Python Test Automation: The Scenic Route: An easy going introduction to Python testing

This book provides an introduction to Python test automation that is light and accessible. A good read for test professionals as well as Python novices. Taking a tour of Python test automation and seeing the attractions along the way. I wrote this book to be read like a book: something easy to read but still informative and interesting. There are code samples, but I try to keep the focus on the concepts with the code samples illustrating those concepts instead of the code samples dominating the content. The structure follows a loose “basic, intermediate, advanced” format. Chapters should ideally be read in order and there’s a slight building on concepts from one chapter to the next. However, each chapter does stand alone as a complete thought on a topic so individual chapters can be read or skipped at one’s pleasure. Who Is This Book For: The primary audience for this book are application developers and test developers who use Python, but this book can enjoyed generally as well. 1) App Developers If you are a Python developer working with code that requires solid test automation code, this book will help you understand how to use test tools in their appropriate their contexts. Test automation is quite powerful to learn as an application developer since it can help you identify and solve problems and bugs that may seem hopelessly complicated at first. If you don’t know much about testing overall, this book may give you a light introduction to it from a programmer’s perspective. 2) Test Developers If you are a test developer or software developer in test (SDET) and your day job is writing and maintaining test code, this book may be a useful guide to several tools I’ve used over my career. There are helpful references specific tooling in Selenium-based testing and keyword-driven testing from Python that may (or may not) translate to tools in other languages and ecosystems. There are also ideas for “best practices” in testing, which are placed in scare quotes for those who don’t like the term that much. Mostly, this is an overview of the Python world of testing that I’ve seen over the past several years. 3) For Others If you’re a general Python enthusiast, a developer not using Python, or simply someone who had this book appear in front of them, this book may help show why test automation is fun.