What main factors contribute to success in test automation? What common factors most often lead to the failure of an automation effort? There are no simple universal answers to these questions, but some common elements exist. We believe that two of the most important elements are management issues and the testware architecture:
* Management support for automation, such as setting realistic objectives and providing sufficient and appropriate resources to achieve a planned return on investment (ROI).
* A good technical architecture for the automated testware, having the right levels of abstraction to give flexibility and adaptability while minimizing costs not just of testware maintenance but of all aspects of automation.
Source: “Experiences of Test Automation – Case Studies of Software Test Automation”, Dorothy Graham and Mark Fewster editors, Addison-Wesley