Converting Your Test Suite to Modern Tech

Test automation, like any coding project, needs to be maintained. As the test suite grows, maintenance can become a burden that consumes more and more time. Things that worked well initially can prove to be suboptimal, and as the test suite grows, more problems start to appear. Some typical problems include tests starting to fail randomly and taking longer and longer to run.

Why upgrade?

Sometimes, there are generational jumps in technology, such as when moving from one of the older technologies to Playwright or Cypress.

Playwright is getting a lot of attention and being developed rapidly as Microsoft backs it. It supports all the major browsers, it is very quick and has a nice API to develop against.

How to go about upgrading?

After identifying the need to upgrade, the next step is to decide on how to get it done. Getting out of this situation can be difficult and Time-consuming. Resources are needed to do the upgrade, and resource requirements can compete with new development work. How does the product owner feel about spending valuable development time for upgrading a test framework? New development work usually wins in this situation.

After deciding to upgrade

Even when the decision to upgrade is made, there are a lot of questions on how to implement tests using the new framework. What are the best practices? How do we structure the tests? How can you get the most out of the new framework?

The easiest way to get this done is to hire a consultant who is already familiar with the framework to do the work for you. This way, you can focus on staying up-to-date with the development work and cut over to the new framework when the upgrade is done.

Engagement Type

A conversion engagement starts with understanding the current situation and what needs to be ported over to the new test framework.

The engagement can include:

• Selecting the test framework
• Setting up the framework
• Choosing the tests to convert
• Implementing tests using the new framework (10-100%)
• Handover to the QA team

Duration

The engagement duration depends on how many tests need to be converted during the project and which are left for the QA team to convert afterwards. A couple of days is enough to see the first tests running. In a couple of weeks, we will get a lot of tests converted.

Contact Me

If you are interested in learning more about this service, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn or via email.