This document discusses patterns for test automation frameworks. It begins by introducing common patterns like page objects, business layer, and factories. It then provides examples of page object and business layer page object patterns. The document also discusses test data patterns and different ways to specify test data and locators. Finally, it outlines advantages of using patterns like reduced complexity, reusability, and maintenance. The key message is that the best pattern depends on the specific test automation context.

1. PATTERNS OF A “GOOD”
TEST AUTOMATION
FRAMEWORK!
Anand Bagmar
Software Quality Evangelist

2. ABOUT ME
@BagmarAnand
Blog - essenceoftesting
about.me/anand.bagmar

3. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THIS SESSION?

4. TELL ME ...
¨ Any Managers in the room?
¨ Developers / Testers / Automation “folks” in the room?
¨ What toolset do you use for Automation?
¨ How many automated tests do you have?
¨ Have you heard the phrase - ”Test Automation code
should be of Production Quality”?
¨ Do you believe it?
¨ Anyone in the room does not code / understand code?
4

5. Disclaimer

7. What is a Pattern?

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern

10. Have you heard-of or
used any
Pattern(s) in Test
Automation?

11. COMMON PATTERNS USED IN TEST AUTOMATION
¨ Page-Object
¨ Business Layer
¨ Singleton
¨ Composition
¨ Factory
¨ Builder

12. Test Automation
Framework Patterns

14. Code sample - #1

15. Page-Object Pattern

16. PAGE OBJECT PATTERN
Model pages
in code
Simulates user actions
One place change
Reduces code duplication
Snippets
of page

18. Code sample - #2

19. AUTOMATION FRAMEWORK WITH PAGE OBJECTS

20. LIMITATIONS OF PAGE-OBJECT PATTERN
¨ Test intent gets polluted
¨ Duplication of Test intent & implementation
¨ Intent becomes Imperative
¨ Maintenance challenges
¨ Scaling challenges

21. Business-Layer
Page-Object Pattern

22. BUSINESS-LAYER PAGE-OBJECT PATTERN

23. Code sample - #3

24. ADVANTAGES OF
BUSINESS-LAYER PAGE-OBJECT PATTERN
¨ Validate what is important - Business requirements
¨ Test Pyramid remains sane
¨ Abstraction layers allow separation-of-concerns
¨ Changes are isolated
¨ Maintenance & Scaling becomes ‘easier’

25. Test Data Patterns

26. Why do we need to
think differently
about Test Data?

27. CRITERIA FOR TEST DATA
¨ Data is complex
¨ Needs to mimic “real” data
¨ Needs to be unique
¨ Data can be nested
¨ Though specified as static, may need to be Dynamic
¨ Data can be shared and reused

28. DIFFERENT WAYS TO SPECIFY TEST DATA
¨ In Test implementation
¨ In Test specification / intent
¨ In code … separate data structures / classes / etc.
¨ External files

29. TEST DATA SPECIFICATION EXAMPLES
¨ Excel
¨ CSV
¨ Property
¨ XML
¨ YAML
¨ Database
¨ Json

30. Code sample - #4

31. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
¨ Easy to specify
¨ Easy to read and consume (by test framework)
¨ Ability to override specified data, easily
¨ Usable

32. TIPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION
¨ Consistent way to specify test data
¨ Read the data – as Business Entities
¨ Override as appropriate
¨ Create DSL to give meaning to data
¨ Use in test implementation
¨ Implement Test Data Entity Utilities – Build, Equals,
Copy, Find, etc.

33. Locators’ Patterns

34. DIFFERENT WAYS TO SPECIFY ELEMENT LOCATORS
¨ In Page-Objects
¨ In separate files, per Page-Object
¨ In external files / locator files

35. Advantages of
using Patterns for
Test Automation

36. ADVANTAGES OF PATTERNS
¨ Well known, well understood
¨ Tried & tested solutions for common problems
¨ Reduces complexity
¨ Language neutral
¨ Aid in communication

37. ADVANTAGES OF PATTERNS IN TEST AUTOMATION
Saves time & effort
(eventually)
Single ownership
Test Automation Code is of Production Quality!
Single point of change
Easy to –
- Implement
- Maintain
- Debug
- Scale

38. WHICH IS THE “BEST” PATTERN TO USE ?

39. It DEPENDS!
on the
Context!

40. REFERENCES
Page Objects – Google
https://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/PageObjects
Page Objects – Martin Fowler
http://martinfowler.com/bliki/PageObject.html
Perils of Page-Object Pattern – Anand Bagmar
http://essenceoftesting.blogspot.in/2014/09/perils-of-page-object-pattern.html
Test Design Consideration
http://docs.seleniumhq.org/docs/06_test_design_considerations.jsp
Sample Test Framework implementation
https://github.com/anandbagmar/cuke-jvm-sample

41. @BagmarAnand
Blog - essenceoftesting
about.me/anand.bagmar
THANK YOU