There are no secrets, but the paths to success are not commonly understood. Dorothy Graham describes the most important automation issues that you must address, both management and technical, and helps you understand and choose the best approaches for your organization—no matter which automation tools you use.

Target Audience
This workshop is aimed at managers who need to understand the key issues in making test automation successful. Technical issues are covered at a high level of understanding; there are no tool demos!

Contents
1)    Planning and Managing Test Automation

• Responsibilities; tester versus test automator
• The role of a pilot project for automation
• Test automation objectives: Beware of poor ones, recognize good ones, devise your own
• Measures for automation
• Return on Investment

2)    Testware Architecture

• The importance of a good testware architecture
• What needs to be organized
• An approach

3)    Pre- and Post-Processing

• Automating more than tests
• Test status: More than just Pass/Fail

4)    Scripting Techniques

• Objectives of scripting
• Different types of script: Linear, structured, data-driven, keyword-driven
• Advanced Keyword-driven and DSTL (Domain-Specific Test Language)

5)    Automated Comparison

• Automated test verification
• Test sensitivity: Sensitive versus specific/robust comparisons
• Simple versus complex comparisons, the use of filters

6)    Advice and Direction

• Automation advice
• Lessons learned from others
• Next steps: Your test automation strategy
• Conclusion

Presenter
Dorothy Graham has been in testing for more than 30 years and is co-author of Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, and Foundations of Software Testing. Her new book, Experiences in Test Automation co-authored with Mark Fewster, will be published in 2011. She helped start testing qualifications in the UK, and founded Grove Consultants in 1989, leaving in 2008 to become an independent consultant again. Dorothy holds the European Excellence Award in Software Testing and was Program Chair for EuroSTAR in 1993 and 2009.

Program committee
The special interest group for Software Testing
Pål Hauge - Nets AS
Trude Rosendal - Sogeti Norge AS

The workshop lasts from 09:00-16:00. Lunch at 11:40-12:40 and coffee breaks at 10:00 and 14:00.