1. Testing Maximo Time to automate?
By Alex Delic - Communications Manager at Code Development Ltd.
Testing Maximo
Time to automate?

2. What will you hear over the next 15 mins
State of testing in the Maximo Community
Why take up automation?
Why automate with a specialised tool?
Some illustrative graphs for key concepts
Summary

3. Testing in the Maximo Community in 2018
More Agile and Devops (2-4 week release cycles) but still a lot of month release cycles
Traditionally, waterfall projects use manual testing to check for regressions.
However, higher-volumes of testing (i.e more frequent releasing) with limited resources mean one of two things:
Extended project times/schedules/sprints
Or worse
Potentially Defective Systems.
L1: The Maximo community is starting to follow the general trends of technology project management, and we are seeing more and more teams talking about, and adopting Devops or Agile.
L2. When there is only one test phase, there are only so many tests a team needs to run to be fully tested
L3 With faster release methodologies, testing is becoming a much bigger challenge -

4. Automated testing - advantages
Many advantages of test automation
Handles regression testing volume in a repeatable and scalable manner.
Allows team members to ditch repetitive and arduous manual testing tasks
Keeps projects on track, on time and on budget
Keeps testing coverage and quality high
Ultimately - automation saves TIME

5. Automated testing - daily testing?
Running full-system checks costs nothing - why not do it daily?
You can be running your tests on many environments, most importantly on development env
Allows for daily, full-system health checks and ensures minimum time for defects to exist.
Benefits of daily testing include:
Earlier bug detection - saves time and cost
Running log of bug creation - saves bug finding time
Allows more effective bug fixing
Keeps projects running without delays - evenly spaced out bugs
Daily testing reduces the cost of bugs
With automation you can test your system changes daily, because one thing that doesnt take human time is the actual running of the tests.
L5 as bugs are fresher in the developers memory
L6 because qa and bug fixing phases are more evenly spread throughout the project
Earlyu detection of bugs has been proven to be up to 100 times less costly from whether they are created at the start of the project or the end

6. Challenges of Automation - be Careful!
Automation is not a magic bullet:
You need to invest time into creating and maintaining tests
You need fairly high skilled resources to understand, create and use the results of tests
You still need to manual test the tests that cannot be automated - ie exploratory, UX etc.
but: ❌
The results are well worth the investment
As always there is a drawback for using any tool

7. Teams with frequent, high volumes of testing
Who should automate?
Teams that make frequent changes to their system:
Agile
Devops
Consultancies
Companies keeping up with IBM release schedules
Teams with other automation needs: data creation, data loading, training,
Teams with frequent, high volumes of testing
P4 which require knowledge capture alongside testing.

8. Automation frameworks for Maximo - what are the options?
If you are considering automation for Maximo, be aware of the options:-
Generalised solutions:- e.g HP ALM, IBM Rational, Selenium, Ranorex, Katalon Studio... (there are lots)
Specialised solutions:- MaxTAF, Maximo Selenium Automation Framework, YAT Maximo
Advantage generic: Often more cost effective, often with a dedicated user-base and good documentation
Advantage specialised: Designed with Maximo in mind - saves even more time.

9. Challenges of unspecialised frameworks
Automation should save as much time as possible - some tools may not help
With generic solutions tests can often take days to write and maintain effectively.
Generic solutions produce ‘brittle’ tests, which tend to decay at a much faster rate
Issues such as system wait times and UI changes are a lot more troublesome when a tool is not Maximo aware - again adding time to the scripting process.
Tests can become roadblocks to change
Can cost more than they save
L1 - for a system as complex as Maximo, this can be difficult with more generic solutions. - we’ll show you in a bit
L2 Due to the complexity of the coding in languages like Java required

10. How can specialised frameworks help test Maximo?
Maximo specialised frameworks share the same advantage - they are built to test Maximo.
All specialised solutions have been designed to work around the quirks and idiosyncrasies of Maximo that distinguish it from other web based applications
They have features to boost productivity and test maintainability that only comes with active specialisation
Using specialised tools - more often than not - saves reinventing the wheel
L2 (e.g rest times, UI elements etc.)
L3 , which, of course, would take time (and therefore cost)!

11. What features do specialised frameworks have?
MaxTAF uses:
Record and Play gives you a starting point - create simple tests in real time, and create the basis of more complex tests (such as if-then-else and logic loops)
Low-code XML scripting - reduces test maintenance and creation time dramatically, and lowers the skill required to write tests as well.
YAT Maximo uses:
Keyword driven testing - spreadsheet based. This requires no coding skill and can be very efficient depending on the testing activity.
Specialised frameworks are built with Maximo front and centre.
These tools have features that should significantly reduce time spent testing.
low-code XML scripting with a huge library of back-end and UI specialised tags, alongside a very flexible UI record and play facility:
Maximo selenium automation framework - ibm product but not supported

15. Summary - what is test automation? (and what is it not?)
Test automation is not:
A replacement for some manual testing, e.g user acceptance or exploratory testing
A magic bullet - it takes time and knowhow to execute successfully, but it is rewarding
Something to be scared of - see automation as a teammate who is: Very productive Very efficient Very boredom tolerant

16. Summary - what is test automation? (and what is it not?)
Test automation is:
A tool to save time performing regression tests
A way to capitalise on the entire point of testing - saving loss of income
A scalable way of ensuring that systems are healthy and functional
A tool that keeps projects on track and on time via daily testing and smoother bug detection and fixing
A necessity for any team that frequently updates it’s Maximo to maintain it’s competitive edge

17. If you’re interested in seeing a live demo or want to know more about MaxTAF
Message either Alex (communications manager):
Or Dusko (managing director)
And we’ll be happy to take the conversation from there.
Or visit and read about what we have to offer.