Author: Abdi Ahmed

As the SAL platform continues to mature and grow and exciting new features are brought to market, ensuring that current functionality continues to work as intended becomes more important with every release. Manual testing continues to serve us very well here at SAL but a good testing practice requires a blend of automation and hands-on checks. We’ve been using an in-house bespoke automation tool to regression test our core product Mo.net Model Development Studio but have been in the market for a more comprehensive solution that offers reporting and ease of use for test development across the entire SAL suite of products.

When to use automated testing?

Manual testing isn’t going anywhere and will always play a crucial role in validating software product quality. Especially in the early stages of software development, requirements are still changing and it is more preferable to test these changes manually without the need to rewrite scripts as would be necessary in automation tests. Unlike manual testing, where human testers perform each step, automated testing is the practice of using tools to execute and autorun tests unattended.

Here are some scenarios where automation testing is ideal:

• Regression testing: Automated tests are perfect for verifying new changes haven’t broken existing functionality.
• Repetitive tests: Where a test needs to be executed frequently, automated tests can reduce the execution time and effort.
• Load testing: Automated tests can simulate high loads on an application which is impractical to perform manually.

Enhancing automation testing at SAL    

Here at SAL we are strategically implementing an automated test tool with the primary focus of regression testing existing functionality across our entire suite of products. We have a current regression suite of automated tests for Model Development Studio and have a large body of regression tests for all our other products that have been executed manually during a release cycle. However, a number of these test cases have been identified as perfect candidates to be automated saving us time, effort and increased accuracy.

After conducting extensive market research and running a proof of concept we’ve selected the Katalon Studio test automation tool which offers desktop, web and mobile automation – a great fit for the SAL suite of products. Katalon has a record and playback feature making it very easy for our QA (Quality Analyst) team members to write automated test scripts.

Figure1: WSM record and playback

The screen view dialog box shows the QA the current screenshot of the application under test. Screen objects show all the elements identified in the screen view dialog box and possible actions allow the QA to specify an action to perform. All the actions are then stored in the recorded actions section and QA can view further details for each captured element under the tab captured objects.

Figure 2: Katalon Test Explorer view

Once all the test steps are recoded and saved to a new or existing test case, QA members can then view, alter or run the save script. Test reports are also generated after every test suite run summarising the results which can be shared with both internal and/or external stakeholders.  The automated regression tests we create are ideal for running each time there is a significant change in the code base giving us greater confidence we haven’t broken any existing functionality.  

Figure 3 : Sample test report after running regression test suite

Conclusion

Software Alliance is committed to providing a high quality suite of products and automation testing will help us achieve this goal. Core to our values is being innovative and finding smarter ways to create new solutions for our clients but also for ourselves. Working smarter, not harder is a saying that holds true, especially for the QA team here at SAL.