Understanding the Automation Test Pyramid

Hello,

Let's understand the Testing Pyramid or Automation Test Pyramid.

As an Software Tester, you might have come across the Terms like - Automation Test Pyramid, Testing Pyramid, Test Pyramid, The Automation Pyramid.

All these terms generally refers to the same Pyramid, which you can imagine like the "Pyramids of Egypt" with an Triangle shape.

Let me breakdown the Automation Test Pyramid for Beginners for ease of understanding:

1) Unit Tests (Base of the Pyramid):

• Focuses on testing small pieces of code (like functions or methods).
• These are fast and should make up the majority of your automated tests.

2) API/Service Tests (Middle Layer):

• Tests the communication between different components or services without involving the UI.
• Slightly slower than unit tests but still faster and more stable than UI tests.

3) UI Tests (Top Layer):

• Tests the application through its user interface (e.g., clicking buttons, filling forms).
• These are slow and more prone to errors, so there should be fewer of them compared to unit and API tests.

The idea of "Automation Test Pyramid" or "The Automation Pyramid" is to have more tests at the base (unit tests) and fewer at the top (UI tests) to maintain a fast, reliable testing process.

When we have more Unit Tests and then some level of API Tests to cover the Integration of various applications, and then lesser UI Tests in the Software Projects, the flaky tests and frequent maintenance work can be reduced.

With Unit Tests and API Tests it is lower cost, to fix the bugs than compared to the UI Tests which needs more Infrastructure to run them frequently due to User Interface testing with Multiple Browsers, Mobile Devices, Operating Systems requirements as per the project requirements.

In Real time Software Projects, this Pyramid might not be exactly followed, there could be different types of Pyramid formed based on the Numbers of Tests written by the Teams. We will discuss in the Next article.

I wanted to have the Article short, and also informative for folks to quicky grasp the content.

If you have feedback, do write in the Comments.

Hope you enjoy reading my First article of the Newsletter.

Happy Learning,

Swaroop Nadella