5 Ways to Write Automated Tests Efficiently

No matter how experienced your developers are with testing, chances are that quality assurance isn’t their first priority. This makes using automated testing algorithms highly beneficial for your dev team in many ways:

• Earlier bug detection
• High return on resource investment
• Continuous testing with concrete and objective data
• Smarter resource allocation
• Reusability of new versions, hotfixes, and applications

To maximize the effectiveness of automated tests, you should compose them the best possible way. Here are five guidelines that will help you write automated tests efficiently in order to grow your team’s output and overall productivity.

1. Focus on single-result tests

Every time you approach creating a new automated test, it’s important to have a clear goal in mind. Ask yourself and your team what the point of that particular test is. Focusing on single-result tests will yield far more precise and objective results for you to use in your further development, leaving very little to chance or misunderstanding.

2. Set test priorities

Automated tests will always feature numerous results and parameters for you to analyze after the test is done. In order to create an understandable data hierarchy, you should pay close attention to the order in which you write your test calls. Each call should be succeeded by a new call that builds on the previous one in context to make it easier to analyze.

3. Start simple

Even though you may have clear goals for your automated tests early on, it’s important to naturally build on simple calls and go forward from there. Start with baseline calls and analysis of your development project before slowly turning the test in the direction of your target parameters. Don’t build automated tests with overly complex calls without baseline analysis as its precursor, and you will have access to much more accurate and usable data.

4. Recycle parameters when possible

Your automated tests and their algorithms should be as simple as possible once they’re written. You can recycle parameters and calls from previous lines in order to build a cohesive test for your development project. This will keep the automated test lightweight, make it faster to execute, and allow you to easily connect related parameters in the analysis stage.

5. Rethink before launch

Lastly, it’s essential to test your automated test algorithms before the official testing period arrives. Make sure that there are no bugs in your code and that the automated test will run as intended. Eliminate potential bottlenecks and slowdowns in the automated test during its development in order to make it accessible and usable to everyone on your development team and related company departments.

When written clearly and concisely, automated tests are highly efficient in performing quality assessment that would take developers days or weeks to execute manually. Look for effective ways to integrate automated tests into your development project, and you will undoubtedly find useful applications.

• Login or Join to add your comment