Goals & Requirements
To modernize its testing approach, AFRISS required a solution that would:
- Reduce repetitive manual testing effort
- Enable consistent full regression coverage
- Improve testing efficiency without increasing headcount
- Allow manual testers to build automation without advanced programming skills
- Operate effectively within a secure federal environment requiring CAC authentication
- Maintain stability across dynamic web application behavior
Solution: Implementing TestWheel at AFRISS
TestWheel was introduced alongside ongoing development to build functional and regression coverage incrementally.
Initial Automation Deployment
Within the first month:
- Approximately 12 automated functional tests were created and executing successfully
- A foundational regression suite was established
- Core system workflows began transitioning to repeatable automated validation
As adoption continued, an AFRISS tester developed a comprehensive regression suite consisting of dozens of automated test cases and hundreds of individual steps covering mission-critical workflows.
Addressing Dynamic Application Behavior
During early implementation, automation stability was impacted by dynamic selectors within the AFRISS application.
The team refined their automation strategy using:
- Stable static attributes where available
- Relative XPath strategies
- CSS selectors
- Full XPath selectors when necessary
Once selector strategies were aligned with application behavior, test execution stability improved significantly.
Secure CAC Environment Compatibility
AFRISS requires CAC-based authentication for system access. Integration with ECA Soft Cert streamlined automated authentication, allowing TestWheel to execute within the secure federal framework without additional manual overhead. This ensured automation could function compliantly inside a controlled federal environment.
Low-Code Test Creation Model
TestWheel’s Excel-based test creation model and web-based editor enabled a manual tester to successfully build and maintain automation coverage without deep development expertise. This reduced adoption friction and demonstrated that automation could scale without expanding engineering resources.