mute
Dinakar
Okay okay I'm just looking through a few questions um just keep them coming I'm just reading a few and then I'll kind of let
Soumya
You know if anything comes in sure [Music] people understood everything that I had to tell
Dinakar
You sure so that's made that's one way to look at it either you understood everything or you understood mapping that right thanks sahil
Dinakar
Yeah okay uh all right here's a question uh for you Samia um so how frequently should we decommission the tests uh is there a
Soumya
Specific timeline uh that we need to look at so when it comes to decommissioning of the test it's usually depends on various parameters like
Soumya
How huge the application is how frequent changes you guys are doing um some teams may do even now uh quarterly releases so if it's
Soumya
A quarterly release decommissioning the test every week makes no sense so you can literally wait for any year uh because your test Suite is
Soumya
Gonna change over a period of time having said that looking at the retail industry you can see every every week or every season something
Soumya
New coming in so you may have to do this a little more frequently um quarterly is usually suggested sometimes monthly once is even better
Soumya
So okay [Music] so what tech stack are you using in your organization um Raj we are using uh Cyprus I think I got involved
Soumya
With Cyprus four and a half years ago and uh I've stuck to this framework for quite long simply because of its capabilities and um
Soumya
Uh I mean it's the the ease and use of it um we try and club uh the test engineering team and the implementation code
Soumya
Implementation team together uh who we call developers um so we both ADD test into the same repository and it helps us to keep our
Soumya
Browser-led automation using Cyprus whereas our backend is uh when it comes to API we are still with Postman sometimes it's rest assured
Dinakar
Is it a best practice to split the test cases in into a similar piece or including all functionality in one test case atomicity is
Soumya
The key the more leaners shorter faster the better it is so if you can make it as atomic as possible it is good I
Soumya
Always suggest please split your test cases um in fact you have a scenario and then you have cases and these cases if you see
Soumya
Again can be split into um smaller steps possible please do it so that it helps in Easy maintenance of your code I hope I
Soumya
Answered the right thing Karthik automation uh we do we have a mobile app but it is not um a heavily used so we have
Soumya
Not automated the app yet it is still pretty much we execute on our own um 30 minutes or 40 minutes a day we give
Soumya
It a regression test when it comes to API it we are heavily into Postman
Dinakar
And it's working better for us for 0.6 that is two level validation you said that we need to check the backend as well as
Dinakar
You very well mentioned on the training platforms like YouTube or you udemy we don't get such ideas or implementations so if you can suggest
Dinakar
How we can mindset of what all places we look for such solution for implementation so I can use that in my product and Automation
Soumya
In test Suite it's a very good question very valid question Veena as well I know most test Engineers are not given a complete picture
Soumya
Of what test automation is and just comparing the actual screen and the change screen and say assert and then we are done with the
Soumya
Automation let me tell you in this webinar I think there are some bright Minds who will join like sahil who's also uh into test
Soumya
Automation and he's great um I would say get engaged very actively into the testing communities you have you can you get to meet bright
Soumya
Minds they do such webinars and meetups so you get to learn things faster uh the best way is always to Hands-On somebody is there
Soumya
With you to do it pair programming I learned it through my team uh when I was growing up in my role and that's how
Soumya
It helped me gave me a better view of what automation should be uh but I would say be more active in the testing communities
Soumya
To gain some help from there I hope it helped winner if not you can always reach out to me we can find out a
Dinakar
Way yes so will cordless automation be effective are they capable as much as selenium
Soumya
Karthik it's a it's a non-binary answer I wouldn't say yes or no see I reside in Amsterdam for me finding a test engineer is
Soumya
Is like mining a diamond right it's not easy the skills are not easily available here and whoever is available are their costs are like
Soumya
Way above uh way above the roof and not every time I can hire an engineer from the other side of the world to get
Soumya
The things moving in my side so when I when I hire in this market with available talents
Soumya
Then I have to also come up with a effective strategy so that test automation works so in that case codeless tools or less um
Soumya
Yeah no code tools definitely help they can pitch in and the advantages also they get connected with platforms like Pcloudy which is a
Soumya
Device uh device uh device form sorry and they also fit into the CI CD pipeline pretty easily but when it comes to the effectiveness
Soumya
I still doubt they can reach to the point that what I am trying to share in this webinar uh in that case we just
Soumya
Have to go ahead with the idea something is better than nothing
Dinakar
How do you ensure dry coat pattern when you work as a team some functionality being implemented by other team members ah communication is the
Soumya
Key so if you're working in a scale time and
Soumya
When we were coming up with the Erp Solutions the team was huge right we had uh 14s in Mobile three teams working specifically for
Soumya
On-prem two teams were working for cloud so overall in that solution offering if you see we are totally like seven to eight teams in
Soumya
A stretch and we have we used to share the same repository to execute our tests the only thing we could do better was to
