http://www.vinktank.com/test-execution/getting-more-out-of-automated-acceptance-tests/ Pragmatic software testing & development by Kristan Vingrys Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:02:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 http://www.vinktank.com/test-execution/getting-more-out-of-automated-acceptance-tests/#comment-248 Sam Chen Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:50:22 +0000 http://www.vinktank.com/test-execution/getting-more-out-of-automated-acceptance-tests/#comment-248 That is an excellent point. We just faced this issue for current project. Need to test product in different environments, but every time we have to comment off and un-comment off some test data manually before running automation scripts. It is really painful. We are planning to separate testing data from existing codes. However I think if we are doing that way, there may be some potential problems. First of all, extra code is needed to retrieve testing data and those testing data may be from different sources and in different formats. It will make retrieving method more complicated. In the meantime, some data are not gained easily from external source by automation. Secondly sharing is an advantage of separating testing data, which means other team can also reuse those testing data. It will definitely reduce duplication. But it will cause another problem. It becomes very hard to maintain the stability of testing data. Any modification from one team may cause other team's automation scripts failed. That is an excellent point. We just faced this issue for current project. Need to test product in different environments, but every time we have to comment off and un-comment off some test data manually before running automation scripts. It is really painful. We are planning to separate testing data from existing codes.
However I think if we are doing that way, there may be some potential problems. First of all, extra code is needed to retrieve testing data and those testing data may be from different sources and in different formats. It will make retrieving method more complicated. In the meantime, some data are not gained easily from external source by automation.
Secondly sharing is an advantage of separating testing data, which means other team can also reuse those testing data. It will definitely reduce duplication. But it will cause another problem. It becomes very hard to maintain the stability of testing data. Any modification from one team may cause other team’s automation scripts failed.

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