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The Test automation Pyramid series Starts on episode 1 and runs to episode 8.
Episode:
While the bottom of the test pyramid is big enough to house a few soccer fields and a monster truck rally, the top floor of the pyramid only has room for a pool table, a big screen tv, and a minibar fridge. Oh yeah, and macro tests.
These high maintence tests require at least part of the application to be deployed, network and DB connections and operate slowly, but they can confirm the functionality works as the customer expected.
All organizations are familiar with how to manually execute such tests using people operating the UI or via API testing tools such as SoapUI and SQL consoles, so these are the first tests that come to mind when organizations think about building test automation. But these tests have the highest cost to implement and maintain, and have the least value due to taking hours to days to report pass or fail. This has resulted in companies with a test automation pyramid flipped on its top because they’ve over invested in macro tests and have barely invested in micro tests. This is a costly mistake. Buying Macro tests are like shopping with high interest-rate credit cards because they cost a lot to maintain. To avoid going broke, only build them for situations that can’t be checked with micro tests.
Economics is what gives us a test pyramid, were the bottom (the part largest in area) are unit tests, the top (smallest in area) are macro tests that depend on the UI, DB, and other system dependencies. Upside down pyramids are very expense and likely to tumble.
A good strategy for building macro tests is to automate acceptance criteria for User Stories. We’ll cover User Stories and acceptance tests in a future episode. Before that, prepare yourself for the next episode, where we reveal the secret middle floor of the pyramid–it’s a secret floor and the hardest to describe. The only question is, will it be filled with treasure or heart ache?
