Why is Object Identification GUI Utility in Test Automation Unnecessary?

Don’t waste time and money on a tool that slows you down and generates inferior test steps.

This article is one of the “Be aware of Fake Test Automation/DevOps Engineers” series.

In Automated End-to-End Testing, many so-called ‘cool’ features (as below) are either counter-productive or unnecessary:

• Record-n-Playback
• Object Identification Utility
• Test execution recording, e.g. video/screenshots

In this article, I will talk about “Object Identification” (some tool vendors call it ‘Object Map’). I have been developing/maintaining thousands of automated UI (web) tests since 2005, and have never used “Object Identification” utilities(except reviewing).

Test automation vendors often highlight the Object Identification utility as a helpful tool for creating automated tests with ease. In reality, it is unnecessary. As a matter of fact, it will be far better without it.

Object Identification in Micro Focus’s UFT Developer