My Innovative Solution to Test Automation: ‘The Simpsons’ Data Reset Pattern
Data reset will greatly reduce a software team’s effort to test data management, and it is particularly useful for automated testing.
11 min readJul 6, 2022
This is included in “My Innovative Solution to Test Automation and Continuous Testing” series.
As one of the most iconic TV shows, ‘The Simpsons’ is the longest-running television series in the USA with its first episode aired in 1989. In this article, I would like to explore the mindset of the show’s genius creators that helped to make so many good episodes for over 30 years, and apply it to my software development and test automation.
At the beginning of a typical ‘The Simpsons’ episode:
- Homer is working as a nuclear plant safety technician
- Marge is a housewife
- Bart is a naughty boy at Springfield Elementary School
- Lisa is a smart girl in the same school as her brother
- Maggie is a baby, with a dummy in her mouth most of the time
During the episode, Homer (and his family) might have all sorts of adventures, such as becoming rich, changing jobs, getting injured, becoming a movie star, relocating…
