Preschoolers Can Navigate Websites, Why Do So Many Test Automation Engineers Fail in Web Test Automation?

One reason: complicating things unnecessarily.

Image Credits: https://pixabay.com/vectors/mouse-computer-technology-internet-34688/; https://pixabay.com/illustrations/student-child-laptop-pc-kid-boy-5675055/; https://pixabay.com/vectors/employee-desk-stress-exhausted-6038877/

Recently, I saw a preschooler use a kids-friendly website swiftly, he could explain his operations, such as “go to the site, click this link, enter a number, click the button, should see X”. Basically, an end-user navigates a website.

This made me think: “Isn’t a web test automation engineer’s main job to automate the operations that a preschooler can perform?”

A preschooler can learn how to use the web quickly means three things:

• Web knowledge (e.g. clicking links, entering text, selecting from dropdown ) is easy to understand
• The web hasn’t changed much in decades
• They can apply what newly learned to any website, i.e., they get proficient quickly

The above aspects apply to test automation engineers, right? To put it simply, a test automation engineer gets paid to perform the same operations that a preschooler can do, using automation scripts.

Please note, I AM NOT SAYING “END TO END (via UI) TEST AUTOMATION IS EASY”, not at all. There are challenges with maintenance, where the effort and skills exceed the team’s…