How do you balance maintenance and new feature development in test automation?

2 Use a test automation framework

A test automation framework is a set of tools, libraries, and guidelines that help you design, develop, and execute your test automation scripts. Using a framework can provide several benefits for balancing maintenance and new feature development, such as reusability, modularity, scalability, and extensibility. Reusability allows you to reuse existing scripts and data across different test cases. Modularity enables you to break down test scripts into smaller and independent modules. Scalability lets you run scripts on different browsers, devices, and environments. And extensibility allows you to integrate the framework with other tools and platforms such as version control or continuous integration.

3 Follow coding standards and best practices

Your test automation scripts should follow the same coding standards and best practices as your web application code, which can help you balance maintenance and new feature development in test automation. To ensure this, you should use meaningful and descriptive names for your variables, functions, and test cases, as well as include comments and documentation to explain the purpose and logic of your test automation code. Additionally, indentation, spacing, and formatting should be used to make your test automation code more organized and structured. Error handling and logging should be implemented to handle exceptions and track issues in your test automation code, while code reviews and refactoring should be used to check and improve your test automation code.

4 Automate only what is necessary

Test automation is not a one-size-fits-all solution for web development testing challenges. Certain aspects of testing, such as usability, accessibility, or user experience, are better suited for manual testing. You should only automate what is necessary and valuable for your web application—over-automating or under-automating test cases should be avoided. To decide what to automate and what not to automate, you can use criteria such as complexity, repetitiveness, stability, and feedback. Complex test cases that are tedious or prone to human error are good candidates for automation as they can reduce the testing effort and time and increase accuracy and reliability. Repetitive or data input-heavy tests should also be automated to save resources and avoid boredom and fatigue of testers. Tests that are stable, consistent, or rarely change should be automated to reduce maintenance cost and ensure the validity of test scripts. Finally, tests that provide immediate, clear, and measurable feedback are good candidates for automation as they can facilitate test analysis and reporting and support web development decision making.

5 Evaluate and improve your test automation strategy

Balancing maintenance and new feature development in test automation is not a one-time task, but a continuous process that requires constant evaluation and improvement. You should monitor and measure the performance, effectiveness, and value of your test automation strategy, using metrics such as test coverage, test execution time, test failure rate, test defect rate, or test automation return on investment. You should also collect and analyze the feedback, suggestions, and issues from your web development team, your testers, and your stakeholders, regarding your test automation strategy. Based on these data and insights, you should identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your test automation strategy, and implement the necessary changes and enhancements to optimize your test automation balance.