Laws of Test Automation
Law of Coverage
Automate frequent or difficult things.
Law of Speed
Speed kills quality and engineer’s time.
Law of ROI
Automation is the most expensive, slowest, and flakiest way to write tests.
Maintenance Principal
Automation exponentially becomes maintenance.
Law of Failures
When a failure occurs, it should be painfully obvious.
Mocking Principal
All tests can run locally.
Dollar Save Club Principal
Money saved on infrastructure costs more in engineering hours.
Boolean Principal
Not all tests are pass/fail.
Law of Automation Quality
Automation quality is inversely proportional to the number of classes, frameworks, and templates used
Law of New Frameworks
New frameworks are only for promotions.
Documentation Paradox
Tests should not need documentation.
Law of logarithms
The best test code is logging.
Law of Difficulty
Test code is the most difficult code to get right.
Law of Flakiness
Tests aren’t flaky, the test code is unreliable.
Law of Testability
Everything is testable with a little creativity.
Law of Frameworks
Frameworks enable bad test code.
Generation principle
Never generate test code.
Law of selection
Test selection adds risk.
Law of Shapes
Ignore pyramids, toroids, and ice cream cones.
Automation paradox
Don’t automate — unless you have to.
Reporting Principle
Other than 100%, percentages aren’t useful.
— Jason Arbon, TestNerd
