Overview

Thucydides is an open source library that lets you use WebDriver/Selenium 2 to write better acceptance tests. Thucydides helps you:

• Write tests that are more flexible and easier to maintain
• Produce illustrated, narrative reports about your tests
• Map your automated tests back to your requirements more easily
• See how much of your application is actually being tested
• And measure project progress

In a nutshell, here is how it works:

Thucydides starts with the Requirements you need to implement. Each requirement has Acceptance Criteria, which help clarify the requirement. It is these Acceptance Criteria that we automate with Thucydides.

In Thucydides, you build a simple model of your requirements in Java. There are many ways to model your requirements, including a simple declarative class structure, using a directory structure convention, or integrating with external software such as JIRA. This lets developers specify exactly what requirement they are testing for each test, and helps Thucydides keep track of what application features and requirements have been tested.

Next, you describe your acceptance criteria in high-level business terms.

Developers then record these acceptance criteria using either a BDD tool such as jbehave or easyb or just in Java using JUnit, so that Thucydides can run them.

These tests get executed, but they are reported as "pending".

Developers now implement the acceptance criteria, so that they can run against the actual application.

Under the hood, tests are broken down into nested steps for better readability and easier maintenance.

Web tests are written using the popular open source Selenium 2/WebDriver library.

Thucydides provides detailed reports on the test results and execution, including:

• A narrative for each test
• Screen shots for each step in the test
• Test results including execution times and error messages if a test failed

But Thucydides goes beyond just reporting on test execution. It also tells you:

• How much of your requirements have been tested
• How much is working, and
• How much remains to be done

Thucydides also reports on project history and progress:

• Features specified over time
• Features implemented and tested over time, and
• Failing tests over time

Learn more about Thucydides:

• Thucydides on Github
• Getting Started with Thucydides
• The Thucydides User Manual
• The Thucydides Blog

Wakaleo Consulting CEO John Ferguson Smart is the founder and lead developer of Thucydides.

Wakaleo Consulting can provide both training and full enterprise support for your Thucydides web test developments, including help with installation, configuration and usage guidelines, as well as feature requests and bug fixes. We offer yearly support contracts backed with a service level agreement.

Contact us to learn more.