Testing frameworks are an essential part of any successful automated testing process. They can reduce maintenance costs and testing efforts and will provide a higher return on investment (ROI) for QA teams looking to optimize their agile processes.
What is a Test Framework?Before diving into the most common types of frameworks and their benefits, let’s clarify what a test automation framework actually is. A testing framework is a set of guidelines or rules used for creating and designing test cases. A framework is comprised of a combination of practices and tools that are designed to help QA professionals test more efficiently.
These guidelines could include coding standards, test-data handling methods, object repositories, processes for storing test results, or information on how to access external resources.
While these are not mandatory rules and testers can still script or record tests without following them, using an organized framework typically provides additional benefits that would otherwise be missed out on.
BENEFITS OF A TEST AUTOMATION FRAMEWORKUtilizing a framework for automated testing will increase a team’s test speed and efficiency, improve test accuracy, and will reduce test maintenance costs as well as lower risks. They are essential to an efficient automated testing process for a few key reasons:
- Improved test efficiency
Lower maintenance costs
Minimal manual intervention
Maximum test coverage
Reusability of code
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Types of Automated Testing FrameworksThere are six common types of test automation frameworks, each with their own architecture and different benefits and disadvantages. When building out a test plan, it’s important to choose the framework that is right for you.
- Linear Automation Framework
Modular Based Testing Framework
Library Architecture Testing Framework
Data-Driven Framework
Keyword-Driven Framework
Hybrid Testing Framework
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