What are principles of good testing scripts for automation?

By test automation frame work we mean the overall environment that is constructed for the execution of the tests. These testing frameworks as well as the test cases are handled with the help of test scripts. A lot depend on these tests scripts since it is the efficiency of the test scripts that decide how efficient the testing process will be. 

The point here is that there are several scripting tools around us and we need to select the tools that will work quite well for our software systems and applications. In this article we have discussed some principles of good testing scripts for test automation. 

What are principles of good testing scripts?

- The testing scripts should be application or software system specific and should have been captured or manually coded in to the proprietary language of the automation testing tool. 

- Good testing scripts are those that have been modified in order to accommodate the variable data. 

- These accommodated variables are used in the key input fields of the software system or application as well as program selections.

- By the virtue of these variables the script is able to drive the application with external data that is supplied by calling routines that invoked the test scripts.

- Good scripts often house the very fragile recognition strings as well as hard coded strings very well required for the software components when they operate. 

- The good testing scripts are quite flexible and are not broken whenever a change is made to the software system or application or if the application software is revised. 

- The particular scenario of any valid event occurs 100s of times in the testing scripts that are involved in the testing of some software system or application. 

- It is possible that during the testing of the software system or application the testers involved with the testing may get a false sense of security and satisfaction with the test results when the testing scripts used are not good enough. 

- Another principle of good testing scripts is that the all of the efforts related to test design are virtually developed in that language in which the automation tool has been scripted. 

- It is also possible that the scripts might be duplicated in both automated and manual script versions. 

- A test automation frame work that relies wholly up on the testing scripts represents the quickest as well as the easiest means for the implementation of the automation testing tools. 

Some other principles of good testing scripts are:

There are few other principles of good testing scripts for test automation as stated below:

1. Proper exception handling techniques.
2. The scripts should adhere to the coding standards as well as the guiding standards.
3. Proper frame work should be used to create the testing scripts.
4. Comments should be provided for each and every step in the scripts.
5. A standard format for exception handling and definition of the functions should be followed.
6. Use of appropriate synchronization techniques.

To Conclude:

- The best practices for writing the code should be chosen and used to create testing scripts. 

- In some, the optional explicit can be used. 

- It is necessary to follow the process of commenting since it is one of the good practices and make the code more readable. 

- Whenever you sense some bug or fault, debugging technique is a must to be followed. 

- All the testing scripts must follow a clean up routine after every execution. 

- Whatever the scripts have been developed they must be reusable. 

- Usually the scripts are executed via short programs that have been extensively parameterized. - The reusability of the testing scripts is an added advantage is in case in you later need to perform regression testing.