all the world's a stage – the next step in automated testing practices

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The next step in automated testing practicesAll the world’s a stage

@wakaleo @JanMolak

John Ferguson

Smart

John Ferguson Smart

“I help teams of smart people learn to work together more efficiently,

to deliver better software sooner”

@wakaleo @JanMolak

Jan Molak“Having great ideas is not enough,

it’s the execution that matters”

JanMolak jan.molak@smartcodeltd.co.uk

Jan Molak

@wakaleo @JanMolak

Test AutomationDo it well, or don’t do it at all

@JanMolak@wakaleo

How much are your tests worth?

Weekly cost vs

weekly savings$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

$140,000

$160,000

$180,000

1/09/2015 1/10/2015 1/11/2015 1/12/2015

Test0suite0cost0vs0savings0(per0week)

Cost0saved0par0week Test0suite0cost0per0week

Team cost is constant

Time saved increases with the number of executed tests

@JanMolak@wakaleo

How much are your tests worth?

$0

$200,000

$400,000

$600,000

$800,000

$1,000,000

$1,200,000

1/09/2015 1/10/2015 1/11/2015 1/12/2015

What0is0your0test0suite0worth?

Test0suite0ROI Test0suite0cost

Cumulated cost vs

cumulated savings

Cumulated value should increase faster than cumulated cost

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Now factor in high maintenance

40-60%Typical maintenance overhead for poorly-written test suites

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Now factor in high maintenance

Number of tests

Main

tena

nce

over

head

@JanMolak@wakaleo

$0$50,000

$100,000$150,000$200,000$250,000$300,000$350,000$400,000$450,000$500,000

1/09/2015 1/10/2015 1/11/2015 1/12/2015 1/01/2016

What0is0your0test0suite0worth?

Test0suite0cost Test0suite0ROI

Now factor in high maintenance

High-maintenance costs reduce the number of tests a team can write

High maintenance costs can cause your test suite to lose value

@wakaleo

Narrative Coding Style

Open-Closed Principle

Single Responsibility Principle

Separation of Concerns

Software Engineering Principles can help you write more maintainable tests

@wakaleo

Narrative Coding Style

Open-Closed Principle

Single Responsibility Principle

Separation of Concerns

Software Engineering Principles can help you write more maintainable tests

@wakaleo

Narrative Coding Style

Open-Closed Principle

Single Responsibility Principle

Separation of Concerns

Software Engineering Principles can help you write more maintainable tests

@wakaleo

Narrative Coding Style

Open-Closed Principle

Single Responsibility Principle

Separation of Concerns

Software Engineering Principles can help you write more maintainable tests

@wakaleo

Narrative Coding Style

Open-Closed Principle

Single Responsibility Principle

Separation of Concerns

Software Engineering Principles can help you write more maintainable tests

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Separation of Concerns - Layers

Goals

Tasks

Actions

What are you trying to achieve?

What do you need to do to achieve this goal?

What interactions with the system do you need for each

task?

16

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Separation of Concerns - Layers

Scenario: Add a new todo entry on the todo home page Given I am on the Todo application home page When I enter 'Buy some milk' into the New Todo field And I press ENTER Then the todo list box should contain 'Buy some milk'

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Separation of Concerns - Layers

Scenario: Add a new todo entry on the todo home page Given I am on the Todo application home page When I enter 'Buy some milk' into the New Todo field And I press ENTER Then the todo list box should contain 'Buy some milk'

Scenario: Record a new todo action for future use Given I need to buy some milk When I add the todo action 'Buy some milk' Then 'Buy some milk' should be recorded in my todo list

@wakaleo

Feature documentationDetailed feedbackHigh level feedback

Communication and documentation

@wakaleo @JanMolak

Serenity BDD

“Because life is too short to h a v e t o m a i n t a i n u g l y automated test suites”

@wakaleo

Living documentation

Strong Selenium WebDriver support

JUnit, Cucumber or JBehave

A layered approach

Serenity BDD

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The Serenity layered architecture

Goals

Tasks

Interactions

Tests or scenarios

“Steps”

Page Objects or other technical components

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The Serenity layered architectureFeature: Add new todos James needs to be able to jot down actions he needs to do as he thinks of them Scenario: Record a new todo action for future use Given James needs to buy some milk When James adds the todo action 'Buy some milk' Then 'Buy some milk' should be recorded in his todo list

A goal

A task

@Steps ATodoUser james; @When(“^(?:.*) (?:adds|has added) the todo action '(.*)'$") public void add_the_todo_action(String actionName) { james.adds_an_action_called(actionName);} The task definition

TodoPage onTheTodoHomePage; @Steppublic void adds_an_action_called(String actionName) { onTheTodoHomePage.addAnActionCalled(actionName);}

An interaction

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Serenity for Living DocumentationFeature: Add new todos I need to be able to jot down actions I need to do as fast as I think of them Scenario: Record a new todo action for future use Given I need to buy some milk When I add the todo action 'Buy some milk' Then 'Buy some milk' should be recorded in my todo list

@wakaleo

Coding demo

26

@wakaleo

Hard to apply to Single Page Apps

Need modifications to extend

Multiple Responsibilities

Bloat

Page Objects considered harmful

@wakaleo @JanMolak

Introducing the Screenplay Pattern

@wakaleo

Highly readable style

Encourages reuse and maintainable, scaleable code

Small, reusable interaction components

User-centric

The Screenplay Pattern

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

“Page Objects kinda suck. Why not try this pattern instead?”

