How can you successfully implement Selenium Automation Testing?

Author: Michael Wade

Developing and executing test automation scripts have become an important part of the total quality assurance process. An automated test script does the job of manual testing, but with the built-in advantages of speed, coverage of a large test area, and repetition. Considering the benefits of test automation, writing test scripts that suit each and every development environment can be tricky and time consuming.

This challenge can increase further while integrating the test scripts with some widely used programming languages. As a result, testers have found Selenium to be the perfect platform to undo all the niggling issues related to test automation. In other words, Selenium automation testing has become the new buzzword for the QA team.

Let us first understand why Selenium is one of the most preferred platforms for Test Automation.

  • It is an open source and free to use platform that is backed by a team of active developers.
  • It is highly portable. In other words, test scripts can be written for any platform (OS & browser).
  • There is no specific test script to be used for Selenium automation framework. For example, a tester can write the test script by using any of the programming languages such as Java, C#, Ruby, Perl, PHP, etc.
  • Selenium automation testing entails an easy integration of various processes, functions and their functionalities in a web application. This fulfils the criteria of CI in an Agile testing environment, where development and code testing takes place simultaneously.
  • It is highly resilient, flexible, and provides an excellent test automation platform for Web Application testing that is very much scalable.

Given the immense benefits of using a Selenium automation framework, the process of implementing the same is listed below.

#Know the web application

While writing the test scripts for Selenium automation testing, the test team should focus on the browsers that are likely to be used to access and run the web application. The test strategy should be formulated to check if the browsers are compatible with the web application.

#Get in sync with the tool

Among the many reasons justifying the use of a Selenium automation framework, quicker testing of web application arguably stays at the top. Hence, the team of testers should be updated with the entire range of Selenium features. The aim should be to minimize the learning curve and instead speed up the testing process.

#Create the test environment

The following ways can be utilized to create a test environment.

  • Choose a browser like Chrome or Firefox
  • Choose a programming language and IDE to write the test script
  • Choose a GUI testing tool like Selenium WebDriver
  • Create the test scripts to check end to end flow of the application

#Divide testing tasks based on expertise

Writing test scripts for Selenium automation testing can be a complex exercise. In other words, given that each member of the testing team has a different level of expertise, it should be made use of while carrying out Selenium test automation. This can be done by assigning the task of writing the test script to someone who is adept at it. And follow it up by assigning the task of performing the actual test to another expert.

#Identify good test data

To get the best test outcomes in carrying out Selenium test automation, selecting the right set of test data is crucial. The test data should be able to check each and every functionality and process of a web application. The task before the QA team is to retrieve the right test data and validate the same by running the test scripts.

#Get reports

Selenium automation testing can generate a host of reports highlighting issues in the web application. These reports can be made use of by the testing team to figure out the next step of action and to ensure a quicker test outcome.

Conclusion

Selenium automation testing can be used effectively by the QA team to achieve higher test coverage, meet the CI requirement as far as Agile is concerned, faster turnaround time, and ease of running it against any browser. These can be some key highlights of using Selenium. Ultimately, it is important to shorten the testing cycle, but by ensuring quality of the software/application.