QW2002 Paper 6A1

Michael R. Waller & Timothy D. Nelson
(STAMP Technologies)

Reducing Test Automation Maintenance Costs

Key Points

Presentation Abstract

Many organizations attempt to implement test automation, but end up with shelfware instead of testware. This can represent a substantial loss in costs associated with tool evaluation, licenses, and training. Additionally, this can adversely impact team productivity & morale, which creates a lost opportunity to improve the effectiveness of the testing process. Testers can spend many hours creating automated tests only to find the same scripts take much more time to maintain and enhance. There are many reasons why the maintenance cost of automation tests are high.

As maintenance activities climb, the focus and creativity of the testers quickly turns to software maintenance instead of their real job… testing the application. Project deadlines approach, the testing schedule falls further behind, and the decision is made to cut your losses and proceed manually. Management deems the automation effort a failure and the automated tests & tool are relegated to shelfware. Why did the test automation process fail? What is the real problem?

About the Author

Michael R. Waller is a Senior QA Consultant. He has over 20 years of IT experience including software QA, test automation, software development, and operations. His business sector experience spans manufacturing, financial, and software development companies. He has an MS in Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a BS in Math/Computer Science from Boise State University. Mike can be reached at mwaller@stamptech.net.

Timothy D. Nelson is a Senior QA Test Automation Specialist. He has 25 years of IT and programming experience within the test and QA industry. He has a BS in EE from the University of Minnesota, with minors in both computer science and business. His experience has extended across several different engineering and business development sectors. He has engineered diagnostic and automated test systems for hardware gate and block model simulators to designing custom enterprise wide test automation frameworks for client/server and Web based technologies. He is now a principle owner in a Software Test and QA consulting firm (STAMP Technologies, LLC) that is developing a new generation of highly qualified software test and automation specialists. Tim can be reached at tdnelson@stamptech.net.