E2E Test Automation Anti-Pattern: Developer-Focused Approach. Part 1: It is Black-Box Testing!

Developers: E2E Test Automation is a completely different game. Most senior developers are simply not qualified (i.e. not capable). Only a very small percentage of senior developers may reach that level in their life careers.

This is an article in the E2E Test Automation Anti-Pattern series.

• Part 1: It is Black-Box Testing!
• Part 2: Scripting Language, Frameworks and Tools
• Part 3: Most developers Lack Proficiency in Test Automation
• Part 4: Hard to Steer Away even after it is Proved Wrong

I first saw the term ‘Developer-Loved” (or Developer-Focused) associated with end-to-end test automation on Cypress’s website.

My first reaction was, “Why does this test automation tool company advertise the obviously wrong thing? Don’t they even understand the meaning of End-to-End Testing?”

Definition of End-to-End Testing: a testing method that evaluates the entire application flow, from start to finish. In E2E testing, the software is tested from the end user’s perspective, simulating a real user scenario, including the user interface, …[source: browserstack]

End-to-end testing is totally independent of Coding

The two keywords: end-user & user interface.

According to World Quality Report 2018–19, “The first time ever that `end-user satisfaction” is the top objective of quality assurance and software testing strategy”.

It is quite clear that End-to-End testing has the following attributes:

• the most important type of functional testing (top-objective)
  the top tier (hinted at most valuable) in Testing Pyramid. Don’t be fooled by comments or posts by fake automated testers (due to their incompetence). Just think about it…