Test Harness

[kavitha.ramini]

Hi ,When do you use test harness?Can you please give me a clear picture about it.I dont understand whether it is used to execute manual test cases ?please help me.Thankyou in advance.

[sridharrganesan]

Hi,

Test harness is a collection of software and test data configured to test a program unit by running it under varying conditions and monitor its behavior and outputs. Test harness is also known as Automated Test Framework

It has two main parts:
(i) the test execution engine and
(ii) the test script repository.

Test harnesses allow for the automation of tests. They can call functions with supplied parameters and print out and compare the results to the desired value. The test harness is a hook to the developed code, which can be tested using an automation framework.

A test harness should allow specific tests to run, organize a runtime environment, and provide a capability to analyse results.

The typical objectives of a test harness are to:

- Automate the testing process.
- Execute test suites of test cases.
- Generate associated test reports.

Following are some of the benefits of test harness

- Increased productivity due to automation of the testing process.
- Increased probability that regression testing will occur.
- Increased quality of software components and application.

Regards,
Ganesan

[kavitha.ramini]

Hi Ganeshna,
Thankyou for your reply.As you said Test harness is related to automation,but the client where I am going through interviews doesnt have any automation tools.It s compleately manual,but in the requirements they mentioned that you need to have ability to Execute Test Cases, Test Passes, Test Harnesses and Test Plans as specified in Test Director.Here I didnt get why they mentioned test harness and I didnt understand what they meant by test passes.please help me.Thankyou

[sridharrganesan]

Hi Ganeshna,
Thankyou for your reply.As you said Test harness is related to automation,but the client where I am going through interviews doesnt have any automation tools.It s compleately manual,but in the requirements they mentioned that you need to have ability to Execute Test Cases, Test Passes, Test Harnesses and Test Plans as specified in Test Director.Here I didnt get why they mentioned test harness and I didnt understand what they meant by test passes.please help me.Thankyou

Hi Kavitha,

Even though your client are not using the Automation tools, they may be in plan to use it in future. Hence they require you to have the ability of knowing Test Harness. Test Harness is basically a Automation Framework which has all the test cases along with the results depicting the results of the execution. Test harness is mainly used in the Regression testing, which needs to be executed in case of updates done into the system.

Test passes I assume that the test cases that are passed out of the automation or the test cases for which no defects have been associated.

Regards,
Ganesan

[bhaskar.srikrishna]

hi kavitha and ganesan, i would like to mention that there is a facility to link test director with winrunner to automate some of the test cases (remember, not all test cases can be automated). Because test director supports automation testing, the term "test harness" is appropriately used over here. Some people regard test director to be an automation testing tool in itself (for test management). Here i would like to mention that ganesan was absolutely right in his description about the objectives and benefits of test harness. About test pass: there are several types of test pass that are performed throughout the testing life cycle namely, regression test pass, functional test pass, sanity test pass etc. The term regression test pass is interchangeably used for the term regression testing. Similarly, functional test pass is better known as functional testing, and sanity test pass is known as sanity testing. So, test pass is not a separate testing technique by itself but just another term for the testing technique. Warm regards bhaskar srikrishna

[kavitha.ramini]

Thankyou guys ,you are big help.

[Anshoo_Arora]

See, I didn't know what Test Harness is when I read this thread. At our shop, we refer to it as a "Test Framework."

[sridharrganesan]

see, i didn't know what test harness is when i read this thread. At our shop, we refer to it as a "test framework."

hi anshoo, both test harness and automation test framework shares the same meaning. The term used by the company may differ. We in our shop also call it as test framework only. Regards, ganesan

[kavitha.ramini]

An interviewer asked what kind of test frame work you used?pleae help.Thankyou in advance.

[sridharrganesan]

An interviewer asked what kind of test frame work you used?pleae help.Thankyou in advance.

Hi Kavitha,

The type of test frame work confronts to the type of testing you are carrying out. For example if you are doing regression testing then you are using Regression testing framework, like the same way for other type of testing also.

Regards,
Ganesan

[kavitha.ramini]

Thankyou Ganeshan.

[quality_quantity]

If all you want to do is write a test script, consider using Test::Simple. ... You don't need to know about Test::Harness to use those modules.