6.2 When Should Automation Occur

Ideally, automation of tests should occur once we have a strong understanding of what needs to be tested, when have defined test cases, and when we've developed test data for those test cases.

When we've achieved the above, we've likely already tested once or more times manually in order to ensure that our test definitions are correct.

This initial manual test activity can save much time for the test automation engineer as that individual will now have valid test conditions and data to work with in developing automated tests.

For traditional development methodologies, this would occur after the initial software release and automation would be most helpful in building out a regression test bed.

For Agile projects, the automation will likely be scheduled as a 1- or 2-sprint offset as individual sprints themselves do not often allow adequate time to build out the test automation architecture and framework. Automation in Agile becomes a work-in-progress where each successive sprint sees additional functionality and maturation added to the test automation solution.