While automating all of your manual test cases with Oracle Application Testing Suite (Oracle OATS) can be a surefire way to an ROI, not all enterprise-level companies execute enough test cases to merit it or funding to commit to it. For those companies, smoke test automation may be a better solution.
Photo courtesy of Kim Seng (Creative Commons)
| This company was concerned with the varying tax rates on orders flowing through their continuously-changing applications. Naturally, testing those “events” manually is a non-trivial process, so they looked toward another direction: end-to-end automation. |
If you’ve ever read anything that we’ve written about Oracle Application Testing Suite, you can tell we’re pretty big fans.
And why not? When the vast majority of the enormous quantity of repetitive testing required for every patch, update, and release of your ERP system can be executed with the mere press of a button, you have a recipe for a pretty significant ROI. For enterprise-level companies with Oracle ERP systems or custom web applications, automation seems like a no-brainer.
That is, unless those companies don’t account for that kind of testing in the first place.
While discrete-test automation may make a lot of sense intuitively, a lot of organizations simply don’t do enough of that type of testing to justify the investment. The truth is that a lot of companies don’t have formal testing requirements in place for patches, releases, and upgrades—they simply rely on their SMEs to make sure that “enough” testing is done to ensure user satisfaction. Without stringent testing criteria, the “traditional” value of automation is abstract at best.
So does that mean that Oracle OATS is worthless to companies like this? Not by a long shot.
During a presentation at the recent Oracle OpenWorld conference, a current Oracle OATS user detailed their strategy for test automation. Just like the aforementioned organizations, they didn’t have enough need to automate their discrete test cases. Instead, the folks at this company were much more concerned with “events”. Also known as the end-to-end process of ferrying data across multiple modules in Oracle EBS, these intricate processes can wreak havoc on testing teams due to their multiple moving parts and lengthy time to complete.
In this company’s case, they were concerned with the varying tax rates on orders flowing through their continuously-changing applications. Naturally, testing those “events” is a non-trivial process, so they looked toward another direction: automation. By automating the full end-to-end process (an endeavor that included the time-consuming task of parameterizing every field in every form to ensure data validation), the company can now smoke test 1200 different “events” with just the press of a button—making for an easily-maintained, adaptable system with simpler, faster defect detection.
Now, it’s worth bearing in mind that even though this company’s approach is innovative, noteworthy, and valuable, it’s certainly not the most cohesive, either. In ignoring discrete-test automation, companies aren’t just ignoring a potential ROI; they’re losing the chance to test much more comprehensively. Since executing automated test scripts requires little human involvement, running a test 1 time is as easy as doing it 1000! It’s this comprehensive testing that not only drives savings (through the elimination of costly rework and error-driven revenue loss); but also user satisfaction.
Granted, how much a company tests comes down to how risk-averse they choose to be. And while that trait may vary wildly across the various companies that run Oracle ERP systems or custom web apps, one fact will always ring true: Oracle OATS is about the most risk-averse investment a company can make—no matter how they choose to utilize it.
Cheers,
Mike Hodge
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc
Software Testing | Quality Assurance Consulting | Oracle EBS Consulting
