Automation Testing Syllabus: A Detailed Road-map

The automation testing syllabus is designed to introduce both the basics and advanced concepts required for software testing. It covers tools, frameworks, and practical skills to build a strong testing foundation.

Fundamentals of Automation Testing

This section describes the fundamental concepts of automation testing, which include it’s purpose, the advantages of automation testing over manual testing, and some real-world applications you will find. Students will have clarity as to why automation is a valuable piece of the modern development cycle.

Static Website Design

Here, students explore the basics of designing simple, non-interactive websites. The focus is on learning HTML, CSS, and layout principles to create visually appealing static web pages.

Software Development Fundamentals

Learn the fundamental principles of how software is created for the web, and why frontend is such an important part of that - namely, the User Experience.

• Importance of Frontend – Understand how and why visual aesthetics are important to a webpage
• Fundamentals – Get started with the building blocks of frontend development.
• Syntax – Understand the rules that define what the "correct" coding style looks like
• Debugging – Learn through practice how to identify errors, and fix them so that your code runs as expected
• Tweaking Code – Understand how very small changes can have large impacts on functionality and visual design

HTML Basics

HTML is the structure of every webpage. Learn to effectively create content and organize it on the page.

• HTML Elements - Create pages using the basic HTML tags
• HTML Headings - Use headings to create some structure in your content
• HTML Paragraphs - Create readable text on your pages
• HTML Button - Create buttons that you can click and interact with
• HTML Attributes - Add extra properties to your HTML elements to maintain control over the format
• HTML Images - Display images and format them on your website
• HTML Hyperlinks - Link pages and other resources using anchor tags
• HTML Containers - Assemble your content into groups to keep your layout more manageable or make styling simpler.
• HTML Lists - Neatly organize items with both ordered and unordered lists

CSS Basics

CSS makes your pages look attractive and professional by styling HTML.

• CSS Rulesets – Discover how selectors and declarations interact with CSS Rulesets.
• CSS Properties – Analyse the various stylistic properties at your disposal.
• CSS Colors – : Use names, RGB values, and hexadecimal notation to apply various colours.
• CSS Units – Utilise relative units, pixels, and percentages
• CSS Box Model – Understand how margins, padding, and borders affect layout.
• CSS Margins – Control spacing outside elements.
• CSS Paddings – Set the distance between elements.
• CSS Borders – Use styles, colours, and thickness to add borders.

Bootstrap Components

With Bootstrap, you can quickly create responsive, modern websites using pre-built components.

• Carousel – Include galleries of text or sliding images.
• Embedding Videos – Easily incorporate videos into your website

Course Project

Apply what you've learnt by creating a travel website with HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap.

Responsive Website Design

Here, you will understand how to build web pages that can be adapted to a variety of screen and device sizes. The focus will be on advanced CSS and layout techniques to create a mobile friendly design.

Intermediate CSS

Go beyond the basics and dive deeper into how CSS styles interact.

• Block vs Inline Elements – Differentiate how elements display on a page.
• CSS Selectors – Target elements for styling with precision.
• Class Selector – Apply styles to multiple elements.
• Id Selector – Style unique elements on a page.
• Type Selector – Select elements by tag name.
• CSS Specificity – Understand how conflicting styles are resolved.
• CSS Inheritance – Learn how styles flow from parent to child elements.
• CSS Cascading – See how the order of rules affects your design.

Course Project

Build a Responsive Food Munch Website with HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap.

Bootstrap

Learn Bootstrap’s powerful layout system and utilities for responsive design.

• Bootstrap Grid System – Organize your layout into rows and columns.
• Container – Wrap content with fixed-width or fluid containers.
• Row – Arrange content horizontally.
• Column – Split rows into multiple sections for content.
• Bootstrap Utilities – Use helper classes to accelerate style.
• Display Utilities – Manage the visibility of elements.
• Flex Utilities – Easily create layouts that are adaptable
• Sizing Utilities – Modify the width and height of the element.
• Spacing Utilities – Quickly control padding and margins with the help of spacing utilities.
• Navbar – Add menus for navigation with ease.
• Buttons – For actions, use buttons that are stylised.
• Colors – Apply Bootstrap’s color system for consistency.

Course Project

Develop a Responsive eCommerce Website using HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap.

