http://compendiumdev.co.uk/page.php?title=testworks2015 "Automating application execution isn't easy, even with a lot of experience. Applications find ways of making themselves hard to automate. And if it isn't the application, then it's the tools we use. And if it isn't the tools, then it's the people and the processes. Automating can seem like a hunt for workarounds which sometimes fly in the face of 'best practice' advice. Alan will describe solutions he's used on real world challenges. And he offers to help with real life dilemmas including: How do you build abstraction layers that work? If BDD tools aren't test tools why do we use them test? How technical do you need testers to become? And how do you find time to test when you are automating so much?

1. Automate
or Die!
Alan Richardson
EvilTester.com
SeleniumSimplified.com
JavaForTesters.com @EvilTester
“Real World
Automation
Survival”

2. Can
you
survive
?
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #23, 1961

3. Automate or Slave!
“Let us remember that the automatic
machine ... is the precise economic
equivalent of slave labor. Any labor
which competes with slave labor must
accept the economic conditions of slave
labor. It is perfectly clear that this will
produce an unemployment situation”
Norbert Weiner
The Human Use of Human Beings,
1950, pg 162

4. Don't compete
with slave labour
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #33, 1963

5. "...automation makes it
possible to do many things
that could not be done
without it..."
John Diebold,
Beyond Automation,
1964, pg 191

6. Automating isn't easy
Challengers of the Unknown, DC Comics, #28, 1962

7. @EvilTester
Automating has always
been a challenge

8. @EvilTester
Challengers of the Unknown, DC Comics, #18, 1961

9. @EvilTester
“Automation has turned out to be
a much more complex and
difficult problem than was
originally thought.”
John Diebold,
Beyond Automation,
1964, pg 51

10. @EvilTester
“What we need is more
automation.”
1948
Ford Motor company VP,
Delmar S. Harder,
Coined “automation” in 1948

11. @EvilTester
John Diebold,
“Automation”, 1952
"...the author found
automatization both
awkward and - from the
standpoint of his weak
spelling - hazardous ...
it was the ease of
spelling that finally
overcame the author's
reticence to coin a new
word"

12. @EvilTester
1957

13. @EvilTester
The word “Automation” is...
“barbarous”
http://www.norbertwiener.umd.edu/NW/NWphotos.html
Norbert Wiener

14. @EvilTester“Science”, May 6th, 1960 http://bit.ly/1iwga1m

15. @EvilTester“Science”, May 6th, 1960
'automatization',
'automata',
'strategy',
'machine',
'automatic',
'automated',
'programming'
http://bit.ly/1iwga1m

16. @EvilTester
Watch your language

17. @EvilTester
Automation is not a 'thing'

18. @EvilTester
'Automation'
is Arguable
'Automation' is vague enough
that we can argue about it
Testers need to
program to do
automation
Testers can do
automation without
needing to program

19. @EvilTester
Abstractions
“... what we see, hear, feel, speak
about or infer, is never it, but only
our human abstraction about 'it'.”
The Role of Language in the Perceptual Process
Alfred Korzybski
1951
http://bit.ly/1G06gL0

20. @EvilTester
Testers need to
program to write code
that will automate this
scenario
Control
your
specific
language
Testers can identify the paths
through the system that we
will automate without needing
to program

21. @EvilTester
Solutions not
tools
Challengers of the Unknown, DC Comics, #18, 1961

22. @EvilTester
For 'tools' to be solutions,
you have to know what
problem they solve

23. @EvilTester
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #18, 1961

24. @EvilTester
Automating Applications
isn't easy
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #18, 1961

25. @EvilTester
Automating
is often a
hunt for
workarounds
Challengers of the Unknown, DC Comics,
#27, 1962

26. @EvilTester
How
technical
do
testers
need to
become?
Challengers of the Unknown, DC
Comics, #20, 1961

27. @EvilTester
How can we observe and
manipulate the system at
deeper levels?

