Bitter truth in Test Automation

We all know test automation is one of the key areas which helps the testing industry to grow and also increase the test efficiency and test productivity in any organization. But though test automation is the the buzz word in the industry we see that its not used to its potential. There are several reasons to this and speaking with my colleagues I found several reasons to it.

• Test automation is limited to words - We see that when an organization advertises for QA professionals, they tend to put test automation as a must skill. So people who are applying will think that this organization will practice test automation and it is the role of the QA to maintain test automation scripts and framework. But after joining people experience that its just a manual tester job and no more automation is practiced.
• Automation limited to Interview - Some organizations in their job interviews ask and check for test automation skills. But the truth is some QA heads who even does not have any experience in test automation just browse through some sites and gets some keywords which they ask from candidates for merely satisfying them and to give them that they do automation.
• Lack of knowledge and guidance - Although we have abundance of literature and study material, videos and tutorials, some are just pices of advertising the author and draw and image that he/she is a champion. But the truth is they do not provide guidance for one to start automation and one to create frameworks and practices that are accepted in the industry.
• Test automation courses, just money earning mechanisms - Most test automation courses fails as they do not provide guidance to people who are doing. Some just teach topics here and there - no flow, some do not teach correct tools for people which are used in the industry, some are express train courses, tutor is not experienced to teach, prices they charge are exorbitant, they do group sessions and ignore individual attention,
• Using test automation as an advertisement to get more people - Some organizations just publish videos showing test automation tools without even peroperly evaluating the tool. These are just advertising gimmicks to attract people. So people should be aware of these.
• I'm an automation champion and if I teach another I will loose my championship - This is another culture that is there in organizations. People who think they know automation are scared to teach others as they will loose the position they have in the industry.
• Test automation discrimination - Some leads in QA I have herd does not like to learn test automation and is reluctant to learn test automation and practice them. Therefore they do not wish their juniors to learn, and would discriminate the people who do so.
• Lack of skill and experience by top QA executives in the organization - Most QA managers have no experience in test automation and they fail to actusally listen to the juniors and even understand on the solutions that Juniors bring in.. Mostly we can see this when top management provides estimates when not consulting juniors.
• Test automation idea theft - This is also another common thing that we see in organizations. There are some political turmoil where most people tend to steal the ideas of others and falsely claim that they have done it. This will loose all the good people in the organization.
• Lack of test automation process implemented and wrong tools selected - Some organizations does not have a proper test automation process and even they select wrong tools. Some leads and heads are inexperienced and they bring most times record and playback automation which is mostly impossible and high cost in terms of maintenance.
• UI automation focus - This is also a wrong assumption. People start with first UI automation and disregard Unit Test Automation and Web Service automation as priority. Therefore they fail in Quality and their test automation initiatives.
• Lack of technical expertise - Most organizations lacks people who have specialised and experience in test automation, therefore organizations lack proper estimations, creation of proper test framework with precise integrations, good guidance for the juniors, etc
• Low salary payments, increments and perks - This is also a point of failure in organizations. When organizations can't pay for skilled people, they move out for highest paying employees and they loose the good crowd.
• No proper evaluations in online certifications - Some providers just give away free certifications that everyone does. But most of them do not provide personalise evaluations that a person has really understood the area learned whereas no credibility in the certification.

These are some of the areas why test automation fails in the industry and why its sometimes not balanced in most organizations in the industry.