STAREAST 2005: Planning for Successful Test Automation

You have the automation tool. You have the right technical skills. You have the application experts at your disposal. It’s time to jump in and start coding! Or is it? Many well-intentioned test automation efforts fail due to a lack of planning. Steve Walters describes his practical approach for developing an overall test automation strategy. Learn how to plan for automation success, select the right tests to automate, and prioritize them for a faster return on investment. By quickly eliminating poor automation candidates and using Steve’s scorecard to assess the value of automating a test, you will be on the right track to achieving your automation goals. Take away a quantitative approach for deciding what to automate-and what not to automate-and the steps to develop a realistic plan and timeline for getting the job done.

• A written plan to set or reset expectations about the automation effort
• The challenges of successfully implementing automated testing
• An automation scorecard to prioritize automation candidates