Selecting Automation Candidates in Katalon
Every executive management team wants their testing teams to apply automation to their software application, and they want it started now! The second part is easy, you can get up and started in minutes using Katalon. How to apply and select tests for automation is a completely different story.
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To help you get started effectively, you may find our tailored Katalon training here. Our training is designed by the team behind Katalon, ensuring deep domain expertise and flexible, needs-based support to fit your schedule.
Before you even start thinking about automation you need to know what kind of benefits you are getting by automating those tests. There are 3 main benefits of applying test automation:
- Reducing Testing Cycle times
- Reducing Man effort on testing
- Wider Test Coverage
Understanding how Katalon helps in leveraging these benefits can provide more clarity on implementing automation effectively. For further insights into Katalon’s capabilities, check out our Testing/Katalon blog category.
So now that you know what the key benefits are, how do we determine which tests should be automated?? Below are five key tests that I would suggest everyone automate:
- Real World Business Scenarios – These are critical user workflows for your application. For example, if you had a banking application, the critical scenario would be to make a deposit. This needs to be automated because if this fails, the application fails! With Katalon this can be done simply by using record/playback features. This will create the scenario while also adding the object into repository for future use. Now Record/Playback is for beginners, so more experienced automation testers can create test scripts using the keyword driven editor or code directly in groovy language.
- Integration/Component Tests – API tests are prime candidates for automation. They verify the component layer of your product. API tests are very easy to automate, and on top of that, they are quick to execute. APIs and Integration tests should be run every time a build is kicked off because they are good candidates for sanity tests. If your APIs and Integration Tests fail, your application will fail, hence the build can be rejected at that instance. These types of test should be run on every build/release. The best way to set this up is to utilize your CI tool such as Bamboo, Jenkins, or TeamCity so that your smoke, sanity, and regression tests automatically kickoff when the build is kicked off. This can easily be done with Katalon as it supports console mode execution which integrates with Bamboo, Jenkins, and TeamCity.
- Tests that create data – Most times we don’t really consider business workflows that you use to create data as tests. For example, if you’re in a Patient Record application, you might need to create 100 patients in order to verify a certain test. Creating 100 patients could take a long time, but if you automated that test, it would save considerable time and effort. With Katalon, you can create via application, xml, or directly through DB.
- Tests that use the same workflows but different data inputs – A good example of this would be role based workflows. For example, if you login as an admin user you get more options in dropdown menus. Using Katalon, you can specify your data input values in excel, xml, or directly in GUI. Katalon will then run your tests using all iterations of your data values within minutes. Data Driven tests provide you with wider test coverage.
- Prerequisites/Data Setup – These types of tests are functions that can be reused across other tests. For example, an online shopping application would require you to login and then add an item to the shopping cart. These steps happen all the time, and with automation, you can create functions for login and add items. You can then reuse these functions in part of a larger test case. In Katalon, there is a feature that allows you to call test cases. If you create your common test cases as functions, for example ‘login’, you can the call that test case in other scripts. A good automation practice is to first list out all common functions and then automate them. This allows you to speed up test case creation so you don’t have to repeat those steps over and over.
Getting started with Automation can be intimidating, but if you already know what you would like to automate, half the battle is complete. Katalon Studio allows you to automate all of the above, keep them organized in a nice, clean view, and be able to reuse objects across multiple types of tests. Due to the very intuitive UI, you can group all of your different types of tests/test suites for execution. For example, you have test suites for all of your Real Word Scenarios, Integration Tests and Data Driven Tests. These tests can be run across multiple browsers, as well as integrated with your CI/CD process. If you’re starting automation, Katalon is your best bet as a one-stop shop!
To enhance your understanding of Katalon Studio and its application in various testing scenarios, explore our Testing/Katalon blog category. Here you’ll find resources like our workshop recap on Katalon Studio for Web and API Continuous Testing, guidance on selecting automation candidates, and insights into overcoming challenges in test automation. Dive into these articles to make the most out of Katalon’s testing capabilities.