28. @EvilTester
Team skills are important
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #27, 1962

29. @EvilTester
BDD
● BDD is not about testing
● BDD is not about tools
● BDD Tools are not testing tools

30. @EvilTester
“Whatever you might say
something "is", it is not.”
Alfred Korzybsi,
Science and Sanity,
1958, page 409

31. @EvilTester
BDD
● BDD is not about testing
● BDD is not about tools
● BDD Tools are not testing tools
“If BDD tools aren't test tools
why do we use them as part
of our test approach?”

32. @EvilTester
I use Cucumber...
● … as a tool for creating Domain Specific
Languages
● … to easily document and implement data
driven scenarios

33. @EvilTester
A 'Test' tool is any tool you
use when testing

34. @EvilTester
The solution to problems
when automating is rarely
more automating
Challengers of the Unknown, DC
Comics, #28, 1962

35. @EvilTester
Abstraction Layers
“We all know that the only mental tool by
means of which a very finite piece of
reasoning can cover a myriad cases is
called “abstraction””
The Humble Programmer
Edsger W. Dijkstra
ACM Turing Lecture 1972
http://bit.ly/1MVghiP

36. @EvilTester
@Test
public void canCreateAToDoWithNoAbstraction(){
driver.get(
"http://todomvc.com/architecture-examples/backbone/");
int originalNumberOfTodos = driver.findElements(
By.cssSelector(
"ul#todo-list li"
)).size();
WebElement createTodo = driver.findElement(
By.id("new-todo"));
createTodo.click();
createTodo.sendKeys("new task");
createTodo.sendKeys(Keys.ENTER);
assertThat(driver.findElement(
By.id("filters")).isDisplayed(), is(true));
int newToDos = driver.findElements(
By.cssSelector(
"ul#todo-list li")).size();
assertThat(newToDos,
greaterThan(originalNumberOfTodos));
}

37. @EvilTester
Abstraction Layers
“... the purpose of abstracting is not to
be vague, but to create a new semantic
level in which one can be absolutely
precise.”
The Humble Programmer
Edsger W. Dijkstra
ACM Turing Lecture 1972
http://bit.ly/1MVghiP

38. @EvilTester
@Test
public void canCreateAToDoWithAbstraction(){
TodoMVCUser user =
new TodoMVCUser(driver,
new TodoMVCSite());
user.opensApplication().and().
createNewToDo("new task");
ApplicationPageFunctional page =
new ApplicationPageFunctional(driver,
new TodoMVCSite());
assertThat(
page.getCountOfTodoDoItems(), is(1));
assertThat(
Page.isFooterVisible(), is(true));
}

39. @EvilTester
Refactor to Abstraction
Layers
● Physical
● Logical
● Domain
● Data
● Event
● Actor

40. @EvilTester
And how
do you find
time to test
when you
are
automating
so much?
Challengers of the
Unknown, DC
Comics, #18, 1961

41. @EvilTester
Survival is a way of
thinking...
“Automation requires us to view the
production processes as an integrated
system... Automation is a way of thinking, a
way of 'looking at...' as much as it is a way of
doing... It is an attitude... rather than a
particular technology”
John Diebold,
Applied Automation. A Practical Approach,
p. 3 1955

42. @EvilTester
“Automation requires us to view the
production processes as an integrated
system... Automation is a way of thinking, a
way of 'looking at...' as much as it is a way of
doing... It is an attitude... rather than a
particular technology”
John Diebold,
Applied Automation. A Practical Approach,
p. 3 1955
Systems
Abstraction
Survival is a way of
thinking...
Requisite Variety

43. @EvilTester
“Automation requires us to view the
production processes as an integrated
system... Automation is a way of thinking, a
way of 'looking at...' as much as it is a way of
doing... It is an attitude... rather than a
particular technology”
John Diebold,
Applied Automation. A Practical Approach,
p. 3 1955
Requisite Variety
Systems
Abstractions
Survive