ABSTRACT: The case for automating the Software Testing Process has been made repeatedly and convincingly by numerous testing professionals. A number of Automated Test Tools have been developed for GUI-based applications as well as Mainframe applications, and several of these are quite good in as much as they provide the user with the basic tools required to automate their testing process. Increasingly, however, we have seen companies purchase these tools, only to realize that implementing a cost-effective automated testing solution is far more difficult than it appears. We often hear something like "It looked so easy when the tool vendor (salesperson) did it, but my people couldn’t get it to work.", or, "We spent 6 months trying to implement this tool effectively, but we still have to do most of our testing manually.", or, "It takes too long to get everything working properly. It takes less time just to test manually.” The end result, all too often, is that the tool ends up on the shelf as just another "purchasing mistake".
The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with a clear understanding of what is actually required to successfully implement cost-effective automated testing. Rather than engage in a theoretical dissertation on this subject, I have endeavored to be as straightforward and brutally honest as possible in discussing the issues, problems, necessities, and requirements involved in this enterprise.
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