Don’t miss out on the benefits of test automation

Across industry verticals, enterprises are moving towards test automation but are unable to get the desired benefits. Test automation is like news; it changes daily and must be refreshed regularly. Unfortunately, test automation is often an afterthought for effort savings and lack of a structured approach results in botched projects, delays and non-existent ROI.

The biggest challenge for an enterprise which has invested into automation is to understand where to derive the benefits from. They need to look at automation in two dimensions. The Automation Checkerboard gives a clear answer to the question - Where and how the benefits from automation move? It is a useful tool to define the automation strategy and roadmap for an enterprise. To be able to effectively use the Automation Checkerboard, it is important to understand the positioning and the moves towards realizing the benefits. The aim would be to move from the current position on the grid to the top right corner to derive the maximum benefits. The checkerboard uses two dimensions for automation and they are -

Quantum of Automation achieved resulting in effort savings compared against the absolute manual effort, determines the cost benefit achieved through automation.
Effectiveness of Automation across the testing lifecycle through reusability increases the overall maturity of automation in an enterprise.

Don’t miss out on the benefits of test automation

The starting point on the grid is the current state of automation in the project. If a project has moved from 20% to 80% automation achievement (X axis), it is highly possible that due to maintenance considerations, the effectiveness can be near zero (Y axis).

The first step for any project is to position itself on the checkerboard based on the current state. And then decide on the following moves:

Knight's move - At the start of the automation initiative, it is very intuitive to start building on the quantum of automation for early benefits. This move will attempt to move the effectiveness north by one position while the quantum of automation produced will move it east by multiple positions. A classical Knight’s move delivers the horsepower to gain on the pace of automation development and deliver effectiveness even with smaller percentage of automation development.
Rook's move - Each test scenario needs to be analyzed and the business process components need to be defined. Doing this early in the testing lifecycle enables proactive and progressive automation. A classical Rook’s move looks at moving north by improving the maturity of automation and delivering higher benefits.
Bishop's move - The Bishop's move is to move diagonally and bring in continuous improvements. This move is required to improve the performance and speed of execution.
Queen's move - The Queen's move is the most critical action towards the success of automation. It is used to address regular maintenance. This will ensure that the automated regression pack is at all times up-to-date and most-effective.

Are you making the right moves to make you win?

About the Author

Girish Kulkarni is the Global Practice Head for Test Automation, Testing Services. With two decades of experience in Software development and testing, he has played various leadership roles at Wipro. A business leader with successful results in delivering projects for global Financial Services customers, he has rich and diverse experience - from driving transformation programs through automation to Program management, Product development, Business enablement and Global Account management. Being an avid reader, creative thinker, painter, sculptor, cook and a gardener, he likes to indulge in various hobbies and activities.

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