Process Patterns

Process patterns show how the test automation process should be set up or how it can be improved. The table below gives a list of the Process patterns with a short description. The Process Patterns Mind Map shows which other patterns are used by the process patterns.

Pattern	Description
ASK FOR HELP	Ask for help instead of wasting time trying to do everything yourself.
AUTOMATE WHAT'S NEEDED	Automate what the developers or the testers need, even if it isn't tests!
CELEBRATE SUCCESS	When you have reached an important milestone, it’s celebration time.
CHECK-TO-LEARN	Let new team members learn by checking the health of the existing automation testware
DOCUMENT THE TESTWARE	Document the automation scripts and the test data
FULL TIME JOB	Arrange for the test automation team to be available full time.
GOOD DEVELOPMENT PROCESS	Use good development practices for test code; the same as developers [should]] use for production code.
GOOD PROGRAMMING PRACTICES	Use the same good programming practices as in software development.
KILL THE ZOMBIES	Regularly delete or archive test cases, scripts or test data that are not used. Make sure that tests are actually testing something.
LAZY AUTOMATOR	Lazy people are the best automation engineers.
LEARN FROM MISTAKES	Use mistakes to learn to do better next time.
LOOK AHEAD	Keep in touch with the tester, automation and development community in order to stay informed about new tools, methods, patterns etc.
LOOK FOR TROUBLE	Keep an eye on possible problems in order to solve them before they become unmanageable
MAINTAIN THE TESTWARE	Maintain test automation scripts and test data regularly and from the very beginning.
PAIR UP	Let less experienced team members pair up with more experienced team members.
REFACTOR THE TESTWARE	Refactor your testware regularly
SET STANDARDS	Set and follow standards for the automation artefacts.
SHARE INFORMATION	Ask for and give information to managers, developers, other testers and customers.
SHORT ITERATIONS	Develop test automation in short iterations.
TAKE SMALL STEPS	Look for small increments of the work that will give you value.
TEST THE TESTS	Test the scripts just as you would test production code.
WHOLE TEAM APPROACH [1]	Testers, coders and other roles work together on one team to develop test automation along with production code.

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[1] Suggested by Lisa Crispin