Speed is crucial in the fiercely competitive market. The inability to provide items more quickly would result in lost sales and, as a result, competition from companies with more rapid product release cycles. Meeting this objective would be hindered by the legacy of monolithic systems with embedded decisioning and processing logic. The adoption of “decision services,” decoupled and modular systems, service-oriented architecture, and others are some of the routes insurers are taking to meet their goal of producing products more quickly. The insurers that use technology to develop their business and operations will survive in this competitive market, as was previously said. Supporting the testing value chain in a modular fashion, where applications are not all in one and can decouple and share some essential components, is one of the main ways QA testers are modernizing their infrastructure.
How quickly can we modify the current systems to satisfy the new demands?
A faster pace for new products is ensured by achieving the speed imperative, but flexibility is also necessary to adapt to market changes and adjust existing items. Hardwired data, system flows, and code-based product logic prevent simple updates to the existing systems. Real-time interaction requirements and the requirement for agent interfaces are added to this, necessitating the employment of technologies like business process management systems and business rules management systems.
How can we guarantee the standard of our brand-new products?
The quality of the delivered goods is even more crucial as technology accelerates and seeks to keep up with consumer demands. Failure to achieve quality standards can be fatal for both the product and the insurer due to loss of credibility and reputation. Although thorough testing is necessary to assure quality, the effort required by manual testing methods is so great that the insurer is forced to choose between speed and quality. A number of strategies, including risk-based testing, would reduce but not completely eliminate the danger of not thoroughly testing the application. In order to reconcile quality and a shortened time to market, automated software QA testing is a logical first step.
The article’s final section examines test automation in general and the business rules-based approach that insurers can use to achieve their speed and flexibility requirements without compromising the quality of their products.
Test automation challenges
There are still many obstacles that test automation must overcome despite its amazing evolution. Here are some of such difficulties.
- Price: Test automation is a continuous process. To stay up with updates to the relevant application, test scripts written during the initial automation exercise must be updated. For any of the conventional methods, there is a significant investment in time and money.
- Expert in automation dependency: The majority of test automation is a technical task carried out by a knowledgeable automation expert.
- Testers play a smaller role: Contrarily, users who typically have a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities of the application have minimal influence because automation is a technical activity.
- Reliance on application readiness: Scripting often begins only when the application is prepared (except in advanced keyword-driven frameworks, which are expensive).
- Platform lock-in: Conventional test automation frameworks frequently produce platform lock-in, which, once established, might be problematic if a platform change is necessary.
- Documentation: Prior to automating processes, requirements must be thoroughly defined. After the framework is defined, each customization or modification takes time.
Business Rules-Based Test Automation Approach
The methodology used by Business Rules-Based Test Automation (BRTA) addresses the problems with test automation mentioned above. The method specifies an adaptable framework that enables the user to specify in English both the test scenarios and the business rules for the application, and to produce automated test scripts from these. The following essential ideas form the foundation of the BRTA strategy:
Empowering industry professionals in test automation
The business rules repository built and updated by the business analysts in collaboration with QA testers is where the new designed Test Automation approach gets its test cases and automated test scripts according to a given strategy. As a result, without being overly dependent on the test of a certain automation specialist, the business users (analysts/testers/etc) are able to determine the route for automation.
An strategy that is platform agnostic offers flexibility
The method avoids the requirement for considerable reinvestment when newer test automation platforms arise by providing an abstract layer on top of the existing test automation platform. Also, the strategy would offer flexibility because it could support many application technology platforms.
A Framework Based on Business Rules with a Logical Architecture
A group of technical elements work together to form the framework for test automation of business rules-intensive applications, which enables test automation without the use of test cases. Below is a brief summary of the logical architecture elements of the BRTA infrastructure.
- Modeler of Rules: Business analysts are given the Rules Modeler interface to define the business and make it simple to enter business rules into the Business Rules Repository.
- Business Rules Database: All of the business rules pertinent to the application are stored in one place. The two elements listed above are supplied by a BRMS if one is used.
- Modeler of test scenarios: Business testers may quickly define test cases thanks to this user-friendly, web-based platform. It provides clearly defined modules for creating test scripts, writing test cases, and defining test data.
- Scripting engines: They provide test scripts that are syntax-ready and ready to run for a variety of tools and technologies, including Mercury, Rational, and Compuware. They enable those without specialized knowledge of automation to write scripts. Function library with keywords: Even for complex operations, scripting is made simpler by a comprehensive library that supports a wide range of technologies and tools with built-in error handling, nonuser interface methods, and user interface functions.
- Document creation: Every automated test case generates documentation, which is simpler to maintain because all updates are made automatically.
Benefits of the approach
In comparison to the conventional technique, the BRTA approach offers businesses multiple major advantages, such as:
Independence from Manual Test Cases: The new method does not demand the creation of manual test cases. Instead of manually creating test cases, script development can start right away after the requirement phase.
Separation of duties: The framework divides the application navigational flow from the validation of business rules. It examines each application screen and its corresponding rules before automating each one as a separate part. By allowing for the sequencing of these individual components into the many flows that must be evaluated, the navigational aspect is addressed.
Single point updates: The framework enables the upkeep of a single repository for business rules that represents the most recent rules. The rules in the lone repository, which also serves as the application rules repository, serve as the inspiration for test scripts. This makes it easier to make sure that the application rules and the rules that test scripts use are in sync.
Simple Rules Management: The framework’s Rules Modeler module makes it simple to modify business rules. The modeler offers a simple, intuitive interface that conceals the technological complexity from the business analyst.
Extensibility of the framework: Even after the script construction stage, the framework gives the tester the freedom to combine individual test scenario components to create any end-to-end test scenario flows. As a result, the framework can be expanded to include circumstances that may not have been foreseen when it was first developed.
Conclusion
Testers could gain a competitive edge by using faster products and simpler customization to meet the demands of the quickly evolving software testing industry. With a shorter product release cycle, test automation would guarantee product quality. To achieve quality, speed, and flexibility, modern testing engineers will need to look beyond the conventional approaches to test automation. Organizations could fully and efficiently benefit from test automation with the help of the BRTA approach, achieving their business goals in the process.
