Choosing the Right Test Automation Tool: a Grey Literature Review of Practitioner Sources

Abstract

Background: Choosing the right software test automation tool is not trivial, and recent industrial surveys indicate lack of right tools as the main obstacle to test automation. Aim: In this paper, we study how practitioners tackle the problem of choosing the right test automation tool. Method: We synthesize the "voice" of the practitioners with a grey literature review originating from 53 different companies. The industry experts behind the sources had roles such as "Software Test Automation Architect", and "Principal Software Engineer". Results: Common consensus about the important criteria exists but those are not applied systematically. We summarize the scattered steps from individual sources by presenting a comprehensive process for tool evaluation with 12 steps and a total of 14 different criteria for choosing the right tool. Conclusions: The practitioners tend to have general interest in and be influenced by related grey literature as about 78% of our sources had at least 20 backlinks (a reference comparable to a citation) while the variation was between 3 and 759 backlinks. There is a plethora of different software testing tools available, yet the practitioners seem to prefer and adopt the widely known and used tools. The study helps to identify the potential pitfalls of existing processes and opportunities for comprehensive tool evaluation.