In my previous blog in this series, I shared approaches to help respond to business challenges around quality through testing in BDD and effective test automation. In this final blog, I will highlight a key solution and its benefits to address these challenges.
Solution Approach
This holistic solution follows a behaviour driven approach along with a tool agnostic automation framework. It can be easily integrated with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) tools - helping enhance team capabilities, reduce communication challenges and costs whilst accelerating time to market.
Tests written in BDD format during development, as well as prior to it will help to eradicate misunderstandings long before they find their way into the codebase and actual testing.
The figure below provides an overview of the workflow with elements that are business facing vis-a-vis technology facing.
In this solution approach, test scenarios are written in a ubiquitous language that can be easily understood by non-programmers. Instead of creating tests that are only understood by the technical team, these test scenarios can be understood and used by everyone.
This process as detailed in the image below, improves collaboration between developers, QAs and BAs to clearly scope the requirements. The solution will help all stakeholders get a better idea of the deliverable and also provide realistic estimates.
Sample Test Scenario with BDD Structure (using GHERKIN Syntax):
Scenario: Transferring money to a savings account
Given: I have a current account with “£500” #context
And: I have a savings account with “£1000” #further context
When: I transfer “£100” from my current account to my savings account #event/action
Then: I should have “£400” in my current account #outcome
And: I should have “£1100” in my savings account #further outcome
ATOM, Mastek’s Test Automation Framework
A generic test automation framework, ATOM embeds the capabilities of BDD to effectively address these business challenges. The figure below depicts a high-level architecture of ATOM.
ATOM is a lightweight, ready to use automation framework using BDD and offers several benefits including:
- Prevention of communication gaps and removal of requirement/design ambiguities due to BDD scenario based tests
- Reduced time to market with Shift Left and early automation
- Up to 30% savings on automation development and maintenance efforts
- Minimal learning
- Significant time savings through parallel execution
- Customisable test execution reports for ready integration with tools such as Jenkins and TFS
ATOM ensures that business needs are addressed cost-effectively with high quality, quick and continuous deliveries. The approach involves close collaboration with the business, development and QA teams to ensure that delivery is of high quality. Additionally, the ease with which our automation framework integrates within the Agile and DevOps environment ensures that faster time-to-market objectives are consistently met.
Click here to find out how our Test Automation solution helps you reduce testing time by 50 percent and release products to market faster.
