What is Testability vs Automatability? How to improve your Software Testing.

Testability is different from Automatability.

- Testability - does the application have features that make it easier for a human to test?
- Automatizability (Automatability) - does the application have features that make it easier to control and interrogate by another application.

You will learn:

- What is Testability?
- What is automatability?
- What is automatizability?
- Adding testability features can introduce risk.
- Features that aid automated execution, can overlap with features that aid testing, but they are not the same.

You can watch the video that explains this all in more detail at https://youtu.be/gL8hmAH4ZGM

Transcript

1. Testability vs Automatability
   Alan Richardson
   www.eviltester.com
   www.compendiumdev.co.uk
   @eviltester
   @EvilTester 1
   

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2. If we can test an application then it is
   testable.
   @EvilTester 2
   

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3. We can increase our ability to test an
   application by using tools and
   understanding the technology.
   @EvilTester 3
   

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4. Some technologies are easier to test
   than others, they have a higher intrinsic
   testability.
   This is a subjective assessment.
   I find a web app more testable than a mobile app or a green
   screen app.
   more tools support my testing of the web technology and
   mobile technology
   ergonomics and usability of the web technology are easier
   for me to test than the mobile app
   etc.
   @EvilTester 4
   

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5. We can increase the testability of an
   application by adding features to help us
   test it more easily.
   This makes the application more testable.
   Some of the features might help usability.
   @EvilTester 5
   

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6. Testability is not Automatizability
   Testability ‐ does the application have features that make it
   easier for a human to test?
   Automatizability ﴾Automatability﴿ ‐ does the application have
   features that make it easier to control and interrogate by
   another application.
   @EvilTester 6
   

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7. The features we add to make it more
   testable are not necessarily the same
   features that we add to make it more
   automatable.
   e.g. logging
   Improved testability by logging that shows hard to observe
   messages or internal state transitions or variables
   the logging might improve Automatizability if it is parsable
   and accessible by another program
   @EvilTester 7
   

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8. The features we add might come with
   Risks.
   It might impact Usability if it clutters the screen or confuses the
   user so the user needs to be able to choose if they see it or not
   It might impact security if it gives away too much information
   so we need to be able to switch it off the ability to see it for
   specific users, or environments
   It might impact performance, so we might need to only have it
   run on specific environments
   @EvilTester 8
   

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9. Summary:
   Testability is not Automatizability ﴾Automatability﴿
   Testability relates to Human interaction
   Automatizability relates to application interaction
   Some technologies are more testable than others because of
   tool support and usability
   Application testability can be increased by adding specific
   features to support testing
   Testability features might overlap Automatizability features
   Application automatizability supports programmable
   observation, interrogation and manipulation
   @EvilTester 9
   

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10. End
    Alan Richardson www.compendiumdev.co.uk
    Linkedin ‐ @eviltester
    Twitter ‐ @eviltester
    Instagram ‐ @eviltester
    Facebook ‐ @eviltester
    Youtube ‐ EvilTesterVideos
    Pinterest ‐ @eviltester
    Github ‐ @eviltester
    Slideshare ‐ @eviltester
    @EvilTester 10
    

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11. BIO
    Alan is a Software Development and Testing Coach/Consultant who
    enjoys testing at a technical level using techniques from
    psychotherapy and computer science. In his spare time Alan is
    currently programming a Twitter client called ChatterScan, and
    multi‐user text adventure game. Alan is the author of the books
    "Dear Evil Tester", "Java For Testers" and "Automating and Testing a
    REST API". Alan's main website is compendiumdev.co.uk and he
    blogs at blog.eviltester.com
    @EvilTester 11
    

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