Automated Test for Data Preparation

Brief QA Process:

During every software release cycle, after the release cut happens, the software testing team sets up the environment and deploys the release branch or builds it in QA environments. Manual testers perform manual testing with the help of pre-developed regression test documents in multiple browsers and devices. Parallelly, the Automation team executes automated tests for regression scenario coverage across the software, which is not covered in the regression manual test coverage.

Challenge:

In one of the release cycles, the software testing team faced a problem where a large number of automated tests were failing. This became a concern for the software testing team, which had to evaluate whether the software build was eligible for release in a production environment. We decided to investigate and find out the root cause.

After investigating the root cause, the software testing team observed that the automated tests failed because of the unavailability of essential data that was required for the execution of automation scripts.

We realized that the environment in which the automated test was executed did not have essential prerequisite data. Solution:

The software testing team developed an automated test which will create all prerequisite data and settings such as user account, user groups, presentation types, etc. This feature can be run prior to regression test execution on demand in the target environment.

The data preparation test is written in Gherkin language using Cucumber Framework. The Feature file consists of one or more Scenarios which has the actual test in simple English language, the step definition is a method or expression linked with one or more Gherkin steps (Feature), and under the step, there is a logic or code available which will create all prerequisite data and settings which were necessary for an Automated regression test execution.

Advantages:

Data Preparation Automated tests can be run in existing or new environments. It was designed to accept any values in the Cucumber data table and a function was mapped with each step that contained logic to create the prerequisite data, which makes it dynamic and flexible.

The prerequisite data will be created only when the target environment does not have the specific prerequisite data; otherwise, it can be ignored.

We were now able to trigger automated tests in staging and production environments as well. Because of that, we saved lots of time and human effort, which were required after the QA signed off on the release. Contact Us to Know More #AutomatedTesting #DataPreparation #SoftwareTesting #TestAutomation #QualityAssurance #DataQuality #DataIntegrity #DataValidation #DataAccuracy #DataCompleteness #DataStandardization #ETLTesting #RegressionTesting #ContinuousTesting