Literature review of test automation models in Agile testing
Virtanen, Tuukka (2018)
Virtanen, Tuukka
2018
Tietojohtaminen
Talouden ja rakentamisen tiedekunta - Faculty of Business and Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-05-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201804241545
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201804241545
Tiivistelmä
Test automation is considered to be a crucial part of a modern Agile development team. Agile software testing methods and development practices, such as Test Driven Development (TDD) or Behavior Driven Development (BDD), continuously assure software quality during development time, from project start to finish. Agile software development methods require Agile testing practices for its implementation. Software quality is built-in and delivering functional and stable software continuously is a key business capability. Automated system and acceptance tests are considered as a routine part of the Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline.
The objective of the research was to study, what test automation models, Agile practices and tools are found in Agile test automation literature and what kind of generic Agile test automation model can be synthesized from this literature. The objective was completed by conducting a systematic literature review of test automation models. The initial search included fifty scientific articles, from which ten models were selected for further analysis.
The selected articles and their models were modelled using prescriptive modelling. The tools and Agile practices mentioned in the articles were recorded and categorized. Each model was also categorized according to its domain of application. Using the collected data, a synthesized generic model for Agile test automation model was created.
Test automation models proved difficult to evaluate as the models were vastly different from each other in their description, depth of detail, utility, environment, scope and domain of application. A generic Agile test automation model would be characterized with agent, activity, artefact and event elements. It would have a functional information perspective and would be formally presented in text and graphic form. Continuous Integration was identified as the most popular Agile development method and Scrum as the most popular Agile management practice. Continuous Integration was also identified as the most popular tool category.
The objective of the research was to study, what test automation models, Agile practices and tools are found in Agile test automation literature and what kind of generic Agile test automation model can be synthesized from this literature. The objective was completed by conducting a systematic literature review of test automation models. The initial search included fifty scientific articles, from which ten models were selected for further analysis.
The selected articles and their models were modelled using prescriptive modelling. The tools and Agile practices mentioned in the articles were recorded and categorized. Each model was also categorized according to its domain of application. Using the collected data, a synthesized generic model for Agile test automation model was created.
Test automation models proved difficult to evaluate as the models were vastly different from each other in their description, depth of detail, utility, environment, scope and domain of application. A generic Agile test automation model would be characterized with agent, activity, artefact and event elements. It would have a functional information perspective and would be formally presented in text and graphic form. Continuous Integration was identified as the most popular Agile development method and Scrum as the most popular Agile management practice. Continuous Integration was also identified as the most popular tool category.