Update on the test automation framework

About a year ago I started harping on the test automation bandwagon, and had introduced basic smoketests & New Relic Synthetics 'scripted browser' monitors (both Selenium-based).  In the spring of 2016 I used the Pluralsight course 'https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/automated-testing-framework-selenium' to help build our inaugural UI test framework.  I wrote out a number of smoketests and 'hey this bit us on the last deploy, let's write a test for it', and the idea quickly proved itself.  Very shortly afterward we hired a QA guy specifically for automation experience, and now...
  • He (Dan Lomanto) took the framework to a whole new level, and it's now the defacto way forward for QA
  • More QA folk were hired, and they are now learning to use the framework to write mundane tests
  • Some QA folk initially were 100% in the camp of 'QAs do not write code, ever' - and now they are pushing themselves forward - learning not just our UI framework, but learning API testing as well!
  • The initial QA automation hire (who continues to be awesome and an inspiration) has also written an API test framework in a similar vein, and we're now starting to adopt that as 'how we test APIs'
  • The future is very exciting for us, and more and more 'high business value' things are coming down the line...
This is a very brief success story, but wanted to share for those stuck in 'this is impossible'-land.

Our path to software quality started only a year ago with...
  1. Zero QA staff, little monitoring
  2. Some QA staff, but not interested in automation, very basic monitoring
  3. Semi-automated smoketests and scripted monitors
  4. A UI test automation framework borne from a month of evenings/weekends and a Pluralsight course (zero experience)
  5. A functional and useful framework taken to the next level by a QA automation hire
  6. More and more interest in QA to join the automation crew
  7. API testing using SoapUI
  8. API test framework that will leverage Postman code generation
  9. Investigation into Cucumber/SpecFlow...
You won't know until you try...

P.S.  I should note that much of this is 'after the fact' software quality.  In hindsight it might have been more effective to push harder on centralized logging/metrics (which is now also a thing, and super amazing).  You should also note that people made this successful.  :)

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