Programming Languages for Automation

Skill in programming is an important component of developing effective automation scripts and frameworks. The programming languages that are most commonly used for automation testing are as follows:

• Java: Widely used with Selenium and Appium. Known for its robustness and large community support.
• Python: A very popular language because it is simple and readable. Commonly used within the Selenium automation framework, as well as with PyTest and Robot Framework test automation tools.
• JavaScript: Commonly used with automation for web testing, especially with the Cypress and WebDriverIO automation testing frameworks.
• C#: The preferred language to utilize when working in a .NET environment and commonly used with the Selenium automation framework and NUnit testing framework.
• Ruby: A popular coding language used when working with BDD (behavior driven development) frameworks, such as Cucumber.
• QTP/UFT Scripting: Uses the VBScript programming language when developing automation solutions for functional and regression testing.

Why Programming Matters:

• Enables custom, flexible, and reusable test scripts.
• Supports integration with frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Appium).
• Facilitates best practices in software development and test automation.

Testers should focus on learning programming basics, writing clean code, and understanding how their chosen language integrates with automation tools and frameworks.

Fundamentals of Programming

Start programming with Python, focusing on important concepts every programmer needs.

• Operators, Datatypes & Variables – Learn to store and process information.
• Strings & Numbers – Work with both textual and numerical data using strings and numbers.
• Conditional Statements – Use if-else logic to make decisions in your programs.
• Loops – For and while loops are used to repeat actions.
• String Methods – Effectively manipulate and process text data with string methods.
• Functions – Write reusable blocks of code to simplify programming.

Introduction to Databases

This section covers the fundamentals of data storage, organization and management within databases. Learners understand how databases enable an application to create and maintain the integrity of the data as well as provide easy access to the data.

Relational Databases

Understand the structure and management of data within relational databases.

• Introduction – Discover the definition of databases and their applications.
• SQL – To work with data, use Structured Query Language.
• Aggregation, Relationships, Join – Link several tables and compile data.
• Querying – Get the precise information you require from huge databases.
• ACID Properties – Discover the fundamentals of ACID Properties, which guarantee the consistency and dependability of data.

This automation testing syllabus for specialization covers everything from core Java concepts to Selenium, TestNG, BDD with Cucumber, API testing, and Jira for real-world projects.

Java Fundamentals

Familiarize yourself with the fundamental Java programming concepts that deal with automation testing.

• Data Types, Variables & Operators

Understand how to safely, accurately, and appropriately store, process, and play with data using the "core" features of Java.

• Reading Input & Formatting Output

See how to get user input and output it in ecologically sound way to the console.

• Conditions & Loops

Gain familiarity with the decision-making and repetitiveness with if-else statements and repetitions in Java.

• Arrays

Learn how arrays allow you to store more than one value to help streamline your work with collections of data

• Java Collections

Work with powerful collections frameworks (List, Set, and Map) to manipulate data systematically.

• Object Oriented Programming(OOP)

Study the principles of inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation of object-oriented programming.

Selenium WebDriver

Understand how to automate a web browser to interact with web applications in a browser.

• Browser Handling

Learn how to open, manage, and switch between browser in an automation setup.

• Locating Elements

Learn the skills to find elements on a webpage with various locators like ID, name, XPath, and CSS selectors.

• Handling WebElements

Practice performing actions of clicking, typing, and selecting options on a variety of web elements.

• Synchronization

Learn how to correctly wait to avoid timing issues with scripts to run without issues.

• Handling Windows

Learn how to switch control from one browser window/tab to another during automation.

• Alerts and Frames

Learn how to manage pop-ups, alerts, and embedded frames during automation in a real-world test scenario.

• Actions

Learn to perform advanced user interactions with the Actions class ( drag-and-drop, double clicks, hover, etc.)

• JavaScript Executor

Use JavaScript commands for scenarios when Selenium alone cannot interact with elements.

Advanced Selenium TestNG

Organize and run automated tests more effectively with the TestNG framework.

• TestNG

Understand annotations, grouping, and reporting features that make TestNG a powerful test framework.

BDD/Cucumber Frameworks

Learn how to get started with Behavior Driven Development to write automated tests in a readable business format.

• An Introduction to BDD

Learn about how BDD is connected to testers, developers, and business stakeholders.

• Cucumber BDD Basics

Understand the structure of how the feature files, scenarios, and step definitions are for Cucumber feature files.

• Cucumber Options

Understand how to configure Cucumber options to control test execution and produce reports.

• Cucumber with TestNG and Reports generation

Use TestNG with Cucumber to create sophisticated test suites and produce richer reports.

