To build an effective test automation practice, it’s important to understand the FIRST principles—FAST, INDEPENDENT, REPEATABLE, SELF-VALIDATING, and TIMELY. Applying these principles will help you develop reliable and maintainable automated tests.
Fast
Speed is essential. Automated tests should execute swiftly so you can run them often without slowing down development. Prioritise what’s important to test and optimise your tests to run efficiently.
Isolated (Independent)
Tests should function on their own without depending on the order of execution or other tests. Each test should have a single purpose and test one thing. This makes tests easier to maintain and debug.
Repeatable
Automated tests must yield consistent outcomes on each run. Randomness and non-determinism will undermine your tests and damage confidence in the results. Control environmental factors and use test data that produces predictable outcomes.
Self-validating
The pass/fail outcome should be unambiguous. It should be immediately clear whether a test succeeded or failed without human interpretation of the results. Proper assertions and verifications ensure clear outcomes.
Timely
To get the most value from automated testing, the tests have to be written in a timely fashion—at the same time or even just before the code. Waiting until the end of development to write tests often means they end up poorly designed, hard to write, and less effective. Building quality in from the start with timely automated testing is key.
By following the FIRST principles, you’ll establish a solid foundation for continuous improvement in your test automation practises. Effective, reliable automated tests give you confidence in your software quality and help accelerate development cycles.
Focus on the FAST Principle
To build effective test automation, focus on the FAST principle:
Fast, Automated, Specific, and Timely.
Speed is key. Fast execution accelerates feedback cycles, allowing you to fix issues quickly.
Techniques to achieve speed include:
- Favour lower-level tests
- Parallelizing tests to run simultaneously
- Efficient test data setup to avoid wasting time
Timely tests run frequently as code changes to catch issues early. Nightly or with each commit is ideal.
By applying the FAST principle and building a mature test automation practise, you’ll accelerate releases, increase quality, and enable continuous improvement. What’s not to like? Focusing on speed, independence, repeatability, specificity, and timeliness will put you on the fast track to success.
Prioritise the Isolated Principle
The ISOLATED principle states that tests should be isolated from areas of the application that they are not directly testing and be independent of each other. Isolated, standalone tests are more reliable and easier to maintain.
To ensure test isolation:
Avoid shared state and data between tests
Tests that depend on the state or data from previous tests can fail or pass incorrectly if the order of execution changes. It’s best to have each test setup its own test data from scratch.
- Reset the system under test to a known state before each test.
- Use unique test data for each test case.
Benefits of isolated tests
Isolated tests can run in parallel, speeding up test execution. Since the tests don’t depend on each other, the order in which they run does not matter.
- Faster feedback on code changes. Decreased testing time means developers find out sooner if they introduced any issues.
- Improved test reliability. The outcome of one test does not influence another, so you get consistent results each run.
- Easier troubleshooting. When a test fails, you know the cause is within that specific test, not due to an error in a previous test.
For example, say you have a test suite for an e-commerce site with 100 tests, each adding an item to the cart and checking out. If the tests depend on each other to build up the cart, a failure in test 53 would require re-running all previous tests to reproduce the issue. As independent tests, you could run tests in any order and debug each one separately.
Applying the ISOLATED principle leads to a robust test automation framework that accelerates development and gives you confidence in the quality of your product. By isolating each test, you ensure that your test results are always trustworthy and actionable.
Ensure the REPEATABLE Principle
The REPEATABLE principle states that tests should produce consistent results. Repeatability is crucial for identifying failures accurately and ensuring test validity. Consistent outcomes allow you to troubleshoot issues efficiently.
To achieve repeatable tests:
- Control test environments. Isolate components under test and standardise environments to minimise external factors that could influence outcomes. For example, use virtual machines or containers to manage dependencies and configurations.
- Avoid non-deterministic actions. Exclude uncontrolled inputs like random numbers, timestamps, or network calls that could yield varying results. For instance, stub out date/time functions or network connections in your tests.
- Parameterize test data. Supply test data through external files or databases instead of hard-coding values in your tests. This makes it easy to modify data and re-run tests to confirm consistent passing results.
