In-Sprint Test Automation Clarified
Continuing the series on explaining IT terminology, Zhimin Zhan gives three key suggestions to consider when implementing test automation in a sprint.
Moreover, Javier Lopez shared a good article about Flakiness in tests.
Note: If you can't access the full article, simply open it in a private tab.
Different rendering times of the elements in the browser often make automated tests flaky. So, here Conan Theobald explains how to implement your own waitFor method in Puppeteer that makes sure that elements are present before performing any action on them.
The 4 Destroyers of Any Automation Test Script
What are the most common causes of test flakiness? Joe Colantonio explains and shares advice on how to avoid them.
And since one of them is missing a locator strategy, here are 5 Steps to Implementing an Effective Locator Strategy for Seamless Automation Testing by Ahtisham Ilyas.
Fixing Intermittent Failures in Cypress: Best Practices for Stable Testing
We know that the best way to fix flaky tests is to fix the underlying problems, often related to the system under test. But sometimes, we need to use other ways, as explained here by Vishmi Perera with examples in Cypress.
How do you deal with unstable test automation environment?
Test flakiness isn't only caused by bad test design. Sometimes, the unstable environment plays its role, too. Here are some tips from the Reddit community on what to do in such case.
I may also help to Write tests that withstand storms and quakes, as Veera explains with examples.
Breaking down your E2E tests — an example
If your end-to-end tests are complex, flaky and take a long time to execute, you probably should consider breaking them down into smaller tests, as Bas Dijkstra illustrates with examples.
Similarly, Shyamal Raju advocates for Micro Tests, Macro Impacts: The Benefits of Switching to Atomic Testing.
Vladislav Ogir correctly recognises that common problems with tests, such as flakiness and long execution time, are not solved by tools but by following good practices.
Additionally, Josh Grant describes Enable, Execute, Expect as an alternative to Arrange, Act, Assert way of designing tests.
Welcome to the 241st issue!
While sourcing the news for this issue, this discussion got my attention:
What's broken in test automation today?
It's a sobering question and it doesn't seem there's a common theme.
In fact, testers provided all sorts of answers, such as test flakiness, unstable test environments, ineffective outsourcing and over-reliance on E2E tests, to name a few.
What else would you add?