• Integrating Selenium WebDriver with Cucumber

Bring together the power of Cucumber in conjunction with the power of Selenium to assemble an end to end automated test case.

API Testing

Learn to test APIs for functionality, reliability, and performance beyond UI automation.

• Introduction to Jira

Get hands-on with Jira for project management, bug tracking, and test task organization.

As automation testing evolves, advanced concepts such as test parallelization, test distribution, and automation for specialized domains are becoming increasingly important for maximizing efficiency and coverage.

Test Parallelization and Distribution
When testing with automation is performed in modern testing frameworks, it is expected that tests can be executed in either parallel or distributed execution environments. Test parallelization and distribution are valuable to testing time and resource utilization. Within a large suite of automated tests, execution time will be reduced, and feedback will be quicker.

Key aspects include:

• Running tests in parallel across devices or browsers
• Using a test grid or cloud-based infrastructure to run tests in parallel
• Using techniques to handle dependencies that might conflict or there may be multiple parallel testing executions between tests.

Automation for Specialized Domains

Beyond web applications, automation testing extends to specialized domains such as mobile and API testing.

• Mobile Automation: Requires dealing with device fragmentation, variations in OS, and distinct interaction models. With tools like Appium, it’s possible to automate functional testing (and more) on mobile devices across iOS and Android.
• API Automation: Focuses on validating the functionality, reliability, and security of backend services. Specialized frameworks allow for rapid, repeatable API testing that integrates into broader automation pipelines.

Practicing these advanced precursors gives testers the opportunity to provide robust, scalable, and maintainable automation solutions in a highly complex software ecosystem.

Automation testing employs many tools and platforms, depending on the specific testing need - web, mobile, API and performance testing. Picking the right tools can be essential for building successful test automation solutions that are effective, scalable, and sustainable.

Web Application Testing Tools

• Selenium: This is the most commonly used open-source browser automation tool. It has support for multiple programming languages (Java, Python, C#, etc.) and a variety of browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge).
• JUnit/TestNG: These frameworks are used to organize tests and automate test suites, and often used in Java projects.
• QTP (QuickTest Professional): Now marketed under Micro Focus UFT, QTP is a mature tool and platform for automated functional and regression testing.

Mobile Application Testing Tools

• Appium: A free and open-source tool to automating mobile, hybrid, and native web apps for iOS and Android.
• Cloud-based Device Farms: For scalable, cross-platform mobile testing, services like Sauce Labs and BrowserStack give users access to a large variety of real devices and browsers.

API Testing Tools

• Postman: A user-friendly platform for designing, executing, and automating API tests.
• REST Assured: A Java-based library for automating RESTful API testing.
• SoapUI: A dedicated tool for testing SOAP and REST APIs, supporting both functional and security testing.

Performance Testing Tools

• LoadRunner: An enterprise-grade tool for performance, load, and stress testing.
• JMeter: An open-source tool for simulating multiple users and measuring application performance under various loads.

Test Management and Collaboration Tools

• Jira: Widely used for test management, bug tracking, and collaboration across development and QA teams.
• TestRail, Zephyr: Platforms for organizing, planning, and tracking test cases and results.

Continuous Integration (CI) Tools

• Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI: Automate the process of building, testing, and deploying applications. Integrate seamlessly with automated test suites to enable continuous testing and rapid feedback.

Choosing the Right Tool

Selecting the appropriate tools depends on factors such as:

• Application type (web, mobile, API)
• Team expertise and programming language preferences
• Integration requirements (e.g., with CI/CD or test management tools)
• Scalability and maintenance needs

A well-chosen toolset enables teams to maximize test coverage, efficiency, and reliability throughout the software development lifecycle.

It will be difficult to make sure that automation test suites are operating reliably and efficiently as they grow. Without the necessary planning, tests may become flaky, difficult to modify or lose value over time, necessitating periodic rework. Placing an emphasis on maintenance and following best practices will offer and lead to more improvements along with increasing the return on your automation investment.

Test Maintenance Challenges

Automated tests can fail due to changes in the application, shifting requirements, or reliance on volatile data. Maintenance issues include:

• Dealing with frequent updates to the UI or API
• Managing duplication in automation scripts
• Running tests that are flaky (or unreliable) and fail sporadically
• Ensuring that any test data remains valid and consistent

Strategies to Minimize Maintenance Effort

• To reduce some redundancy, think about writing test scripts that are flexible and reusable.
• Use modular test scripts and abstraction layers to reduce the impact on tests when the application changes (e.g. Page Objects) 
• To maintain clean, understandable, and readable tests, evaluate and modify the code on a frequent basis. 
• Make that your synchronization and error-handling implementation is configured correctly. 
• To the greatest extent feasible, record your test cases and the architecture of your testing framework.

