Over the last several weeks, we’ve had the good fortune of meeting with several of the leading QA automation experts in the DFW area – folks like Greg Paskal and Paul Grizzaffi. Due to their recognized skill and experience, Both Greg and Paul are frequently invited to speak at QA industry events, on a wide variety of automation topics – from expected ROI from automation initiatives to best practice methods for implementation.
Paul and Greg are automation advocates, but in their conversations they emphasize the need to set proper expectations for all stakeholders when beginning automation initiatives.
Some of my takeaways from these conversations include:
- Automation approach is often custom – the business situation and supporting programming environments should be evaluated individually if needed.
- There are multiple tools and methods to automate – managers may need to be selective depending on the scenario. For some situations such as file compares/verifications, a simple custom program could be the best option. For multi-platform regression, a suitable commercial third party solution may provide the best return on investment of time and cost.
- The pace of automation is important – in many cases, automation should be implemented gradually, e.g. – don’t attempt to automate the entire regression base at once, find pilots, execute, and improve
- Automation can be extremely valuable with significant ROI – IF PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, IMPLEMENTED and MANAGED
Our video HERE reflects a formula for typical return from automation initiatives. But, the above wisdom shared by seasoned experts should be considered when evaluating automation projects. Thanks again to Paul and Greg for their valuable insight.
Bob Foster
SIgn up