For example, say a test for an e-commerce checkout flow was failing intermittently. By controlling the test environment, avoiding non-deterministic data, and parameterising user and payment information, you could repeatedly re-run the test to identify the exact step where it failed and the root cause of the issue. Without repeatability, this failure may have been flagged as a false positive or gone undetected, creating headaches for customers and damaging user experience.
In summary, repeatable tests are essential for developing a mature test automation practise. They allow you to dependably validate software quality, accelerate release cycles, and continuously enhance your testing efforts. By following the techniques discussed, you can build automated checks that yield reliable, consistent outcomes.
Strive for the SELF-VALIDATING Principle
The SELF-VALIDATING principle states that automated tests should provide a clear pass or fail result. Rather than subjective or inconclusive outcomes, self-validating tests are designed to verify if the expected and actual results match. This could be:
- Assertions that check if a value is as expected
- Verifying page titles, URLs, element attributes, etc.
- Comparing screenshots to ensure the UI is rendered correctly
Self-validating tests give you confidence in the reliability of your test automation. Without clear validation, you can’t be certain if a test passed because everything worked or just by chance.
Techniques to create self-validating tests include:
Assertions
Assertions allow you to validate expected results within your test code. For example, asserting that:
- A calculation returns the correct result
- A string contains specific text
- An element is visible on the page
After performing an action, you can add assertions to confirm the expected outcome. If an assertion fails, the test will fail – giving you a definitive pass/fail result.
Verifiable outcomes
Verifiable outcomes refer to results you can check manually to determine if the test passed or failed. This could be:
- Checking the page title/URL to confirm you’re on the right page
- Verifying text on the screen
- Comparing a screenshot of the actual UI to the expected UI
While less automated than assertions, verifiable outcomes still provide a clear validation of whether or not the test passed. They give you confidence in your test results and help build reliable test automation.
Examples of how clear validation improves test reliability:
- Preventing false positives (tests incorrectly passing)
- Giving you confidence in test results (knowing a pass means everything worked)
- Accelerating debugging by pinpointing exactly where the failure occurred
By striving for the SELF-VALIDATING principle, your test automation will provide trustworthy feedback – allowing you to confidently build, test, and release high quality software.
Embrace the TIMELY Principle
Embrace the TIMELY Principle
To achieve continuous improvement, your test automation practises must be TIMELY. This means writing automated tests early in the development process. Some benefits of early test automation include:
- Catching issues sooner. Automated tests written in parallel with new features can detect problems early when they’re easier and less expensive to fix.
- Preventing regression. Automated regression tests ensure new changes do not break existing functionality. They give developers confidence to refactor code or add new features without worrying about unforeseen side effects.
- Enabling faster release cycles. Comprehensive automated test suites accelerate the development process by reducing the need for extensive manual testing before each release.
Two useful techniques for timely automation are:
- Test-Driven Development (TDD): Write failing tests before implementing new functionality. Then develop code to pass the tests. This ensures you have automated tests in place as you build new features.
- Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD): Focus on the behaviour of the system from the user’s perspective. Write tests in a natural language that non-technical stakeholders can understand. BDD encourages collaboration between developers, testers, and product owners.
For example, if building a calculator app, TDD tests might verify the correct result of 2+3. BDD tests would describe the behaviour, e.g. “When I enter 2+3, the result should be 5”.
To adopt the TIMELY principle:
- Prioritize test automation and include it in development schedules and budgets.
- Start automating as early as possible, not as an afterthought. Write initial tests in parallel with new code, not weeks or months later.
- Choose a test automation framework and strategy, e.g. TDD, BDD, keyword-driven. And stick to it! (Unless it’s really not working)
- Review and refactor test suites regularly. Make sure tests stay up-to-date as requirements evolve. Outdated or unreliable tests are useless.
- Promote a culture where quality and testing are everyone’s responsibility. Help developers see test automation as enabling, not obstructing, their work.
By embracing TIMELY automated testing, you’ll accelerate releases, minimise defects, and build confidence in your software quality. Continuous improvement starts here!