Industry Best Practices

• To enhance code quality and spot issues early, frequent code reviews must to be encouraged.
• Test maintenance should be considered part of the process from the outset of the development lifecycle.
• Involve capable resources for the design, implementation and review of automated tests.
• Regularly monitor and continuously improve the test suites to improve reliability and experience for the end user.
• Establish a culture of continuous improvement by validating feedback to further enhance, improve or change the approach of dealing with challenges.

If teams stick to these practices, they will deliver automated solutions that can be maintained and will produce repeatable, reliable automated solutions for a longer-term project success.

Modern software development leverages a rapid delivery model based on reliable releases and therefore, automated testing to produce rapid feedback and reliability is key. CI/CD provides the ability to test, integrate and release software automatically with every code change so that the environment is constantly being updated while minimizing human interaction.

CI/CD Concepts and Pipelines

• Continuous Integration (CI): Programmers regularly integrate updated pieces of code into a shared repository, which results in automated builds and tests. This ensures issues are discovered sooner and leads to better collaboration.
• Continuous Delivery (CD): The deployment of tested code is automated to pre-production or production environments so that software can be deployed at any time.
• Continuous Deployment: Extends CD by automatically deploying every change that passes all tests directly to production.

Integrating Automated Tests

• Automated test suites are executed as part of the CI/CD pipeline to validate new code and catch regressions quickly.
• Tests can include unit, integration, functional, and end-to-end scenarios.
• Continuous testing ensures quality of software through testing during the development lifecycle.

Best Practices for CI/CD Automation

• Use reliable CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or CircleCI to orchestrate builds and tests.
• Keep the build and test process fast to encourage frequent integrations.
• Collaborate closely between development, testing, and operations teams for smooth pipeline management.
• Store all code, test scripts, and configuration files in a central repository for transparency and traceability.
• Monitor test results and response payloads, and set up notifications for failures to enable quick resolution.

By incorporating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines, teams may produce high-quality software more rapidly and reliably, supporting business goals and increasing user happiness.

An organized test case and a thoughtful test data management plan are essential first steps in ensuring successful automation testing. These guarantee maintainable test suites, adequate coverage, and repeatable outcomes.

Test Case Design

• Selection Criteria: While not all tests are designed for automation, a good guideline for manual vs. automation testing is to automate the tests that are repetitive, high risk, time-consuming or critical that provide the best value for the product.
• Test Design Techniques: Use methods like equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, and decision tables to create efficient and thorough test cases.
• Dealing with Special Scenarios: Design cases to handle pop-ups, alerts, and dynamic elements that often appear in real-world applications.
• Testing Responsive Designs: Ensure your tests cover different devices, screen sizes, and browsers for web applications.

Test Data Management

• Data-Driven Testing: Separate test logic from test data to allow running the same test with multiple data sets, increasing coverage and flexibility.
• Test Data Generators: Use tools or scripts to generate large volumes of test data automatically, ensuring tests are robust and reflective of real-world scenarios.
• Managing Test Environments: Maintain consistent, isolated, and reproducible environments to minimize flakiness and data-related issues.
• Test Data Storage: Store data in external files (CSV, Excel, JSON, XML) or databases, making it easy to update and reuse across test suites.

Strategies for Effective Test Coverage

• Parallel Test Execution: Execute Testing procedures in parallel to shorten execution time and ensure the application behaves correctly with multiple simultaneous users.
• Planning, Design, and Development: Spend time in devising a test approach, designing a test approach with modular test cases, and providing components that can be reused for better maintenance.
• Test Tool Selection: Select tools that best enable your test design and data management, such as Selenium for UI automation, or REST Assured for API.

To effectively create automation scripts it is important to follow coding standards and known-good techniques to ensure the script is stable and maintainable.

