According to LogiGear's State of Software Testing Survey, almost one-third of the respondents are experiencing classic test automation issues.
One problem commonly cited among respondents was that management didn’t fully understand what it takes to have a successful automation program. This included everything from process/team frustration, to tool choice.
One survey taker said: “In an earlier job, decisions about what automation tools were to be used were made by management, leading to a churn of new tools about every two years. When the automation engineers (my team) were finally allowed input, the selected tool was successful and was in place for at least 10 years, long after I had left the company. Lesson: Let the people using the tool choose the tool.”
When the responses are viewed as a whole — the tool cost, maintenance cost, and management not understanding what it takes — this becomes a serious factor that could make or break successful test automation implementation.
Other findings from the survey include:
■ It is encouraging that almost half of the responses (38 percent) at least tried test automation, even though they failed with their first implementation.
■ Having a method for test automation is most important. The fact that 49 percent of respondents said they were data-driven was expected as it is the easiest to implement and maintain.
■ One in five respondents must run automation tests across mobile, browser, desktop, and server software. It’s no surprise so many people do automated browser testing, but it is surprising only one quarter (24 percent) conduct mobile testing.
These findings suggest that since the last survey, as more teams have engaged in test automation, important adoption has taken place, yet there is still room for supporting more environments, platforms, and devices.
