There’s a new pattern in town. Actually, it’s a pattern language
called MetaAutomation, composed of six patterns, every one based on existing patterns
of problem solving in information technology (IT) but with the addition of World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML technologies to make them much more powerful in
combination.
The existing pattern “Test Automation Framework” (TAF) (Meszaros,
“xUnit Test Patterns,” 2007, p. 298) describes existing practices for driving
and measuring a software product under development. This works, and it delivers
value of course, but it’s limited. With TAF, for example:
·
The customer of the information is people on the
QA team. Somebody on the QA team must manually interpret and present the information
to the wider software team.
·
The difference between what a human tester and
an “automated test” can do is not addressed, causing business risk and
opportunity cost.
·
The issues of blocked product quality
measurements due to failures and flaky checks is not addressed.
·
The issues of prioritization of measurements is
barely addressed.
·
The goal of actionable check failures is not
addressed.
MetaAutomation solves all of these problems, and more:
·
MetaAutomation brings a much higher level of
visibility and respect to the QA role
·
MetaAutomation brings higher visibility to the
developer role
·
MetaAutomation breaks down silo walls with speed
and transparency
·
MetaAutomation shows how a single check can
drive and measure an Internet of Things (IoT) product on multiple tiers
The costs of MetaAutomation? First, take on some paradigm
shifts. These are enumerated on http://MetaAutomation.net.
Second, the quality automation code needs as much care and
detail as product code. The team needs at least one person with software
development skills to be a part of the QA team or role. There are working
solutions available for free on http://MetaAutomation.net.
The diagram below shows how the six patterns of
MetaAutomation compose to form the pattern language, and how they fit in the
context of the business space. The TAF pattern addresses the QA role, but
MetaAutomation delivers value all across the team, even up to the executive
suite for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance.
