Mesut Durukal

Background — As a test automation engineer at Indeed, I focus on testing job boards that share common components, such as search functionality. When I started working on one job board, I quickly recognized a significant opportunity to improve test automation across multiple teams and applications. I proposed a solution to make the test automation framework reusable and scalable across the organization. This approach has revolutionized how we approach automation, reducing test implementation time and increasing collaboration.

Problem Statement — In large organizations, teams often face two main challenges when scaling test automation: Lack of Collaboration and Holistic Testing: Testing is siloed, with different teams tackling similar technical challenges in isolation. Developers and other roles aren't always involved in testing, making it difficult to foster a holistic quality mindset across the organization. Duplication and Inefficiency: Multiple teams work on automating the same or similar components, such as a search bar, but often take different approaches. This leads to inefficiencies, duplicated efforts, and inconsistency in test strategies. The need for a reusable and scalable test automation framework is clear, but the question is: how can we implement it effectively and ensure it benefits all teams, applications, and environments?

Solution — We developed a centralized test automation framework designed to be scalable and reusable across teams and applications. The framework addresses common problems like duplication of efforts, inefficiencies, and inconsistency in testing strategies by providing a shared platform for test automation. Key components of the framework include: Test Runner: To handle running tests efficiently in different environments. Parallelization: Both locally and remotely, at the spec and test levels, speeding up execution. Retries: At both the test level and for failing requests, reducing flakiness. Test Reporter: Providing isolated test execution details for better reporting. Configuration Management: Allowing for easy adjustment of execution parameters. Execution Metrics Collection: Tracking key metrics like success rate, flakiness, and test duration. This framework enables teams to quickly implement tests and share solutions, reducing redundancy and ensuring high-quality, maintainable automation.

Key Takeaways — Attendees of this session will learn: How to scale test automation across different teams and applications without compromising quality. Strategies to improve test reusability, reducing duplication of effort. Methods for addressing flakiness and improving test reliability. Approaches to monitoring and maintaining a central framework, with key insights into tracking execution metrics. How to reduce test implementation time from 5 hours to 30 minutes through efficient, reusable practices.

Outline — Introduction (25%): Problem definition, emphasizing the benefits of a reusable and distributed test framework. Strategy (30%): Key considerations for building a scalable and reusable test automation framework. Framework Architecture (15%): Overview of the key components (test runner, parallelization, retries, etc.). Monitoring & Maintenance (15%): How to track execution metrics and maintain quality. Summary & Q&A (15%): Recap and open floor for audience questions.

How This Talk is Different — This talk is more than just a technical deep dive into test automation frameworks. It's a practical, experience-based report on how to scale test automation efforts in real-world scenarios. I'll provide insights on solving everyday challenges that test automation engineers face, such as maintaining consistency, avoiding duplicated effort, and ensuring reliability at scale. The focus on scaling, collaboration, and reusability makes this session stand out from other test automation talks.

Summary — In this talk, I will share my journey of scaling test automation across teams and environments at Indeed. We started with a small, siloed effort and transformed it into a central framework that drastically reduced implementation time and improved efficiency across the organization. By making the framework reusable and scalable, we not only improved collaboration but also ensured consistency in quality across different applications.