Qapitol QA

7 Reasons Why the Unified Test Automation Framework is Ready to Take Over Your QA Process

Table of Contents

We have worked with a lot of clients who opted to skip rigorous testing in order to keep pace with fast moving release dates. And we completely understand the urge to hit the market early to gain that competitive advantage. But we also believe that you need not sacrifice quality for speed. It shouldn’t be an either-or game and your customers deserve to get a well-functioning product every time to launch a new solution or feature. 

It is this belief that led to the development of the Unified Test Automation Framework.

The Unified Test Automation Framework is designed to be an end-to-end platform for advanced testing. It takes every essential test task, from functional testing to performance testing to integration testing, and combines it into one automated workflow that runs for every single piece of code you release. 

Some of the key features of the framework that make it stand out are:

  • An exhaustive list of utilities to quickly kick-off the test automation of Web, Mobile app and API Testing. 
  • XML/JASON parser, all key events, actions, multi browser support, various data providers, server health check jobs, loggers, error handlers, consolidated reports, code coverage reports, and more.
  • Ability to easily add custom functionality or logic into API automation workflows, those that are unique to your product. This helps to quickly set up and configure new API endpoints without manual intervention. 
  • Ability to store custom data of various formats and structures help in quickly testing the actual End points and getting accurate results.
  • Independent usage by developers to test their code, even without specialized in-house QA teams.

Now that we have the feature highlights of the framework, let’s see why it’s ready to take over and transform your QA process:

1. Testing All Layers

The framework is designed to test every layer of your product or application. At the application layer, the web, mobile, and desktop application, as well as API/Web Services testing is covered. Testing is also ensured for the data layer, network, and security layers. In cases where the solution being developed has multiple moving parts, like a data analytics solutions with consumption, pre-processing, processing and visualization layers, the framework can be adapted to automate testing for all layers. 

2. Auto-Spawning Test Environments

With shorter release cycles, testing has to move at a fast pace to keep pace with launch deadlines. To ensure that you don’t spend precious time in configuring the right test environment, the framework enables auto-spawning. This allows quick testing of all layers of the application, development through UAT, on well-designed test beds.

3. Mocking Necessary Systems

The test automation framework has the flexibility to incorporate mock services/systems where we have to achieve end-to-end workflows with requests triggered from Web, Mobile apps or 3rd Party systems/interfaces. This means creating a simulation that mimics the behaviour of the actual system, and allow us to check if the system/feature under test clears all potential dependencies/interactions with it. These can be used to test both internal and external functionalities, and ensure that end-to-end testing is done for all systems, on time.

4. Configuration Management

Test Layer Configuration: The frameworks allows you to manage the distribution of your tests across different servers, browsers and devices.

App Layer Configuration: You can configure different test suites for different customer implementation of your product, within the same framework. With a core set of reusable test suites, you can add certain specific ones to customize them for different implementations.

For example: FarEye, a logistics solution provider, was dealing with multiple customers in different geographies, each with a slightly different parcel pickup and delivery workflow. The Unified Automation Framework allowed us to create core reusable test suites and then bunch them up with certain customized ones, to test the specific workflows for different customer implementations of their field-executive tracking application.

5. Parallel/Distributed Execution Engine

This is designed to carry out the test distribution as set out in the Configuration Management. While test automation in itself brings down the time taken for end-to-end testing, parallel test execution cuts it down even further. With every single test being performed on different browser/ device/OS in parallel, each test case is completed in a fraction of the time taken in sequential testing.

6. State Engine

Designed specifically for e-commerce products, the State Engine helps test the last system within an e-commerce workflow – Returns. Returns is dependent on other upstream systems and cannot be thoroughly tested without those systems being triggered. The State Engine can define order movement and move it across different states like – purchase, shipped and delivered – to test the Returns system.  

7. Reporting and Notifications

To ensure that the results of automation testing actually enable the team to be proactive with errors and bug fixes, the Unified Automation Framework has well designed reporting features.

Log: This helps you specify the level of detail you want your test reports to capture. In case of failed test cases, you can get the system to take screenshots of exact failure and include it in the reports for easy reference.

Alerts: You can also configure which stakeholders to notify in case of failed test cases or blockers. Notifications can be sent over email and SMS depending upon the level of severity of test failure.

Real-time Testing Dashboard: Each build triggers multiple test ports tracking several key parameters and giving product teams a real-time view of the product health at any point. 

Stakeholder Specific Visual Test Reports: The reporting engine on the testing framework generates consolidated reports for each build. The reports are intuitive and visual, designed to provide complete visibility into automated tests run across all APIs and their integrations. They include data of passing tests, failing tests, test coverage, screen shots, stack traces, debug information and code coverage. Custom reports are also prepared for different product stakeholders to enable informed decision making about releases, and offer visibility into real-time health of the system.

The Unified Test Automation Framework is a product of our two decades of experience solving QA challenges across 150+ enterprises and startups. We know the problems your development teams face, we listen to your unique business needs, we bring in advanced testing competencies. And now all of that is brought to impact your project with our Unified Test Automation Framework.

So, are you ready to level up your test automation game? Drop us a line and our expert team will be in touch.

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