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Overview

An Open Source proposal for end-to-end (E2E) functional test automation.

Probato is an initiative that aims to make the automation process more viable, sustainable, and accessible for teams and companies of any size.

It does not aim to be a definitive or complete solution, but rather an initial foundation, built from real-world needs, that evolves collaboratively with community participation.

Probato was created as a structured starting point to discuss, experiment with, and collectively evolve functional test automation.

The problem Probato addresses

In practice, functional test automation often faces recurring challenges:

  • Dispersed use of multiple libraries and utilities
  • Lack of standardization and code reuse
  • High maintenance cost of tests over time
  • Results and evidence scattered across reports, logs, and pipelines
  • Limited visibility of the value of automation beyond the technical team

These factors make automation fragile, difficult to scale, and often unfeasible for most projects.

Probato was created to tackle these problems directly, offering a structured and integrated approach to E2E test automation.

What Probato is

Probato is a proposal composed of two major components that work in a complementary way.

Together, they make it possible to clearly separate test execution from quality analysis, while maintaining organization, traceability, and visibility over time.

Java Library

The Java library is the core of the automation. It centralizes and organizes the use of well-established market solutions, such as Selenium, while adding:

  • Design patterns and best practices
  • Code reuse
  • A simple, annotation-driven API
  • A Page Object–based structure
  • Minimal configuration for execution across multiple browsers

The goal is not to reinvent existing tools, but to organize, standardize, and simplify their use in real-world projects.

Web Application

The Web application aims to centralize and provide visibility into the information collected during test executions.

It allows you to:

  • Store results and evidence in a structured way
  • Maintain execution history over time
  • Visualize technical and functional data in a single place
  • Track quality metrics and indicators

The way this data is collected, stored, and analyzed is not definitive and is open to evolution as new needs, contexts, and learnings emerge.

Probato’s proposal

The core proposal of Probato is to function as a “recipe-style” approach to functional test automation:

  • Simple to adopt in new projects
  • Easy to develop and evolve
  • Sustainable to maintain over time
  • Based on well-established best practices

The goal is to reduce technical complexity and operational effort, allowing teams to focus on software quality rather than automation maintenance.

Metrics and visibility

During test execution, the library collects a wide range of technical and functional information, which is automatically sent to the Web application.

This information makes it possible to:

  • Analyze feature stability
  • Identify recurring failures and critical points
  • Evaluate quality evolution over time
  • Support technical and strategic decisions based on data

Automation ceases to be merely a point-in-time validation mechanism and becomes a continuous source of information about product quality.

Who it is for

Probato was designed to serve different contexts and maturity levels:

  • Small teams looking to start automation in an organized way
  • Mature teams seeking standardization and visibility
  • Medium and large companies with multiple projects
  • Corporate environments with CI/CD pipelines

Its flexible architecture allows gradual adoption without imposing abrupt changes to the existing ecosystem.

Open Source and collaboration

Probato is an Open Source project that embraces its nature as an evolving proposal.

The project starts from an initial vision and technical decisions that are not final. The expectation is that the community will actively participate with opinions, suggestions, and contributions to complement, adjust, and mature the tool over time.

Community collaboration is considered an essential and fundamental factor for Probato to adapt to different contexts, realities, and needs.

What Probato does not aim to be

To align expectations, it is important to clarify that Probato:

  • Does not aim to be a definitive or complete framework
  • Does not replace the entire existing test automation ecosystem
  • Does not cover all possible scenarios, contexts, and needs

It is an initial proposal, open to evolution and adaptation based on practical use and community contributions.

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