Have you ever come across with the situation where you are very enthusiastic about doing automation, but your Project does not allow you to do it.
Also, you learned something new in the automation area like UI or API or performance automation etc. And you want to implement automation in your project but you are unable to do it.
The question is “Should automation always be approved by project or client or project stakeholders”?
Well to answer this question we need to understand below factors about the automation.
Will automation implementation hamper any of the project timelines?
Automation implementation should not hamper project timelines. It should not be overhead to the project and should be accounted while Test Planning.
Is it irrelevant to the project?
Before accounting automation for your project, proper analysis should be done. Automation should not be used for showcasing but we should have automation in project to minimise efforts and to deliver accurate and fast results.
Does automation requires more effort’s?
If efforts required to automate particular tests are more than manually testing then no one will approve it. In that case even if we need repeated executions.
Well above discussed points are very specific to the project but there are few factors which are specific to the technology you are going to use for testing.
Have you learned something which is open source?
Every business wants maximum profit and don’t want to invest much in paid tools. It would be good if you know as many as open source tools, frameworks or softwares.
Are you able to create any proof of concept within a short duration of time to showcase it to the project stakeholders?
As no one cares how much you know until you show them what you know. Create small demo to show it to your project stakeholders. I am sure if its useful no one will stop you.
Are you ready to spend some extra time?
At initial stage you might need to spend some extra time apart from your actual work at least when you want to show something you have implemented. Because learning is free but time to learn will not get considered in project schedule.
I hope these thoughts might help you in making decisions on various factors discussed above.
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