Applying FIRST Principles Together
To build a mature test automation practice, you need to apply the FIRST principles in concert. On their own, each principle has merit, but together they create a synergistic effect that results in robust, reliable automated tests.
Speed and Isolation
Fast, Isolated, Repeatable, Self-validating, and Timely (FIRST) tests work together to accelerate development cycles and enable continuous improvement. Prioritising speed and independence means focusing on automating repetitive, mundane tests that don’t require human intuition or judgement. These types of tests are perfect candidates for automation and allow manual testers to focus their time on more complex, exploratory testing.
Consistency and Validation
Repeatable and self-validating tests provide consistent results and clear pass/fail criteria. Repeatable tests can be run multiple times with the same outcomes, allowing you to have confidence in the results. Self-validating tests have built-in validation checks to automatically determine if the test passed or failed. They don’t require a human to verify the results. Examples include unit tests, API tests, and UI tests that check element properties.
Balancing Conflicts
At times, the principles may conflict, and you’ll need to find the right balance for your needs. For instance, self-validating tests aim for maximum automation but can be difficult to implement for complex user flows. You may need to initially rely more on manual validation. Similarly, fast and repeatable tests may come at the cost of isolation if you have to hard code element locators. It’s about choosing the right principles for the job and adapting as needed.
Applying the FIRST principles holistically will accelerate your test automation practice and build a foundation for continuous improvement. While it takes time and practise to master, keeping these principles in mind from the start will put you on the path to success.
Challenges and Considerations
Implementing the FIRST principles for test automation is not without its challenges. There are several considerations to keep in mind as you transition your existing test suites.
Finding the Right Balance
It can be tempting to focus heavily on one principle over the others, but that often leads to an imbalance. For example, prioritising speed (FAST) at the expense of reliability (REPEATABLE and SELF-VALIDATING) will result in flaky, unstable tests. Similarly, over-engineering for independence (INDEPENDENT) when it’s not truly needed can slow down your test cycles. Strive to apply each principle appropriately based on your needs.
Making Informed Decisions
With any software practice, there are trade-offs to consider. When optimising for speed, your tests may become tightly coupled to the system under test. Highly independent tests can require more maintenance. Repeatable tests may need to be more rigid, limiting flexibility. Think about your priorities and constraints, then make principled choices. It’s better to be consciously imbalanced than to blindly follow any set of guidelines.
Transitioning Existing Tests
If you have an established test automation suite, adapting it to the FIRST principles will take time and patience. Start by evaluating one principle at a time, determining where your biggest gaps are. Then make incremental improvements, revising and refactoring tests with each sprint. Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Look for “quick wins” and build from there. With regular attention, you can bring your entire suite up to speed, independent, repeatable, self-validating and timely.
The key is not perfection but continuous progress. Apply the FIRST principles pragmatically, learn from both successes and failures, and keep improving your test automation practises over time. With the right mindset, you’ll be well on your way to building a mature and effective set of automated checks.
Continuous Improvement: Mature Test Automation Practises for Better Software Quality
To achieve continuous improvement and build a mature test automation practice, you need to assess how strictly you are adhering to the FIRST principles and where improvements can be made.
As you build up your automated suites, shift left by automating more and more at lower levels.
For the fastest feedback, automate at the appropriate level for your development lifecycle. Unit tests run in seconds, while end-to-end tests can take hours. Balance test scope and runtime to optimise feedback. Run automated regression tests with each build, not just at the end of a sprint. Quickly detect quality issues, then diagnose and fix to keep your software release-ready.
Mature your automation by assessing how well you apply these principles. Look for opportunities to shift testing earlier, accelerate feedback loops and build quality in. With practice, you’ll achieve the DevOps goal of continuous automated testing for continuous delivery of high-quality software.
So there you have it, the principles that will transform your automation efforts and take your testing to the next level. Don’t settle for mediocre testing practices that slow you down and deliver lacklustre results. Embrace the FIRST principles, build momentum, and make a habit of constant improvement. Keep at it, stay focused on what really matters, and before you know it, you’ll be achieving a level of software quality and testing maturity you never thought possible.