Test Automation Success: Choosing the Right People & Process

Kiran Pyneni, Automation ManagerAetna, Inc.

Agenda

Automation Lifecycle

Automation Team

Metrics Of Our Success

Questions

Automation Coverage, Efforts Automated, Utilization & Cost Avoidance

Company Background

Strategy Team

Delivery Team

Benefits of Teams Strategy

Benefits of Process Integration

Our Journey…

Automation Objectives

Aetna Background• Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits

companies, serving members with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care.

• Products and management Programs: – Aetna offers a broad range of insurance and employee benefits products. – The first national, full-service health insurer to offer a consumer-directed health

plan, Aetna continues to lead the way with its Aetna HealthFund2 line of products, including HSA, HRA and RRA options.

– Aetna offers a wide array of programs and services that help control rising employee benefits costs while striving to improve the quality of health care, such as case management; disease and patient safety programs; integrated medical, dental, pharmaceutical, behavioral health and disability information.

– Aetna provides members with access to convenient tools and easy-to-understand information that can help them make better-informed decisions about their health and financial wellbeing.

3

Automation Team Improves efficiencies and quality at our organization by automating

consistent and repeatable manual tasks using industry standard technologies / tools / frameworks.

AutomationTeam

Assessments & DesignsReports & Metrics

Standards & Best Practices

Automation Development &

Maintenance

Automation Objectives

AutomationObjectives

Automating Right Tasks

Sustaining and Growing Automation Suite

Utilization of existing automation

Our Journey…

• Benefits– Easy identification of

automation opportunities– Higher collaboration between

application & automation teams• Challenges

– Automation development has become expensive

– Usage of different tools & solutions

– Standards & Best practices are not shared across applications

• Benefits– Standardization of automation tool

set at enterprise level– Sharing of coding best practices,

templates and standards– Cost of automation development

is lowered• Challenges

– Slower automation coverage progression

– Lower automated scripts utilization

– Funding Challenges

Decentralized Approach Centralized Approach

Our Journey Cont’d. – Challenges & Solutions

Challenges• Identification of automation opportunities

• Prioritization of automation projects based on ROI

• Cost of automation

• Implementation of optimized designs

Solution• Structuring automation as strategy &

delivery team

Challenges• Early completion of maintenance for

automation scripts

• Funding for automation projects

• Collaboration between automation & business teams

Solution• Create automation life cycle process

and integrate with company's overall software development life cycle

Automation Team Structure

Automation Team

Automation Strategy Team

AutomationDelivery Team

Automation Strategy Team

• Definition: – To provide automation strategic direction and identify

potential new automation opportunities

• Characteristics:– Project management experience– Various automation frameworks/tools knowledge– Ability to manage multiple projects in parallel– Very strong written and verbal communication skills– Very strong leadership and analytical skills

• Activities:– Process & Best Practices– Assessment & Strategies– Design Solutions & Techniques– Estimations & Planning– ROI Cost/Benefit Analysis– Reports & Metrics– Tool Technical Support & Analysis

Automation Delivery Team

• Definition: – To develop, deliver, and maintain automation solutions

• Characteristics:– Understanding of programming principles and best

practices– Knowledge of various automation tools– Knowledge of multiple programming languages– Strong communication skills

• Activities:– Scripts Development– Scripts Maintenance– Coding Standards– Scripts Planning & Execution – Day to Day interactions w/End User

Benefits of Teams Strategy

Benefits

• Easy identification of automation opportunities• Prioritization of automation projects based on ROI• Improved automation design• Optimized the cost of automation• Clearly defined roles & responsibilities• Better communication process• Optimized automation project planning

• Preliminary Estimations• Automation Test Strategy• Business Case - ROI• Selected automation tool• Detailed Estimations• Go, No Go

• Automation Project Plan• Framework documentation –

Re-usable components, Portability, test data grid design, etc.

• Business Process Test (BPT) components

• Automation Scripts• Test Data

• Tested automation scripts

• Automated test execution results

• Lessons Learned• Sign Off

G1 G2 G3

Automation Evaluation

• Understand functionality of the project / application

• Understand testing processes

• Understand target environments

• Understand test data details

• Verify automation tool compatibility

• Identify Automation opportunities

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Automation Preparation

• Identify the resources needed.

• Understand the requirements with the help application demos.

• Create automation framework / design

• Identify timelines and milestones

• Training required for automation tools

• Tool installation if required

• Access & Environment Setup

Automation Generation

• Create Business Process Test (BPT) components

• Parameterize test data in BPT components

• Review components for quality and correctness

• String the BPT components together to create a test script

• Develop automation scripts for BPT components

• Identify test data to conduct unit & acceptance testing

• Unit testing of automation

• Deliver automation to application team

• Execute automation by application team

• Validation of ROI

• Retrospection

• Sign off

Execution & Acceptance

Automation Lifecycle

Team Collaboration

Automation

EvaluationAutomation

Preparation

Automation

Generation

Execution

& Acceptance

Automation Strategy Team

AutomationDelivery Team

Automation ROI Calculator

Automation ROI Calculator

Integration of Automation Lifecycle &Software Development Lifecycle

Automation Evaluation Feasibility/Analysis

Automation Preparation Design

Automation Generation Implementation

Execution & Acceptance

Testing & Maintenance

Benefits of Process Integration

Benefits

• Improved understanding on automation process across the entire organization

• Better collaboration between business and automation teams

• Funding challenges are removed• Improved on-time delivery of automation scripts• Helped to promote the automation across entire

organization• Formal escalation process developed• Initialized the creation of automation reports & metrics

Automation Coverage – Regression Testing

42%Q1-2009

45%Q2-2009

47%Q3-2009

52%Q4-2009

35%Year-2008

Manual Testing Efforts Automated

7,047 hrs

8,570 hrs

10,200 hrs

11,750 hrs

13,803 hrs

Year As of 2008 As of 2009 2009 only effortsTotal Efforts Automated 7047 hrs 13803 hrs 6756 hrs

Year-2008 Q1-2009 Q2-2009 Q3-2009 Q4-2009

Utilization & Cost Avoidance

Q1-2009 Q2-2009 Q3-2009 Q4-2009

Cost Avoidance

7,200 hrs

10,810 hrs9,618 hrs 9,867 hrs

Q1-2009 Q2-2009 Q3-2009 Q4-2009

Utilization

45%

Year-2008

87%

150% 134% 130%

Savings Vs. Cost Avoidance

• Cost Savings– Efforts difference between manual and automation testing– Manual (Not automation) execution frequency– Produced by automation strategy team after assessment– Automation ROI Calculator

• Cost Avoidance– Test coverage difference between manual & automation testing– Efforts difference between manual and automation testing– Automation execution frequency– Generated from Quality Center after release implementation

Helped to improve the credibility of automation metrics significantly

Automation Metrics – Best Practices

Automation is a way of Testing and process followed for manual testing can be applied

• Best Practices followed in Test Management Tool – Quality Center– Define automation work flow

• Regression Testing identifier• Automation Assessment status• Automation Development status

– Store automation inventory – Manage automated test scripts execution

Questions