Refactoring your E2E tests from an ice-cream cone to a pyramid

In our daily experience with customers, we notice that the test pyramide is still not well understood. If you ask teams about the test pyramid you will either get different opinions and definitions or a lot of excuses for not applying it in their software development lifecycle.

In our talk we demonstrate the architecture, the code and the E2E tests of a typical application leading to an test automation ice-cream cone. We explain the disadvantages of this testing strategy by measuring the tests’ runtime, the duplication of the coverage and complexity of the test scripts.

During our demonstration we refactor the test automation code from the highest testing level towards its levels below. After each refatoring step we will measure the differences and analyze the distribution again.

Value for the audience:
- understand the real benefits of testing your business logic with Unit Tests
- see a real showcase how to refactor your E2E tests to a distributed test pyramid
- get an idea of an effective test automation strategy to reduce your technical testing debt

Problems addressed:
Lead Time: UI and E2E tests tend to be slower and more brittle compared to unit tests. Relying too heavily on these high-level tests slow down the testing process, making it less efficient and more time-consuming.

Maintenance Challenges: UI and E2E tests are more prone to break when the application undergoes changes, leading to increased costs and efforts.

Late Bug Discovery: With a heavy emphasis on UI and E2E testing, bugs are often discovered late in the development cycle.

Talk language: English
Level: Advanced
Target group: Testmanager, Tester, Entwickler, Architekten, Entwicklungsleiter, Testautomation Engineer

Company:
Nagarro GmbH

Roland Germ

Katrin Heiderer