Yuqing Wang

Yuqing Wang, Mika V. Mäntylä, Zihao Liu et al.

Mature test automation is key for achieving software quality at speed. In this paper, we present a multivocal literature review with the objective to survey and synthesize the guidelines given in the literature for improving test automation maturity. We selected and reviewed 81 primary studies, consisting of 26 academic literature and 55 grey literature sources. From primary studies, we extracted 26 test automation best practices (e.g., Define an effective test automation strategy, Set up good test environments, Develop high-quality test scripts) and collected many pieces of advice (e.g., in forms of implementation/improvement approaches, technical techniques, concepts, experience-based heuristics) on how to conduct these best practices. We made main observations: (1) There are only 6 best practices whose positive effect on maturity improvement have been evaluated by academic studies using formal empirical methods; (2) Several technical related best practices in this MLR were not presented in test maturity models; (3) Some best practices can be linked to success factors and maturity impediments proposed by other scholars; (4) Most pieces of advice on how to conduct proposed best practices were identified from experience studies and their effectiveness need to be further evaluated with cross-site empirical evidence using formal empirical methods; (5) In the literature, some advice on how to conduct certain best practices are conflicting, and some advice on how to conduct certain best practices still need further qualitative analysis.

Yuqing Wang, Maaret Pyhäjärvi, Mika V. Mäntylä

How to successfully conduct test automation process improvement (TAPI) for continuous development, consisting of iterative software development, continuous testing, and delivery, is the challenge faced by many software organizations. In this paper, we present an experience report on TAPI in one DevOps team in F-Secure (a Finnish software company). The team builds Windows application software and exists in F-Secure's TAPI culture. The team self-reports high satisfaction and maturity in test automation for continuous development. To study their TAPI, we reviewed a collection of experience notes, team reflection reports and telemetry result reports. Then several meetings were held to discuss the details. We found that based on the understanding of the team, test automation maturity for continuous development is defined as a set of indicators, e.g., the increasing speed to release, improving the productivity of the team, high test efficiency. Second, the team indicated that a set of critical success factors have a major impact on successfully carrying out its TAPI, e.g., incremental approach, the whole team effort, test tool choice and architecture, telemetry. Third, we compare the TAPI practices in the observed team with the practices described in prior literature. The team believes that the existing test automation maturity approaches should include the identified practices like the whole team effort to build a more comprehensive test automation improvement model for the software industry.