Most software companies have a test automation initiative; some are just starting, some are humming right along. Typically, these initiatives focus “traditional automation”: using a software package to automate existing test cases or user stories. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; often, there is value in that. Many organizations stop here because this is the standard in the industry today. Unfortunately, these organizations are missing opportunities to exploit the power of automation.

Instead of focusing on how many test cases we can automate, what if we consider this: “how can automation help me do my job”?

This session shares some real-world examples where non-traditional automation (that we call “automation assist”) provided business value, including cases where traditional automation could not have provided the same level of value. We'll also discuss some things to keep in mind when implementing automation assist, including automating with tools that are not traditionally considered automation tools.

Paul Grizzaffi is the Director of QA and Automation Program Architect at nThrive. His career has focused on the creation and deployment of automated test strategies, frameworks, tools, and platforms. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science and is a Certified ScrumMaster from Scrum Alliance. Paul has created automation platforms and tool frameworks based on proprietary, open source and vendor-supplied tool chains in diverse product environments (telecom, stock trading, E-commerce, and healthcare). He is an accomplished speaker who has presented at both local and national meetings and conferences. He’s an advisor to Software Test Professionals and STPCon, as well as a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the Advanced Research Center for Software Testing and Quality Assurance (STQA) at UT Dallas. Paul looks forward to sharing his experiences and expanding his automation and testing knowledge of other product environments.