Just Enough Software Test Automation

The Data-Driven Approach

Kit defines three generations of automated software testing (1):

• The first generation is basically GUI testing. The use of capture/playback tools to develop automated test scripts is limited to recording user actions at the level of the GUI, editing the resulting test scripts, and replaying the edited test scripts. The resulting test scripts are unstructured, undocumented, and not maintainable.

• In the second generation, the scriptwriters have developed the ability to “build well-structured, documented, robust, maintainable tests.” The testing project becomes an engineering project at this level; test scripts include error capture and recovery logic, and a key characteristic is reusability of test script components.

• Kit ...