• Scripting Languages & Frameworks: Select a scripting language like Java, Python, or JavaScript and be familiar with tools such as Selenium, JUnit, or QTP.
• Coding Standards: Your code should be easily read by others and have consistent documentation standards. Store scripts in a version control system and share in a collaborative way.
• Reusable Functions: Build utility functions and modularize code to avoid unnecessary duplication.
• Object Repository: Maintain a single source of truth for UI elements locators that are easy to update.
• Error Handling & Reporting: Add error handling into scripts and provide clear reports to allow for quicker troubleshooting.
• Page Object Model (POM): Employ this design pattern when building scripts to separate test logic from UI structure and make scripts easier to maintain.

By following these practices, automation scripts become more robust, readable, and adaptable to change.

Automation frameworks are a useful way to structurally build, organize, and maintain automated tests. The appropriate automation framework can help ensure scalability, reusability, and efficiency in your automation efforts.

Types of Automation Frameworks

• Linear Automation Framework: Simple, record-and-playback approach. Best for small projects and quick tests.
• Modular-Based Testing Framework: Breaks tests into independent, reusable modules for better organization.
• Library Architecture Testing Framework: Groups similar functions into libraries to promote reusability.
• Data-Driven Framework: Separates test data from scripts, allowing the same test logic to run with multiple data sets.
• Keyword-Driven Framework: Uses keywords to represent actions, making it easier for non-programmers to write tests.
• Hybrid Testing Framework: Combines features of multiple frameworks (e.g., data-driven + keyword-driven) for maximum flexibility.
• Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Framework: Focuses on collaboration by writing tests in plain language (e.g., using Cucumber with Selenium).

Key Components

• Test Scripts: The actual code that automates a test.
• Object Repository: It is the central location that stores the locators for UI elements.
• Test Data: External files or data that are passed into tests as input values.
• Utilities/Libraries: Functions that are reusable for performing common functions.
• Reporting: Reporting tools that generate reports on test execution.
• Configuration Files: Files to contain the environment and/or test configuration.

Framework Architecture & Design

Organize the code so that it is easy to maintain and scale. You should always follow the test automation pyramid; focused on test units at the bottom, then integrating tests, then a smaller amount of end-to-end tests.

Choosing a Framework

Consider:

• Project requirements and team expertise
• Application type (web, mobile, API)
• Tool compatibility (e.g., Selenium, JUnit)
• Maintenance and scalability needs

An appropriate framework leads to easier automation, lowers maintenance, and increases the chances of test automation long-term success.

Automation Testing is on its way to becoming or is one of the most attractive careers for those wanting a successful career path in the IT space. However, when pursuing a career in Automation Testing or any other field, it is not just enough to have theoretical knowledge; hands-on experience is what counts. An excellent way for students to gain hands-on experience is by attending internships or apprenticeships with established organizations. Additionally, online courses and training sets provide students with opportunities to further their practical skills.

NxtWave's intensive 2.0 program with a reverse-engineered curriculum and instructor-led training has been shown to be successful. In addition, it includes applications and project-based assignments to model real-life scenarios. The program is also meant for beginners that have no prior coding knowledge.

NxtWave does not stop supporting you after course completion, you will be provided with placement support for up to 16 months, with no limit on the number of opportunities provided to you.

Check out our student success stories, where they have accomplished exceptional achievements in their journeys.

Is Automation Testing in demand?

Automation testing has become a new normal in today’s world with software developments changing rapidly. While automated software testing is merely a small component of the broader quality assurance process, organizations are mobilizing behind automation testing to produce reliable products faster and consistently, as software applications get more complex and development cycles becoming tighter and tighter. However, is automation testing really in demand?

The answer is a definitive Yes. Automation Testing is an integral part of nearly every software development project in every industry. Clearly, automation testing has long-standing benefits over manual testing since such manual testing tends to be lengthy, cumbersome, and repetitive; while automation testing is durable, broader, and can be done with smart and efficient tools and frameworks. Additionally, automation testing is more cost progressive in the long run.

As a result of its benefits mentioned above, great demand for trained professionals in automation testing is growing.

Is coding required for Automation Testing?

Yes, automation testing would typically require coding. Yes, code is usually needed for automation testing. Because testing scripts are generated in code languages like Python, Java, or C, testers need to be well-versed in coding principles. While options exist where a tool will automatically create a visual or low code version of the test, possessing coding skills provides flexibility and enhanced capabilities.

Is it possible for a fresher to become an Automation Tester?

Yes, a fresher can become an automation tester. Experience working in software testing can help, but companies are willing to take a chance on freshers because they learn quickly. It is always better for freshers to focus on learning more about the skills needed for automation testing.