Test Automation in agile web-based Software Development

In software development, testing the created software is an important part to ensure software quality and to find bugs before the final release of the product. Using traditional waterfall-oriented development methods, testing was done at the end after the active development phase had been finished, just before the release. This phase was usually carried out by a dedicated and separated quality assurance (QA) team. Such a procedure often led to problems as there wasn’t enough time scheduled for testing or a lot of bugs were found. In either case, the final release of the software had to be postponed or the bugs remained in the software, which often led to frustrated users. In software development, testing the created software is an important part to ensure software quality and to find bugs before the final release of the product. In modern agile software development, testing is a central practice that not only takes place at the end after the active development has been finished. Continuous testing throughout the entire development process enables visibility and enhances communication and feedback to developers. It also supports the iterative, incremental approach of agile software development, especially Scrum, where a potentially releasable increment should be the result at the end of every Sprint. Fundamental test practices in agile development methods, such as Scrum, are test-driven development (TDD) and extensive use of test automation. Many teams struggle with the transition to agile. Developers now need to test continuously, where they used to pass the entire testing to a dedicated QA team at the end of the development phase. In order to be able to have a potentially shippable product at the end of each Sprint, fast feedback from executed tests is essential. Having a stable and easily maintainable test automation framework is the foundation to ensure high software quality in agile software development. This thesis is carried out in a team at the Daimler TSS GmbH in Ulm, Germany. The goal of this thesis is to examine the current testing process of the team, and to develop and evaluate solution approaches regarding automated tests, in order to improve the testing process and to reduce the amount of manual tests.