Agile Alliance Functional Test Tools Workshop 2007

2007

*

* Based on actual events

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

2007 2009

More people should know about this pattern

JNarrate

Andy Palmer

Let’s write a reference implementation!

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

2007 2009

“Coronation Street” rocks

2012

Andy Palmer

Eureka! “Soap Opera Personas”

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Andy Palmer

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

2007 2009 2012

Jan Molak

You should call this “The Journey Pattern”Damn!

Why didn’t we think of that!

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Andy Palmer

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

2007 2009 2012

Jan Molak

2015

John Smart

Serenity is cool

So let’s make it happen!

But it needs the Journey Pattern

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Andy Palmer

Origins of the Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Antony Marcano

2007 2009 2012 2015

John Smart

Actually, the pattern has evolved a lot

Jan MolakLet’s call it the ‘Screenplay’ pattern

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The Screenplay Pattern - A User-Centric model

Actors have goals I’d like to be able to recall all the things I need to do

Meet James

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The Screenplay Pattern - A User-Centric model

Actors have abilities I can browse the web with my browser

I can also query REST services

@JanMolak@wakaleo

I’d like to be able to recall all the things I need to do

The Screenplay Pattern - A User-Centric model

Actors perform tasks

I’ll add ‘Buy some milk’ to my todo list

@JanMolak@wakaleo

I’d like to be able to recall all the things I need to do

The Screenplay Pattern - A User-Centric model

Actors may interact with the system to perform these tasks

I’ll add ‘Buy some milk’ to my todo list

Type ‘Buy the milk’Press ‘ENTER’

@JanMolak@wakaleo

The Screenplay Pattern in Serenity

Actors have goals

Feature: Add new todos James would like to be able to recall all the things he needs to do Scenario: Record a new todo action for future use Given James needs to buy some milk When James adds the todo action 'Buy some milk' Then 'Buy some milk' should be recorded in his todo list

I’d like to be able to recall all the things I need to do

@JanMolak@wakaleo

A User-Centric model

Actors have abilities I can browse the web with my browser

Actor james = Actor.named(“James");

@ManagedWebDriver hisBrowser; … james.can(BrowseTheWeb.with(hisBrowser));

@JanMolak@wakaleo

A User-Centric model

Actors perform tasks I’ll add ‘Buy some milk’ to my todo list

@StepsAddItem addATodoItem; … james.attemptsTo(addATodoItem.called("Buy some milk"));

@JanMolak@wakaleo

A User-Centric model

Actors perform tasks I’ll add ‘Buy some milk’ to my todo list

@StepsAddItem addATodoItem; … james.attemptsTo(addATodoItem.called("Buy some milk"));

actor.attemptsTo( Enter.theValue(thingToDo).into(ToDoList.NEW_TODO_FIELD), Hit.the(RETURN).keyIn(ToDoList.NEW_TODO_FIELD) );

Type ‘Buy the milk’

Press ‘ENTER’

@JanMolak@wakaleo

A User-Centric model

james.should(seeThat(TheItems.displayed(), hasItem("Buy some milk")));

using a Hamcrest matcher

of a question regarding the state of the application

Check the answer

@JanMolak@wakaleo

A User-Centric model

Actor

Abilities

has

Tasks

Actions

performs

made up of

enable

Questions

asks

Elements

interact with

about the state of

Screenon a

@wakaleo

Coding demo

47

@wakaleo

Focus on the user journey and a common business vocabulary

Scales well to teams with varying levels of experience

Good design principles leading to lower maintenance costs

Code reuse within and across teams

Key Benefits

@JanMolak@wakaleo

References• https://github.com/serenity-bdd/serenity-web-todomvc-journey• “Beyond Page Objects: Next Generation Test Automation with

Serenity and the Screenplay Pattern” - InfoQ• “Page Objects Refactored: SOLID Steps to the Screenplay/

Journey Pattern” - DZone• http://www.serenity-bdd.info

@JanMolak@wakaleo

Want to learn more? Ask us about training and mentoring

John Ferguson Smart

wakaleohttp://johnfergusonsmart.com

Jan Molakhttp://janmolak.com

JanMolak