Testing Your Tests: Securing Confidence In Your Automation

The growth of automation testing in today’s software development organizations is changing the way we test applications. Software development practices have matured over the last thirty years to include all forms of testing in order to verify software quality. In the last ten years, there has been a huge spike in the adoption of automated tests, effectively replacing some manual testing practices and supplementing traditional testing activities. Many parts of the software development industry, however, are wary of replacing manual testing with automated testing. Not only is there often a lack of confidence in the automation tests, but some also see automated testing as fragile, unmaintainable, and, ultimately, something with a low return on investment. Max believes that by employing mature software development techniques, we can achieve robust, maintainable tests that deliver confidence in the application under test. In addition to discussing how to structure automated tests that are cleaner, more maintainable, and efficient, Max also will detail developer testing and deployment techniques that can be used to programmatically verify test correctness. Drawing on his experiences building test automation and frameworks and advising organizations, Max will walk us through how to mature your test automation practices.