We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Software

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

What is a Test Automation Framework?

By Samer Adra
Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 25,709
Share

A test automation framework is a set of tools used to perform automated software testing. Test automation frameworks provide significant advantages over manual testing and are commonly used in rapid software development. These frameworks allow software developers to create tests, execute tests and analyze test results. A test automation framework might be driven by code, data, a graphical user interface (GUI) or a combination of these.

Test automation frameworks are required to meet the needs of rapid software development. In the classic waterfall software development life cycle, software testing was a discrete phase performed after implementation, or coding. As such, human-executed tests were typical.

Many development teams have replaced the waterfall model with various agile software development methodologies, which typically require quick, iterative development. Rapid development has created a need for rapid testing. A test automation framework allows a software team to perform frequent, automated testing on a code base. For example, rather than requiring a separate testing phase after development, a team that uses a test automation framework might choose to run a full suite of tests overnight, as well as smaller chunks of automated tests throughout the day as changes are made to the source code.

The most commonly used type of framework is the code-driven framework, which is used to perform white-box testing. Code-driven frameworks require developers to write small snippets of code, in the form of unit tests, to test software functionality or performance. Developers using code-driven frameworks must take care to write their software in a way that is testable — that is, the code must be modularized such that a unit test can call a snippet of code and verify the result. These frameworks typically include an implementation of xUnit, where "x" varies based on the programming language being tested.

GUI-driven test frameworks are used to perform black-box testing, using a software tool as a user would, through mouse and keyboard inputs. They might be comprised of scripts written by developers to exercise a series of functionality, or they might be comprised of tool-generated scripts, such as record-and-play-back scripts. One potential drawback to these frameworks is that the script will break whenever the GUI changes. Some GUI-automation frameworks might generate a script that can be edited by a developer in case of GUI changes, and others might require the user to create a fresh record-and-play-back session.

Data-driven test frameworks perform software testing using data, and these tests typically work with data tables that specify both inputs and outputs. The data can be kept in various locations, such as databases, spreadsheets or text files. Scripts can be written to execute software methods taking the inputs as parameters and to validate the software method's return value against the output. Anything else that can be varied, such as the environment under which the test executes, also can be stored with the data and separated from the test script. An advantage provided by these frameworks is the separation of data and logic, which often leads to lower long-term maintenance.

Share
EasyTechJunkie is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Discussion Comments
By Contentum — On Nov 13, 2014

@Blikissot - I believe there's a lot more to it than just scripting. Developers must know how to go about moving around in relational databases, how to manipulate data no matter where it comes from and then they would have to know the default applications within a company from a web browser to a desktop with icons.

By Realited — On Nov 13, 2014

I sometimes find myself curious as to what becoming a developer would entail. Seems that you need to know how to write scripts and be able to type in an automatic state or at least have a really good WPM typing speed.

By Blikissot — On Nov 12, 2014

Going off of the article it would seem that the developers who make the applications that are used by the general populace are very skilled technicians. Working with their files and scripts that automate other programs.

Share
https://www.easytechjunkie.com/what-is-a-test-automation-framework.htm
Copy this link
EasyTechJunkie, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

EasyTechJunkie, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.