Soumya
Communicate over communicate have uh have a regular meetings even before you start uh the test automation set the ground rules come up with the
Soumya
Ground rules um second one a clean guidelines of what you are supposed to achieve how do you come up with the idea of which
Soumya
Functionality you should automate and which you should not a common understanding should be established guidelines of the core which is very important I understand
Soumya
Setting up a drive knowledge dry principles is not easy because the understanding of the code is at different wavelengths somebody is way too good
Soumya
In putting up the code than me and somebody does not have even any experience so we have to bridge this Gap by knowledge sharing
Soumya
Sessions within the team this requires time and patience and that is what team leaders are supposed to do in the team whether it's a
Soumya
QA managers or the team leaders of um the team have to take up this um a responsibility of setting up this common and shared
Soumya
Understanding encouraging more open communication uh I hope that helped Shankar
Soumya
How to automate an integration environment do you mean an iPass solution um or is it communication of two different applications
Soumya
Um is that what you mean so see this is what I say uh I will take an example at light though we have we
Soumya
Are integrating with an iPad solution which is not our usual application right and disciples is not going to support it because of the cost
Soumya
Issue in this case I fall back onto my API the most for the for me uh the value of test is with the API
Soumya
When two applications cross applications are communicating am I sending the right data am I receiving the right data is the first and basic format
Soumya
That I'm gonna uh pick it up I don't heavily invest onto the UI especially when it comes to the Integrations it's gonna fail anytime
Soumya
So I always go more nearer to the code to add my API test maybe some contract testings and and things like that uh and
Soumya
It has it it helps us keep our pipelines sane not running crazy I hope I helped you thanks branish for the question
Soumya
I have one question with Sumit I'm in manual testing or production support looking for a job change 9.6 years of experience working in HCL
Soumya
Technologies but salary is less six lakhs per annum how should I approach to grow um Sumit if you don't mind absolutely don't mind I
Soumya
Run mentoring sessions in the mentoring Club this is a very good question I help so many people address this um address of challenges and share
Soumya
My experiences and help you and guide you as much possible is it okay if we can you know catch up in that session so
Soumya
I'll be able to give you a one-on-one session and help you it's absolutely free it's not charged so it's something I volunteer my time
Soumya
In doing so I think this question fits well there I hope it's okay Sumit just
Soumya
Why did you choose Cyprus for web automation did you compare with any other Technologies before choosing that good question Raj yes we did uh
Soumya
Selenium wasn't suiting us okay let me tell you um at least in light though uh we have uh the front end driven in all
Soumya
Angularjs and react JS uh uh so when we have a JS framework and if I have to check my UI or a front end
Soumya
For that matter I would like to go more deeper into the browser uh calls and then check for the xhr calls validate some schemas
Soumya
Validate some content headers which makes it easier for me when I am using the same language as what browser speaks which is Javascript um
Soumya
I have worked with Webdriver IO in the past night about jsio in the past but the ease and its ease of execution and uh
Soumya
The way I can tighten up the script right is is not easy secondly buying in the vote from the developers to maintain this test
Soumya
Automation script in those framework was not easy it was difficult but Cyprus makes it things easy we use it for our visual component tests
Soumya
Unit tests our integration tests and all other form of checks it also integrates well with accessibility tests pre-flight performance tests so that is the
Soumya
Reason why why we went ahead with Cyprus because it it fits in multiple Baskets at a time uh then as compared to selenium or
Soumya
Any other framework it's just working better for us there's a lot of bugs around everywhere the devops is going to replace testing no I
Soumya
Still don't understand how it's going to happen hey who said that Karthik no it's never gonna happen neither robots is going to take over
Soumya
Us nor devops is gonna kill testing testing is gonna stay there but the flavor and the way in which we do is Gonna Change
Soumya
Like I said when I started back in 2008 15 16 years ago the way we used to do test automation using UFT is way
Soumya
Too different than what we are doing now there's a frog leap like there is the change that as there is a trajectory of learning
Soumya
That has happened over a period of time and also the maturity of applications have changed so nothing is going to replace anything but our
Soumya
Mindset and view towards approaching the solution is definitely gonna change so in in this whole trajectory we will be challenged to learn something new
Soumya
To fill up this space that's exactly what's going to happen
Soumya
Thanks for the question uh Sumit will connect over the mentoring Club so it's just fun
Dinakar
All right um we we have time for maybe one or two questions but if not we can draw it to a close
Soumya
How many queries in your place and how do you motivate them okay it's like though Raj we have um five testers in our team
Soumya
Including musics um and how do you motivate them it's a good question
Soumya
Um so motivation is a very open and vast and wider topic but as far as I see in my team uh my role is
Soumya
Having the one-on-ones to check the challenges that they have most importantly is to explain them what is the next logical move that they have
Soumya
