Test Automation Foundations

Learn the fundamentals of test automation and explore software testing career paths and skills, gaining an overview of different career options.

Explore roles from test coordinator to test automation engineer, including qa lead and test architect. Learn lifecycle, it project management, and testing methodologies for web, mobile, api testing practices.

Learn how software testing sustains agile delivery in scrum, with automation engineers enabling fast, continuous feedback loops and ci/cd through parallel testing.

Explore the differences between manual and automation testing, and learn to craft a test automation strategy within a scrum team, covering what to automate and when to start.

Explore how generative AI and large language models like ChatGPT, Claude AI, and Gemini CLI accelerate test automation by generating test cases, code, and debugging support.

Develop a solid test automation strategy to drive successful projects, explore the testing pyramid, and decide what to automate and when to start.

Explore the software testing pyramid to balance unit, integration, and UI tests, avoid the ice cream cone anti-pattern, and design a scalable test portfolio.

Define unit testing within the testing pyramid and verify smallest isolatable code units, using get and set methods as examples to highlight early bug detection and refactoring benefits.

As the second step in the testing pyramid, integration testing verifies that modules work together by checking interfaces and intersections between components, using mocks to focus on inter-component behavior.

Explore automated end-to-end testing by modeling real user journeys, validating workflows across hardware, network, databases, and external dependencies, and analyzing requirements to design and run tests within the 70-20-10 pyramid.

Decide what to automate in end-to-end testing by weighing execution time, frequency, stability, and resources, using risk-based scoring to prioritize high-value, data-driven tests.

Timing drives a successful test automation strategy; start with functional testing, define scope and expectations early, and ensure stable builds and environments before adding automation, with transparency to stakeholders.

Explore test automation platforms and tooling options, examine two example test automation projects to help you start quickly.

Explore api automation foundations with Java and Rest Assured, learn to choose open source tools, structure api tests, and run end-to-end booking api tests using Maven and Cucumber.

Learn how web automation lets robots perform browser actions, compare javascript-based tools like playwright, cypress, and test cafe, and explore a sample framework using page object model for cross-browser testing.

Explore mobile automation tools and programming language options, including espresso, xcuitest, and appium, to decide a beginner-friendly, cross-platform approach and learn how source code access influences choice.

Discover low code and no code test automation tools with market trends and popular options AutonomIQ and Mabl, suited for small projects but limited for large, complex tasks.

Explore how ci/cd, including continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, automates testing and deployment through an ideal pipeline with automated api, ui, and performance tests ensuring fast production releases.

Explore prompt engineering for test automation, and practice crafting clear, context-aware prompts to generate automation projects with AI tools like ChatGPT, using playright typescript for login and cart flows.

Learn to create a web UI automation project with Claude AI, using Sonet 4.5, generating a Python page object model in VS Code, and running tests with pytest and Playwright.

Use the Gemini CLI inside Visual Studio Code to generate an API automation project for Restful Booker. Create pytest tests and an API client with happy path and negative scenarios.

Explore test automation management and key metrics in this final chapter. Engage with the material as it reframes management concepts into an approachable, practical overview.

Foster a collaborative test automation culture by aligning developers, testers, DevOps, and product owners to implement a ci/cd integrated strategy with 70% unit test coverage.

Measure the value of test automation through faster feedback, shorter regression time, and return on investment from earlier bug detection, continuous delivery, and frequent releases.

Set a goal and take small steps to reach it while exploring test automation career options, concepts, and choosing and mastering one platform—API, web, or mobile.