Automation Testing Life Cycle ( ATLC )

Automation Testing Life Cycle ( ATLC ) Phases: Automation testing is an integral part of the software development life cycle. It helps developers and testers catch bugs in the code that might otherwise slip through. By automating manual testing, it ensures that a large amount of tests are run at any given time and helps cut down on cycle time.

In One of Our article we have discussed about the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC), The main goal behind that is by using that we can able to deliver an Best software. In the similar way we are following Automation Testing Life Cycle (ATLC) to create an best automation testing framework and an better results.

This guide will help you understand the key elements involved in Automation Testing Life Cycle and how it helps ensure that quality remains consistent throughout each phase of a project’s life cycle.

Automation Testing Life Cycle Phases

Below we have mentioned the list of Phases of Automation Testing Life Cycle (ATLC):

• Determining The Scope Of Test Automation
• Automation Feasibility Analysis
• Selecting The Right Automation Tool
• Test Plan, Design and Strategy
• Setting Up The Test Environment
• Test Script development/ Automation test case development
• Automation Test Script Execution
• Analysis + Generation Of Test Results & Test Reports

Determining The Scope Of Test Automation:

The main goal of this phases is identify the automation feasibility by considering all the aspects. And the following things are taken care on this phase:

• Which module we can automate and which we can not automate.
• Which Test scenario we can automate and how can we automate that.
• During this phase we need to consider some of the important factors like Team size, cost and expertise .

Automation Feasibility Analysis

In this section, you have to think from different perspectives. The main objective of this phase will be to check the feasibility of automation.

So your main focus will be on the below points.

• Which test case can be automated and how we can automate them
• Which module of your application can be tested and which can not be automated
• Which tools we can use for our application (like Selenium, QTP, Sahi, OATS, Telerik, etc.) and which tools will be best of our application
• Take the following factors into consideration like Team size, Effort, and cost involved for tools that we will use.

Selecting The Right Automation Tool

The whole automation testing testing life cycle is depends upon the selection of rigjht automation tools. So when you are looking for an automation tool you have to consider some of the things, like:

• Budget
• Technologies being used in the project
• Familiarity of the tool with resources on-board
• Provides you with a support team who can take care of queries or issues.
• Intuitiveness, flexibility and more.

Test Plan/Test Design

This phase plays a very important role in the Automation test life cycle. In this phase, you have to create a Test Plan by considering the below point into considerations.

• Fetch all the manual test case from a test management tool that which TC has to automate.
• Which framework to use and what will be advantage and disadvantage of the framework which we will use.
• Create a test suite for an Automation test case in the Test Management tool.
• In the test plan, you can mention background, limitation, risk, and dependency between application and tools.
• Approval from client/ Stack holders.

Environment Setup/Test lab setup

By the name itself, you can understand that we need to set up a machine or remote machine where our test case will execute.

• In this section, you can mention how many machines you want.
• What should be the configuration in terms of hardware and software?

Test Script development/ Automation test case development

In this phase, you have to start to develop an automation script and make sure all test script is running fine and should be stable enough.

• Start creating a test script based on your requirement
• Create some common method or function that you can reuse throughout your script
• Make your script easy, reusable, well structured, and well documented, so if the third person checks your script then he/she can understand your scripts easily.
• Use better reporting so in case of failing you can trace your code
• Finally, review your script, and your script should be ready before consumption.
• Test script execution

Automation Test Script Execution

Now its time for execution of test scripts. In this phase, you have to execute all your test script. Some points to remember while execution

• Your script should cover all the functional requirements as per the test case.
• Your script should be stable, so it should run in multiple environments and multiple browsers (depends on your requirement)
• You can do batch execution also if possible so it will save time and effort.
• In case of failure, your script should take screenshots.
• If the test case is failing due to functionality, you have to raise a bug/defect.
• Generate test result / Analyses of result

Analysis + Generation Of Test Results & Test Reports

This is the last phase of the Automation test life cycle in which we will gather test results and will share with team/client/stack holders.

• Analyze the output and calculate how much time it takes to complete the test case