To do in terms of learning in terms of role and understanding their interest I pretty much know some QA Engineers who definitely want to
Soumya
Become code implementers whom we call Developers and I definitely want to motivate them which means that I have to identify the skills they have
Soumya
To pick up before they do this transition likewise they there are people who come from production support they have come from different other backgrounds
Soumya
I have to identify identify the skills that they need to do the present job and the skills they need to keep afloat in this
Soumya
Industry according to the technological changes that is coming in this alone is good enough to motivate them because there is a purpose that I
Soumya
Can fill secondly like I said communication and collaboration is very important I stay I stay on top of things which is missing I try
Soumya
And introduce relevant tools so that it makes their life easier and as a team together we also discuss when we introduce tools how we
Soumya
Can use it more efficiently having tools is one side but are you making something out of it is the other one so some of
Soumya
These things I try and manage and do as much possible
Dinakar
Hi omkar how are you doing thanks for joining this webinar great session thank you so much uh we are thick client Legacy product how
Soumya
Do I approach automation for desktop applications good question so uh for desktop applications I am not into desktop application I think when I left
Soumya
Sap that was the last time I worked on on-prem desktop applications but now things have changed a lot like I said from a technological
Soumya
Solutions perspective there are some tools like Excel queue um and maybe other tools I know execute for a reason because uh I work with
Soumya
Them closely on some some things so you can look at the low code uh tools which are browser as agnostic and run mostly on
Soumya
Uh on OS driven um I I think I also came across a tool called as Qi but trust me I have not used my
Soumya
Hands on it but there are tools which runs on OS level rather than the browser based so these are good solutions for you to
Soumya
Do a POC and check if it fits the bill for uh doing the desktop application automation
Dinakar
Aqua okay okay there's one more question from Shankar can you help us understand what benefits to testers get by knowing design principles oh where
Soumya
Shall I start it's a so design principles are important so that um it meets the point of how to get more out of less
Soumya
Right and it helps you helps you keep your core clean it helps you structure things better it helps you build a purpose and perspective
Soumya
In which way you have to build the entire test automation Suite today I decide I come up with some test automation sweet click some
Soumya
Buttons assertion of the changing in the fields if this is all what the definition of test automation is it's better not to have it
Soumya
Serving more purpose so design principles helps you to set a purpose set a structure bring a discipline and set up the regular Cadence execution
Soumya
In your test automation see I am using a very high level topics and touching simply because respecting the time each of these verticals can
Soumya
Be dived depth in depth to check how you can achieve it on a day-to-day basis and I guess that's the role of our team
Soumya
Leader or a manager to do the sessions with the team on regular basis
Dinakar
Okay I think that was the last question I don't know thanks Shankar for the question
Dinakar
Okay good uh so if you guys do have any more questions you can obviously uh you know uh some has been kind enough to
Dinakar
You know give give the handle and give the access to her personally through her community uh but yes if you if you do have
Dinakar
Any questions uh just drop a line on our email address or reach out to us and we'll try and get that answered over an
Dinakar
Email right well this has been quite an interactive session somewhere we really want to thank you for all your valuable insights and the real
Dinakar
World examples that you've shared uh your your presentation has given us a lot of practical strategies and insightful experiential knowledge right and it's been
Dinakar
A true honor just listening to you and hearing your stories about your experience uh and drawing those principles out that we can Implement in
Dinakar
Our organizations as well right thank you so much thank you everybody stayed with me so have a nice day ahead wonderful cheers great all
Dinakar
Right so uh if you've noticed Samia has been on this screen for quite some time now but yeah that's that's something exciting so here's
Dinakar
Some exciting news uh we we're giving away a thousand dollars we give anyone
Dinakar
Who or a free feature request that we must include in our roadmap uh on the Pcloudy East platforms roadmap right it doesn't matter
Dinakar
If you're you know if you've never used the platform or you've been using it for a long time all that matters is your idea
Dinakar
Has to be included in our roadmap it convince us that your idea is you know the best and you earn those thousand dollars for
Dinakar
Yourself so we will be sharing out a link uh where you can to the context and where you can uh kind of come back
Dinakar
And share your ideas and yeah I'll or else you can just drop us a line and feel free to connect with us to learn
Dinakar
More about that great uh well we also want to thank all our audience or the participants you've been so kind so patiently listening to
Dinakar
All of this and sharing your questions such a interactive bunch and we've thoroughly enjoyed you as an audience here and we're sure you know
Dinakar
Samia's insights on effective test automation practices have really sparked some ideas that you can take back and Implement in your organizations and that's the
Dinakar
Goal of these uh sessions that we're doing at break free so thank you once again for being a great audience and a patient listeners
Dinakar
A good day thank you cheers
