Agile Thoughts

Teams have found that just because acceptance criteria COULD be made into hard to maintain and unreliable UI test, many of them actually don't need to be executed via the UI but instead in some sub layer beneath.

Images of the test automation pyramid are available online and you'll see good agreement that macro tests are at the top and micro tests in the bottom. But there's a lot of mystery about what goes into the middle floor. I've put on my leather hat and brought my bullwhip and explored the automation pyramids at many other companies.

While the bottom of the test pyramid is biggest enough to house a few soccer fields and a monster truck rally, the top floor of the pyramid only has room for a long long table, a big screen tv, and a minibar fridge. Oh yeah, and macro tests.

The smallest floor of the pyramid is the top as it's much narrower than the spacious bottom. While the top only has room for a ping pong table and a TV, the bottom has room for a soccer field or two.

To have sustainable test automation, there is this idea that you need two levels of testing: macrotests, and microstests.