Making (Business) Sense of Test Automation

A presentation at ISTA Con in in Sofia, Bulgaria by Iancho Dimitrov

Test Automation is a great way to achieve agility, save time and reduce the amount of tedious tasks your QA team needs to handle. On the other hand, it is neither a silver bullet for assuring quality, nor it is applicable for every project. In order for it to be part of a project it must surely make business sense.

How do you evaluate and justify the introduction of Test Automation in your project – and keeping it in the long-term? How do you integrate it in your QA Strategy and Plan in a way that brings maximized benefits that are recognized by the project team, management and business stakeholders? What measurable goals and metrics can you set, track and report so you transparently show the return of investment in Test Automation? How to regularly present information about work done and results achieved in a way understandable by a broader audience? What prioritization approaches can help you achieve biggest impact? What can you do to keep “costs” under control and not have maintenance efforts “explode”?

Join this session where I’ll share my thoughts and experience on these topics – and I’ll present examples, ideas and approaches that worked well for multi-year automated testing initiatives I have been responsible for.