The Value of Automation Strategy: “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail.” — With Antwan Maddox and Greg Burdick

Automation Explanation

Welcome to another episode of Automation Explanation, an Agile Thought Podcast, where you will learn about quality through automated testing and its place in modern software development.

This week, your hosts, Antwan Maddox and Greg Burdick are talking about the crucial value of Automation Strategy; they dive deep into its history and origins, as well as explain its role in regard to Testing and the significance of the whole Development Team to be included in the process. Antwan and Greg also discuss the types of Testing approaches that are used to leverage Automation and the patterns to avoid.

Key Takeaways

• Test Automation Engineers or Quality Automation Engineers?
• • In order to be in alignment with ISTQB® Certification, the formerly called Quality Automation Engineers are now referred to as Test Automation Engineers.
  • It’s a unification of terminology.
• Why is Automation Strategy important?
• • “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
  • A plan of execution is needed to assure effectiveness and efficiency.
• The history of Automation Strategy, where does it come from?
• • It comes from experience in the past.
  • As Automation progressed, some of the technology around Automation had to change.
  • The Automation Strategy is owned by the entire Development Team.
• What is the significance of Quality?
• • Lowering the anxiety and the stress around deployment.
• Automation Strategy explained:
• • The Automation Strategy defines the who, what, when, where, and how of Test Automation.
  • It is a plan that is agreed upon and understood by the entire Development Team for creating and maintaining Automation Test to help ensure higher ROI, increase coverage and availability, and faster time to market, in a way that is repeatable.
  • Collaboration and response to change are two key pillars of Agile that sustain the Automation Strategy.
  • Automation was not designed to catch bugs; it happens to catch them since it is set in a repeatable path.
• What should be included in Automation Strategy?
• • First, you need to understand your why, what is your goal? That will help you establish the technique, the tools, and the process in building Automation, and the technology that is going to be used to support those goals, as well as help you determine who are the members that need to be on the Team to support that Automation.
  • It will help you define what additional technologies are going to be needed and the environments you are planning to run against.
• What types of testing approaches are used to leverage Automation?
• • The Shifting Left approach is a great way to Test Application components.
  • Test Automation solutions need to be embedded in the application.
  • It is a way of preventing risk quickly.
  • Model-Based Testing.
  • Contract Testing.
  • The Team is in alignment with the continuous Test Maturity Model, it is a whole Team approach.
• Models for success: Which organizations are modeling the right way of doing Automation Tests for success?
• • Google understands Automation.
  • It is only possible when the whole organization has been educated on Automation, they are all supportive, and know their roles in regard to Automation.
  • Agile does not mean to move fast, that is why Quality is important.
• Patterns to avoid.
• • It is hard to bridge Manual Testing and Automation; a really mature Team approach is needed.
  • Quality Engineers must focus over the long haul on prevention of production-based risk; features that are being delivered must be tested to make sure they work.

Mentioned in this episode:

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