CTAL-TAE: Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Automation Engineering v2.0Demo

You have been recruited as a TAE by a large travel agency and are now responsible for a mature TAS dedicated to functional testing of the company’s booking system, which covers flights, hotels, and packaged holidays. The application has a complex UI and extensive functionality. It is under continual maintenance and enhancement by an agile team that adds tests to the regression test suite at the end of each iteration.

The TAS supports structured scripting, implemented to a high standard with a well-managed script library and minimal code duplication. The TAA will not support more advanced scripting techniques. Although the test automation achieved so far was initially well received, it is now receiving increasing criticism. It is considered old-fashioned and poorly documented, and in particular:

• test script maintenance overhead is becoming excessive because test analysts frequently want data values changed;
• test analysts complain that a new test similar to an existing one, except for data values, requires a new high-level script and that they must ask a technical test analyst to create it for them;
• the nightly full regression run takes a long time, and there is a risk that as more tests are added it will soon exceed the available window;
• some tests fail frequently because of a slow response from the SUT;
• some transactions are difficult to verify because they depend on variables that cannot be seen through the SUT UI;
• the TAF UI is difficult to learn.

The SUT architect is planning a major new release and has offered to include features that enhance its testability. You already have plans to address items 1, 2, and 3 on the list, so you are now considering how to mitigate items 4, 5, and 6.

Which TWO improvements will BEST address items 4, 5, and 6?