About ATLC (Automation Test Life Cycle)

STLC is the SDLC part and ATLC (Automation Test life Cycle) is the Part of STLC

Test Automation Life Cycle - qainsights

1.       Automation Feasibility Analysis

Before kicking off implementing test automation, it is mandatory to analyse the feasibility of the application under test (AUT). Whether AUT is a right candidate or not for the test automation?

Also, feasibility analysis should be done on the manual test case pack which enables automation engineers to design the test scripts.

Apart from above feasibility, tool check can be done if your client insists to use their recommended tool selection.

Following are the feasibility check to be done to begin test automation:

• AUT automation feasibility
• Test Case automation feasibility
• Tool feasibility

2.       Test Strategy

Test Strategy is the most critical phase in test automation. This phase defines how to approach and accomplish the mission. First and foremost in test strategy is selection of test automation framework.

Following are the types of test automation framework:

1.      Record and Playback Framework

2.      Functional Decomposition Framework

3.      Keyword/Table Driven Framework

4.      Data Driven Framework

5.      Hybrid Framework

6.      Business Process Framework

Most of the projects prefer Hybrid framework which is the combination of Keyword driven and Data driven framework. Because it has high reusability, more robust and pros when compared with other kinds of frameworks.

Other factors which involves in test strategy as follows

1.      Schedule

2.      Number of resources

3.      defining SLA

4.      Mode of communication process

5.      Defining in-scope and out-of-scope

6.      Return on Investment analysis

3.       Environment Set up

It is ideal to execute test automation scripts in regression environment. Test environment set up phase has following tasks:

1.      Sufficient tool licenses

2.      Sufficient add-ins licenses

3.      Sufficient utilities like comparison tools, advance text editors etc.

4.      Implementation of automation framework

5.      AUT access and valid credentials

4.       Test Script Development

This phase is the inception of implementing test automation. Activities of Automation test engineers as follows:

1.      Object Identification

2.      Creating Function Libraries

3.      Building the scripts

4.      Unit testing the scripts

5.      Warm-up test execution

 5.       Test Script Execution

Unit tested and signed-off Test scripts will be delivered to automation testing team for script execution. Following are the tasks involved with test script execution team.

1.      Test script execution

2.      Updating the execution or coverage tracker

3.      Defect Logging

 6.       Test Result Generation and Analysis

Result generation and analysis is the last phase and important deliverable in test automation. Results must be base lined and signed-off. Following are the important activities in this phase:

1.      Result analysis

2.      Report generation

3.      Documenting the issues and knowledge gained

4.      Preparation of client presentation