Automated Testing For Software Process Automation

Abstract

Robotic Process Automation is a way of automatizing business processes within short timespans. At the case company the initial automation step is implemented by business experts, rather than software developers. Using developers with limited software engineering experience allows for high speed but raises concerns of automation quality. One way to reduce these concerns is extensive testing, which takes up much time for integration developers. The aim of this thesis is to increase the quality of the development process, while minimizing impact on development time through test automation.
\nThe research is carried out as a part of the Robotic Process Automation project at the case company. The artifact produced by this thesis is a process for automatically testing software automation products. Automated testing of software automation solutions was found to be technically feasible, but difficult. Robotic process automation provides several novel challenges for test automation, but certain uses such as regression and integration testing are still possible. Benefits of the chosen approach are traceability for quality, developer confidence and potentially increased development speed. In addition, test automation facilitates the adoption of agile software development methods, such as continuous integration and deployment. The usage of continuous integration in relation to Robotic Process Automation was demonstrated via a newly developed workflow.