“Actions beat arguments” in End-to-End (via UI) Test Automation

Talk is cheap; Show them executions of real automated tests.

2023–03–08, DHH, a software legend (creator of Ruby on Rails, co-founder of 37Signals and co-author of the best-selling ‘Rework’ book series), posted a short article titled “Actions beat arguments”. A very good read.

This article will detail my reflections on the concept of “Actions beat arguments,” drawing from my 17 years of experience in end-to-end test automation.

Table of Contents:
· Some Typical Wrong Statements in End-to-End Test Automation.
∘ 1. 😱 “Selenium has a steep learning curve.”
∘ 2. 😱 “It takes considerable effort to create automated tests.”
∘ 3. 😱 “We shall use the coding language for scripting automated tests.”
∘ 4. 😱 “Ruby is a slow language.”
∘ 5. 😱 “Selenium WebDriver is complex to set up”.
∘ 6. 😱 “End-to-End (via UI) test automation is impossible, so we should do API testing instead”.
· Debating usually ends with no good
· Beat ≠ Win