Software Testing Social Network

Maintenance
Test case maintenance must occur when changes occur in the application behavior or in the design of a keyword that is being used in one or more test cases. A properly implemented keyword framework will allow the tester to find all instances of a keyword via some query mechanism, reducing the often-painful process of finding the impacted test cases to one simple step. Furthermore, a well-implemented keyword framework should support global changes to keyword instances.

Keyword implementations

GUI (graphical user interface)
Keyword solutions for GUI-based applications are the easiest to understand and implement. Most shareware, freeware and commercial applications of keyword testing deal with this space.

API (application programming interface)
Keyword solutions for API-based applications appear more complex on the surface, but once these applications are broken down into their discrete functional business events, their behavior is much the same as an equivalent GUI application.

If the business event were "Logon User," it doesn't really matter what application mechanism is used to implement the event. The keyword would look and behave the same if the business drivers were the same. There are several keyword solution vendors that deal with the API space, and the same vendor often has a solution for GUI applications.

Telecom (Telecommunication Protocols)
Keyword solutions for the telecom space (example SS7) require an intimate understanding of telecommunication protocols. There are vendors that offer keyword solutions in this space.

Keywords and test phases

Unit test
Keywords can be applied to unit tests, but it is not recommended. The development group, using the tools and techniques available in the development suite, should do the unit tests.

Function (integration test)
Keyword test solutions focused on designing and implementing keywords as discrete functional business events offer one of the most cost-effective and maintainable test frameworks for function tests. In fact, if test automation of a GUI- or API-based application is required or desired, there are few frameworks that can match its short-term or long-term ROI.

System test
A keyword-based testing solution that leverages the keywords from function test to the system test phase will help expedite the testing process. An effective keyword framework will allow the test designer to combine function-level keywords into system-level keywords.

System-level keywords deal with complete business events rather than the discrete functional business events that make up a business thread. For example, a system-level keyword could be "Complete Customer Application." And that could be made up of this chain of function-level keywords: "Enter Customer Name," "Enter Customer Contact Information," "Enter Customer Personal Information" and "Save Customer Record."

User acceptance tests
Keywords can be applied to user acceptance tests, but it is not recommended unless this is an extensive phase of testing. The end user community using the tools, techniques and processes available in production best perform user acceptance tests.

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