CopenhagenContext 2015

In a company I worked for we had a world class test automation setup. The tests ran as they should, giving us time to focus on developing new checks and exploring the product in other ways. This was the happy golden times for us testers.
A major technology shift in the industry impacted our product and this forced us to re-write our test framework, the automation system and all our checks.
The major rework required more resources than we had available and we came to a point where we were spending all our time trying to correct test scripts and had no time to think about new checks (or at least no time to implement them).

I will explain how the situation changed and then talk about what lessons I learned from this experience and by doing so hopefully get the listeners to start thinking about their own test automation situation.
One lesson learned was that you need to be aware of your context and constantly evaluate your current approach. For example when you have had a working test automation setup it can be really hard to let go when it isn’t that good anymore. It is easy to end up in a state where everything will be alright if you only fix this thing, then the next thing and so on when you really should let it go and do something else.

Key takeaways:
What once have worked might not work when the context change
Awareness of signs that your automation is maybe not working as intended
Awareness of the problem of letting go
Some reasons to why it can be hard to let go