Please, Not Another Web Test Automation Framework, Just Use Raw Selenium WebDriver

Don’t ruin your test automation with a silly mistake — “building a new test framework”

(the code horror image is borrowed from the Code Complete book)

Update 2023–02-09: a new related article, An Unbelievable True Story: People’s Fixation on an Obviously Failed “Self-Created” Test Automation Framework

Recently I saw alarming text such as “Creating your own Automation Framework” repeatedly appearing in some test automation video courses and blog posts. As a test automation consultant and coach, I believe this has to be one of the most unnecessary and insane mistakes that will kill your test automation attempts. Sadly, this mistake is common.

Videos teach you to “Design a test framework”, Job Ads criteria: “Create test automation framework”, Crazy!

I would like to give out my recommendation first: just use raw Selenium WebDriver. The reasons are simple:

• WebDriver is a W3C standard
• WebDriver is the only framework supported by all major browsers: Chrome (Google), Firefox, Safari (Apple), and IE/Edge (Microsoft)

Automated UI tests for web apps are executed in a browser. Without browser vendors’ support, how can a test framework…