How to handle: 5 Issues that Every QA Automation Engineer faces
I am a QA Engineer and I have been using Selenium with Java for the past one and a half years. With my experience, I am sharing 5 issues and how to handle them which helps every QA Engineer at the early stages of their Automation Journey.
QA Engineers play a significant role in ensuring the reliability and functionality of software applications. More time and effort goes into writing test cases and the execution that improves the quality of applications built by developers.
Now the question is… Why Automation?
For features with more functionalities, execution is challenging due to the large number of test cases in the queue, affecting the product’s delivery within the deadline. This is where Automation comes in to save time and improve accuracy and productivity.
Let’s discuss some of the common challenges that QA Automation Engineers encounter and how they can be handled effectively.
1. Dealing with Dynamic and Frequently Changing UI
This is one of the primary challenges in automation testing dealing with dynamic user interfaces. Web applications undergo frequent updates based on requirements which lead to changes in the structure and elements of the UI. These changes can break existing automation scripts.
a) Using robust Locators:
Using reliable locators like ID, class name, and CSS selectors will continue to locate the same elements, even if the page HTML changes slightly. This makes tests less brittle.
b) Implementing Page Object Model:
POM helps in maintaining UI locators and actions separately making it easier to update scripts when UI changes occur.
2. Test Script Maintenance
Test Cases are executed in suites. As the application evolves sometimes maintaining these suites is a tough task, which leads to script inefficiency.
a) Script reviews:
Reviewing Automation Scripts helps in identifying and removing outdated or unnecessary test cases.
b)Version Control:
Using version control systems like GIT to manage and track changes in automation scripts helps maintain test scripts.
c) Restructuring:
Restructuring scripts to keep them up to date with application changes should be done regularly.
3. Test Data Management
Executing complicated test cases needs proper test data management. While executing huge datasets or complex scenarios, managing test data can be more challenging.
a) Test Data Generation:
Automating the process of test data generation to ensure accuracy and consistency helps in better execution of complex test scenarios.
b) Data-driven Testing:
Separating test data from test scripts and using DB to store and manage test data helps maintain and access test data.
4. Test Execution Environment
Test Execution environment setup can be complex when performed on various platforms. Setting up various devices and browsers with different operating systems can be challenging.
a) Hub and node architecture :
Using tools like Selenium Grid to run our test cases in different operating systems and browsers by connecting multiple nodes to a hub for execution can solve this problem.
HUB → Nodes
b) Cloud — Testing Environments:
Cloud-based testing tools like Jenkins can also perform scheduled test runs.
5. Test Reporting
Generating reports is crucial for identifying and addressing issues. Analyzing these reports and test results can be challenging sometimes when generating huge amounts of data.
a) Dashboards:
Creating customized Dashboards using tools like Power-BI and Tableau helps to track Key Performance Indicators and monitor test results effectively.
b) Automation Reporting Tools:
Using Automation Reporting Tools can reduce the effort of generating huge data reports manually.
TestNG Suite
Allure Report
Tools like TestNg and Allure do great work in generating reports of Test Suites with screenshots and logs.
Hope you guys liked my POV. Thanks for reading. Please do let me know your thoughts in the comment section. I am happy to answer your questions. I will be sharing this type of content through my blogs. Stay tuned !!
