When Should a Test Be Automated? 08

angelcc216

When Should a Test Be Automated?

Or you might be a testing version 1.0 of a shrinkwrap product whose product direction and code base has changed wildly in the last few months. Your answer might be "Ha! I don’t even have time to try all the obvious tests once. In the time I would spend automating this test, I guarantee I could find at least one completely new bug." For you,the cost of automation is high.

My measure of cost - bugs probably foregone - may seem somewhat odd. People usually measure the cost of automation as the time spent doing it. I use this measure because the point of automating a test is to find more bugs by rerunning it. Bugs are the value of automation, so the cost should be measured the same way.