Frontend Test Automation Tools for a Modern Web Application
Lahdentausta, Janne (2025)
2025
Automaatiotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Automation Engineering
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-03-14
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202503142783
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202503142783
Tiivistelmä
This thesis shows a structured approach for selecting the most optimal test automation tool for the company’s needs. The research highlights the importance of test automation for improving software quality by providing continuous feedback throughout the development lifecycle. Test automation is a powerful tool for maintaining good quality software in the rapidly evolving world of development. However, for it to be truly effective, quality must be seen as a core value across the entire organization. When every team member prioritizes quality, test automation is net just seen as a technical process but as a valuable strategy for continuous improvement. With a wide range of test automation tools on the market, each offering pros and cons, a systematic evaluation framework is needed for making decisions.
The literature on this topic identified many key attributes to consider when selecting test automation tools. The most critical factors included ease-of-use, functional alignment with the requirements, community support, and available resources. Additionally, compatibility with the chosen technology stack, maintainability, maturity, and costs were frequently mentioned in the research. Based on these attributes, an evaluation framework was developed and applied to identify the most suitable tools for testing the frontend of the case company’s renewed software platform.
As a result, Vitest was chosen for unit testing and Playwright for end-to-end testing due to their strong integration with React and Next.js, ease of use and configuration, and rapidly growing interest, adoption, and popularity. As a part of this thesis, these tools were integrated into the version control and continuous integration pipeline, and initial tests were implemented. As test coverage will rise over time, overall software quality is expected to improve incrementally.
This structured approach for tool evaluation enables organizations to identify the solution that best aligns with their requirements. Every project is unique, and has its own specific requirements, but having a systematic evaluation method remains necessary – especially as new tools continue to rise in the future.
The literature on this topic identified many key attributes to consider when selecting test automation tools. The most critical factors included ease-of-use, functional alignment with the requirements, community support, and available resources. Additionally, compatibility with the chosen technology stack, maintainability, maturity, and costs were frequently mentioned in the research. Based on these attributes, an evaluation framework was developed and applied to identify the most suitable tools for testing the frontend of the case company’s renewed software platform.
As a result, Vitest was chosen for unit testing and Playwright for end-to-end testing due to their strong integration with React and Next.js, ease of use and configuration, and rapidly growing interest, adoption, and popularity. As a part of this thesis, these tools were integrated into the version control and continuous integration pipeline, and initial tests were implemented. As test coverage will rise over time, overall software quality is expected to improve incrementally.
This structured approach for tool evaluation enables organizations to identify the solution that best aligns with their requirements. Every project is unique, and has its own specific requirements, but having a systematic evaluation method remains necessary – especially as new tools continue to rise in the future.