Cerberus Testing Testimonials with Yves Richard, QA & Testing Expert
Automate, yes, but at what cost?
A successful automation project requires a combination of several success factors. It is far from being a single tool subject reserved for technical profiles. True collaboration and team support make all the difference.
This interview shares feedback on Cerberus Testing with Yves Richard, QA and automation expert at Ausy. Its transversal vision of tools and different missions provides an overall and concrete vision.
About Cerberus Testing
Cerberus Testing is a test automation framework open source. Available in codeless to allow transversal collaboration between business, development and QA teams. Web, mobile, API, heavy client, and database tests are supported in a unified framework to iterate quickly between test configuration, execution, and reporting.
Key figures
- Achieving a POC within hours
- On-boarding of non-technical profile in 10 min
- 1300 tests run several times a day in less than 2 hours
- A recommendation rating of 15/10! 🙂
“Cerberus Testing allowed me to build a unified test automation approach for my different use cases on a single platform.”
Yves Richard
Can you start by introducing yourself?
I have been a tester for several years in large companies. My speciality is tools: their choice, implementation and advice focused on automation. I am currently working at Ausy. For the anecdote, I am a northerner at the base and have “emigrated” to the south of France 🙂
What problems are you trying to solve by using Cerberus Testing?
The first need was to give the testers a hand in all the automation activities. These are not all technical profiles, so an accessible solution is needed. At the time, Cerberus Testing made the difference by making it as easy as possible to use. Everything is done through the interface; apart from identifying objects, there is no need to code to automate tests.
The second need was to access a test automation solution within an acceptable budget range. The product’s pricing was regularly prohibitive for quality budgets. Cerberus was available for free, removing that first barrier. Even better, the open-source model even makes it possible to contribute to it.
The third need was to test a broad panorama of applications and use cases. Cerberus supports different testing techniques in web, mobile, API and is continuously updated to enable automation in different contexts. These up-to-date bricks facilitate interfacing with external solutions such as CI / CD.
The various native integrations on deployment platforms, containerization, and APIs also provide implementation flexibility.
What situation were you in before using Cerberus Testing?
I started with the basics. I trained to use Selenium with Java. I then used specific software like Protractor, HP UFT, among others. These solutions required fairly extensive development and analysis capacities. So I spent some time adjusting to each of these tools.
I encountered recurring test optimization problems. For example, I had to manage the waiting times for displaying elements, loading pages. The code and optimization effort were therefore significant.
Cerberus Testing allowed me to build a unified test automation approach for my different use cases on a single platform. I was able to focus on performing the testing for the product.
What sets Cerberus Testing apart from other options in this segment of automation tools?
The “real” codeless is a real differentiation. You can easily understand the menus and learn to navigate quickly. We succeed in linking the steps necessary for the creation, execution and analysis of tests. We then discover advanced functionalities such as the library of objects, actions or data. A novice can successfully automate tests in less than 10 minutes.
The use of properties in the test cases is a second advantage. Codeless products often lack scalability in data management; you usually have to duplicate your settings for each test. It’s different with Cerberus. The decoupling between actions and properties allows to reuse data between tests and even achieve data-driven testing.
And we can go further by varying access to data. This can be done by country or by context, for example. You can also dynamically retrieve data sets from databases by file or APIs. All of these features improve the design of the tests and gain maintainability.
The up-to-date interface and documentation also round off this ease of use.
In addition, making the difference, you can easily manage your test campaigns from their configuration, execution to reporting. The addition of execution robots on local or remote farms, in parallel, is also native. Another point is the support for API tests in SOAP, REST, GraphQL, Kafka.
Finally, accessibility facilitates the creation of a POC with all the documentation available online, videos or articles.
I also forgot one point, the support! The community slack is open to users and allows direct discussion. Most of the time, I got an answer within a day for various requests. This community is only growing and allows us to share our practices. It saves a lot of time on a daily basis.
What were you able to achieve using Cerberus Testing? Do you have a success story?
I set up a complete non-regression suite which allowed me to secure the launch of a complex project. Several people were needed to set up a new system and were making changes in several places.
The end-to-end test automation capability allowed me to secure component integration. In addition, I could hand it over to the teams to launch the test campaigns and obtain the execution report. The project actors could quickly iterate and possibly make the necessary corrections in the following minutes.
This non-regression test automation campaign secured the dates of the project.
I have also achieved automation at scale in the context of e-commerce. It is a classic for testers with customer journeys and other user-oriented scenarios. For example, we automated more than 1300 tests running in less than 2 hours.
We could run them every morning to get an automation report and each software release. Successful automation has allowed us to create visible value for the organization.
What were your main concerns before using Cerberus Testing, and what finally convinced you?
At the very beginning, already 4-5 years ago back in 2016, the installation required technical skills. It was necessary to configure an application server, database and integrate Selenium and other test components.
This workload is no longer needed today. Last year, I had to do a demo, and my instance was ready in minutes for testing locally. You can also use the online demo at any time or request a Cloud instance.
What elements contribute the most to your satisfaction and your users with Cerberus Testing?
The accessibility of use makes automation pleasant and easy. We do not waste time in too high-level times or configuration details. We save real-time in the test life cycle.
This simplicity of use also makes it possible to facilitate collaboration with the business, developers, etc. Ultimately, this improved interactions on shared deliverables improve the product quality.
And finally, the greatest satisfaction was the concrete usefulness of the tests in the projects. They allowed me to make a difference in the confidence of software delivery.
For which main reasons would you recommend Cerberus Testing?
The first is to allow collaboration with the profession. When trying to perform automated tests, being in direct contact with the players in the product makes all the difference. This is where we can achieve automation maximizing the added value. Ease of use without technical barriers is one first reasons.
Then, the price to access all of these features. One can access the solution for free and accelerate with available plans. Other codeless solutions are emerging, but their price remains a real problem.
“Trying Cerberus Testing is adopting it!”
Yves Richard
Once again, the availability of support and quick responses make the difference. The product is also continuously evolving on the interface, use cases, connectors, reporting, etc. A real investment in the user experience has been done.
Integration is also differentiating. I attended a live demonstration of the tool with the core developers. We could have access to the roadmap and functionality in beta, give our opinion. It’s super interesting to contribute that way to a solution that you use.
On a scale of 0 to 10, at what level do you recommend Cerberus Testing to peers?
15/10!😊
I have already offered it to quite a few colleges, made small demos and regularly demonstrated the product’s value. The problem is often that of change to implement a new solution.
I see no reason not to use Cerberus Testing for a business wanting to get into test automation. Documentation is available, support also. We can also easily accelerate with the new Cloud offer on very accessible subscriptions.
I have highly recommended Cerberus Testing to several peers and maintain this position. To try is to adopt it!
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