Behavior Patterns for Designing Automated Tests

Automated GUI tests often fail to find important bugs because testers do not understand or model intricate user behaviors. Real users are not just monkeys banging on keyboards. As they use a system, they may make dozens of instantaneous decisions, all of which result in complex paths through the software code. To create successful automated test cases, testers must learn how to model users' real behaviors. This means test cases cannot be simple, recorded, one-size-fits-all scripts. Jamie Mitchell describes several user behavior patterns that can be adopted to create robust and successful automated tests. One pattern is the 4-step dance, which describes every user GUI interaction: (1) ensure you're at the right place in the screen hierarchy; (2) provide data to the application; (3) trigger the system; and (4) wait for the system to complete its actions. Join Jamie to learn how this pattern and others can guide your implementation of each automated GUI test.

• Why simplistic automated scripts are worse than useless
• Faulty assumptions we make when automating test cases
• Patterns to help your GUI test automation designs