What is Test Automation Framework?

Suppose you are given a task where you have to automate some test cases for an application. When you are finished automating the application, what would be your expectations from the scripts you have created? Wouldn’t you want that –

• the scripts should run as intended without any issues.
• the code and the flows should be easy to understand.
• the scripts should be easy to maintain in case of any changes.

All the above points can be achieved by using a proper Automation Framework.
An Automation Framework is a set of guidelines that you can follow during test case scripting to achieve the above mentioned results. This set of guidelines can be anything such as –

• Specifying the folder structure that will be used for storing test cases, function libraries, object repositories and data sheets.
• Deciding the format of the data sheets i.e., how the data sheets would be grouped and how the scripts will access these data sheets.
• Following proper coding standards and using comments so that the code can be understood easily by anyone.
• Using reusable functions wherever possible so that lesser amount of rework is needed in case of any changes

NOTE: These are just a set of guidelines and not some rules that should compulsorily be followed. Even if you don’t follow any of these guidelines, you would be able to come up with test scripts that would run perfectly fine. But you might not have the additional advantages like readability of code, ease of maintenance etc.

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