Why Do Most UI Test Automation Fail? (Part 1: Wrong Automation Framework)

The management chose the wrong framework. They should select Selenium WebDriver for web apps, and Appium for Mobile and Desktop apps

FACT: not many software engineers (in Test) received proper education or training in test automation, which is unfortunate. Considering this: 30–40% of staff in a software team are usually testers. Programmers and business analysts spend a lot of time performing functional testing as well. However, to my knowledge, there are few dedicated Functional Testing courses offered at universities. Therefore, it is not surprising that many wrong decisions on test automation are made due to a lack of knowledge.

In this “Why Do Most UI Test Automation Fail?” series, I will share the common mistakes that contribute to test automation failures in software projects.

1. Wrong choice of automation framework
2. Wrong choice of test syntax framework
3. Wrong choice of test scripting language
4. Wrong choice of test automation tool (coming soon)
5. Don’t understand Test Creation Only Account for ~10% of Web Test Automation Efforts
6. Don’t know how to design easy-to-maintain test scripts (coming soon)
7. Lack of efficiency in creating, debugging, and maintaining automated tests (coming soon)
8. Run automated UI tests in CI servers such as Jenkins (coming soon)

The above are just technical mistakes. There are other ones that are made due to human reasons (I plan to write some articles on it as well). Anyway, here is the first mistake of the series.

Wrong choice of automation framework

This is the most frustrating area in my 14-years consulting career in test automation. Managers or architects often made wrong decisions when selecting the automation framework, while the good choice is obvious.