Where tools for automated UI test like selenium or Coded UI fits in Dev Ops cycle

Question

My manager asked me to look into how we can utilize automated UI testing to gain productivity and help testers automate basic functionality of the system.

I developed few test suites and cases using selenium ide and they are working perfectly, now I am stuck at recommendation stage. Currently, we don't do any unit testing or integration testing, in fact, all testing is done manually.

We started following dev ops too but with help of a consultant who is not available to help now. Where does automated UI testing stands in Dev Ops cycle?

Would it be developers job to create basic selenium ide test cases and then pass them to testers and if they find any new test case they would add it to test suite ideally without help from devs or minimum.

But can't be sure how this all will fit in if we code a framework using C# which will interact with these cases.

So back to the main question, how automated UI fits in Dev Ops cycle?

Answer 1

In this context, a goal you most likely want to achieve is one of Continuous Integration (CI).

To that end, from the developer side, every check-in will trigger a build (to perform certain checks and see if it passes). Then you will usually have a nightly build that gives you an up-to-date test environment every morning.

Now, this pipeline should include automated tests. You mention C#, so your best bet is likely Selenium WebDriver (.Net bindings) used in MSTest framework. This framework, because it's from Microsoft, is very easily integrated in the VSTS build process.

So you can run tests automatically after each (nightly) build.

On another note, some more recommendations you can make: read up on the test pyramid and try to convince your team of the importance of unit and integration tests.

Also, usually you'll have testers think of the scenarios rather than developers. However, in the case of automated testing they might assist for the technical aspect (setting up framework and boilerplate code).

Answer 2

Would it be developers job to create basic selenium ide test cases and then pass them to testers and if they find any new test case they would add it to test suite ideally without help from devs or minimum.

• Depends on how your company is structured. Having said it, it is uncommon for developers to come up with basic Selenium IDE tests. At least, I have never seen it myself. In terms of testing, developers tend to develop their own unit test cases only.

So back to the main question, how automated UI fits in Dev Ops cycle?

• Automated UI testing tools are best utilized for simpler / smaller testing project only. As they are very susceptible to elements' attributes changes.

• Automated UI testing tools are commonly used for proof of concepts purpose instead of being used for a maintainable, scalable and robust testing project.

• For a maintainable, scalable and robust UI testing project, you have no choice but going for Selenium Webdriver or something similar.

Answer 3

If you look at the continuous delivery principles this would be the "Automated acceptance tests" step. Your continuous integration server should run these tests on each commit and give feedback as soon as possible.

Who shall write these tests depends on your setup and cycle, but I would favor developers to add atleast a happy-path test on the ui-level of the test-pyramid.

Don't use Selenium IDE to run your tests for a serious complex product/project, read this thourhgly: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19683100/why-do-we-use-webdriver-instead-of-selenium-ide