Challenges of Test Automation

1. Selection of Automation Tool – Today there are n number of automation tools available in the market and choosing a good automation tool is one of the major challenges that an organization often faces. This is majorly because there are several commercial tools which are expensive, there are open source tools which might not be reliable and there are tools of which an organization may not have sufficient expertise to make optimum use of.

2. No Defined Process for Executing Automation Project within an organization – Automation is like a project execution ,wherein you start with Requirement, then you design the framework as per your requirements and finally you roll it out for Test Case Execution. Lack of systematic approach and process will make successful automation really tough. As we have processes, guidelines and checklist defined for our development project; we should also have guidelines, processes and checklist available for Automation as well.

3. Availability of Right Resources – The right set of resources is a must when you are doing automation. This means the resources should be skilled enough to design and code robust scripting, so that it requires minimum time for debugging during maintenance.

4. Commitment from Customer or Management – Automation is time consuming and resource intensive task. Customer or management commitment is required if one wants to get the real benefit of automation. This paper will highlight the approach wherein you can maximize your benefits within reasonable period of time.