Re-usable test automation frameworks coupled with open-source tools and technologies is a key solution to shrink test cycle times and related costs. This paper covers an approach for creating a script-less web application automation framework around SeleniumRC which is robust, flexible, and extensible. Our experimental results on this framework show increased productivity and ROI, reduced learning curve and dependency on skilled resources, eliminated usage of commercial tools and manual configuration. The framework provides ease of script generation & management, concurrent and remote execution, test data generation and customized reports with screenshots. Preliminary statistics indicate that the automation framework reduces 40% of total test execution effort per release cycle under a given scenario.

Muralidhar Yalla (Murali), Sr. Test Specialist in the Innovation Labs team at MindTree. He has over 10 years of Software Industry experience working on open source functional automation testing tools like Selenium, Sahi, Watir frameworks like TestNG, PHPUnit, and others, TCM tools and code coverage tools for Java applications like EMMA and others with various languages including Java, Perl, PHP, Ruby, and Python on WinXP.

Before joining MindTree, Murali was with Yahoo Corporation for 2 years, where he has worked on a number of projects involving API testing, web services testing and functional automation using various languages viz. PHP, Perl, shell and others on FreeBSD. He has previous stints at Synopsis, Zensutra, Havells and Protel where he has worked on world class client / server products and worked in the area of application development and testing of Device Drivers, worked with various languages like C, IPC and others on Red-Hat Linux. He also enjoys working with more dynamic, productive, multitasking and fun languages.