Test brittleness question

[SteveT]

Hey eValid, where are you guys when I need you?

I've heard a lot of noise lately about avoiding test brittleness, but didn't you guys solve this years ago?

What gives? Please answer!

Thanks

[eValid]

Hey eValid, where are you guys when I need you?

I've heard a lot of noise lately about avoiding test brittleness, but didn't you guys solve this years ago?

What gives? Please answer!

Thanks

Hey Steve, thanks for asking.

Tests are called "brittle" if inconsequential changes to the web page in question cause the test to FAIL. You want the test to pass UNLESS some specific (and non-trivial) change occurs.

If the test fails for the wrong reason, you think of it as "brittle."

We overcame this problem, at least in part, in some of the earliest eValid versions: Adaptive Playback.

This is the feature by which eValid adaptively figures out how to behave correctly when navigating pages, even when the underlying page changes. as described here:

http://www.e-Valid.com/Products/Documen ... yback.html

But adaptive playback is only the start of the story.

For truly non-brittle tests you need to develop them using 100% structural tests. These rely on the organization of the page, not specifically on its contents.

Here are the basics technological concepts of the Structual/Algorithmic testing process using eValid:

http://www.e-valid.com/Technology/Abstr ... thmic.html

We have customers whose monitoring tests run for months and years without modification because they are done structurally.

Hope this answers your brittleness question.

-- eValid Support