Test Automation: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means (with wings!)

Test Automation is one of the guaranteed hot topics at conferences and workshops and webinars. Loads of people can present their success stories. Loads of people quietly mumble about how they "are doing" automation, too.

Many companies are moving toward "automate everything." If you look on any of the LinkedIn forums on testing, there are scads of threads with questions on test automation. You can see the same thing on other "test specific" online forums.

Then there are the "nay-sayers" on this. People like Noah Sussman chiming in with a word of caution ( http://infiniteundo.com/post/80881879374/why-is-testing-hard ) and Alan Page saying, bluntly, don't have test teams write automation code ( http://angryweasel.com/blog/?p=868 ).

Without giving away corporate secrets or saying anything that will get us sacked or our contracts cancelled, what is the experience of people around here - Really?

Many people have views - we don't have to have the same views - it would be good to get an understanding of these views and why we have them.

We'll be at the Factory, 6:00 to hang, socialize, eat wings and stuff - then begin the discussion around 6:30.

So, let us consider Automation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk