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  <mainDescription>&lt;h3>&#xD;
    Introduction&#xD;
&lt;/h3>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Although the programming of automated tests should contribute to the overall test effort, it usually does not make up&#xD;
    the entire test effort. In fact, test environments that are based on a complete automation approach end up spending&#xD;
    more time on test automation than on testing. Before you begin developing automated test scripts, consider first&#xD;
    whether it is more efficient to perform manual testing. Some aspects of an application are more efficiently tested&#xD;
    manually (for example, GUI testing versus data-drive testing). If you decide to program automated test scripts, examine&#xD;
    what aspects of your test scripting can be automated and begin designing your scripts.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;h3>&#xD;
    Design your automated tests&#xD;
&lt;/h3>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Without some level of design of your automated tests, introducing automation into your testing effort can lead to more&#xD;
    problems than it solves. You should consider developing your automated tests according to a lifecycle with automation&#xD;
    test requirements, design, testing of the automation tests, and implementation of the automation tests. This approach&#xD;
    can be informal or formal depending on your project needs. By designing the programming of your automated tests, you&#xD;
    can avoid spending time programming the wrong tests, re-working programmed tests, deciphering different coding styles&#xD;
    in the programming of the tests, etc.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;h3>&#xD;
    Recorded versus programmed scripts&#xD;
&lt;/h3>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Although there are clear benefits to recorded scripts (for example, ease of creation or ability for novice testers to&#xD;
    learn a scripting language), recorded scripts also present their own problems. The disadvantages of playback scripts&#xD;
    are well known. They are deceptively easy to create but very difficult to update. Problems with script reliability,&#xD;
    hard-coded data values, or changes to the application under test and the need to re-record are well-documented. On the&#xD;
    other hand, programming scripts can present difficulties of their own: they are difficult for the novice tester to&#xD;
    create, they can require substantial time and effort to develop, and they can be difficult to debug. Most test tooling&#xD;
    makes these issues less problematic by providing the tester script support functions, such as ways to establish target&#xD;
    of test lists, systematic ways to program verification point, point to datapools, build commands into the script (for&#xD;
    example, sleeper commands), comment the script, and document the script. Another major advantage, which is often&#xD;
    overlooked, of using testing tooling to mitigate these risks is the ability to add to an existing script in the form of&#xD;
    making corrections to an existing script, testing new features of a test target or application under test, or resuming&#xD;
    a recording after an interruption.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;h3>&#xD;
    Functional and performance test scripts&#xD;
&lt;/h3>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    When discussing automating test scripts, it is important to distinguish between functional and performance tests. Most&#xD;
    discussions of programming automated test scripts focus on testing the functionality of an application. This is not&#xD;
    inappropriate, since a lot of automated testing focuses on functional testing. Performance test scripting, however, has&#xD;
    its unique characteristics. Performance test automation provides you with the ability to programmatically set workloads&#xD;
    by adding user groups to test loads under group usage, setting think time behavior, running tests randomly or at set&#xD;
    rates, or setting the duration of a run. Performance test automation also allows you to create and maintain schedules&#xD;
    for your tests.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;h3>&#xD;
    Testing test scripts&#xD;
&lt;/h3>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    When testing your test scripts, keep in mind whether you are testing recorded or programmed test scripts. For recorded&#xD;
    scripts, much of the debugging of the script consists of errors that are introduced due to changes in the test target&#xD;
    or test environment. When you run a recorded test script, consider the test target of the script. Some test automation&#xD;
    tools capture this information as a part of the test script. Debugging a recorded script consists largely of&#xD;
    determining whether changes in the target have created error conditions in the script. In general, there are two main&#xD;
    categories to examine here: changes in the UI and test session sensitive data (for example, date stamped data). In most&#xD;
    cases, discrepancies between recording and playback cause errors in your recorded test scripts.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Testing programmed test scripts involves many of the same debugging techniques you would apply to debugging an&#xD;
    application. Consider both the flow control logic and the data aspects of your script. Automated testing tools provide&#xD;
    you with test script debugging IDEs as well as datapool management features that facilitate this type of testing.&#xD;
    During execution of test scripts, a test that uses a datapool can replace values in the programmed test with variable&#xD;
    test data that is stored in the datapool.&#xD;
&lt;/p></mainDescription>
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