Design Patterns for Automation

Sri Priya P Kulkarni
3 min readSep 21, 2023

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Design patterns for automation are reusable solutions to common problems that arise in the context of automating tasks, processes, or workflows. These patterns help streamline automation efforts, improve maintainability, and promote consistency in automation projects.

Here are some design patterns for automation:

1. Singleton Pattern:

- Problem: Ensuring that only one instance of a class is responsible for the automation framework created.

- Solution: Implement a class that allows only a single instance to be created and reused throughout the automation process.

2. Factory Pattern:

- Problem: Deciding which automation component (e.g., web driver, database connector) to use based on specific conditions or parameters.

- Solution: Create a factory class that generates the appropriate automation component based on input criteria.

3. Adapter Pattern:

- Problem: Integrating existing automation tools or libraries into a new automation framework.

- Solution: Develop an adapter class that acts as an interface between the existing tool/library and the automation framework.

4. Strategy Pattern:

- Problem: Handling different variations or strategies for performing a specific automation task.

- Solution: Define multiple strategies for the same task and dynamically choose the appropriate one at runtime.

5. Observer Pattern:

- Problem: Notifying multiple automation components or modules about changes or events in the system.

- Solution: Implement an observer pattern where subject modules notify registered observers when specific events occur.

6. Command Pattern:

- Problem: Encapsulating automation requests as objects, allowing for parameterization and queuing of requests.

- Solution: Create command objects that encapsulate a specific action, making it easy to parameterize and execute automation tasks.

7. Decorator Pattern:

- Problem: Adding additional functionality or behavior to automation components without modifying their core logic.

- Solution: Use decorators to wrap automation objects and dynamically add features or behaviors.

8. State Pattern:

- Problem: Managing the different states that automation processes or workflows can be in.

- Solution: Define a state machine with various states and transitions to control the automation flow.

9. Composite Pattern:

- Problem: Treating individual automation steps or tasks as part of a larger workflow.

- Solution: Create a composite structure where each step/task is a component that can be combined into more complex automation processes.

10. Chain of Responsibility Pattern:

- Problem: Handling requests or commands in a sequence and allowing each element in the chain to decide whether to process the request or pass it to the next element.

- Solution: Build a chain of handlers, where each handler can either process the request or pass it to the next handler in the chain.

11. Template Method Pattern:

- Problem: Defining the skeleton of an automation process with some steps that may vary in implementation.

- Solution: Create a template method with fixed steps and allow subclasses to override specific steps as needed.

12. Dependency Injection Pattern:

- Problem: Managing dependencies, configurations, and resources required for automation.

- Solution: Use dependency injection to provide necessary components, configurations, and resources to automation modules or classes.

These are the Design patterns which we can use based on the requirement of the Automation framework. Choosing the right design pattern depends on the specific requirements and challenges of your automation project.

Hope you liked the article, in the next article will discuss each design pattern in detail.

Thanks for reading the article!!!!

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Sri Priya P Kulkarni

SDET| Blogger! | Automation Enthusiast! | On a journey of Continuous learning.... !