Streamlining Automated Testing: How Reusable Tests in ServiceNow Yokohama Enhance ATF

[Travis Toulson]

 

Introduction

Automated testing is essential for maintaining the reliability and efficiency of enterprise applications, but as test suites grow, maintaining them can become a challenge. With the Yokohama release, ServiceNow introduces Reusable Tests, a highly requested feature designed to simplify test management, reduce redundancy, and improve test consistency.

In the latest episode of Creator Toolbox, Travis Toulson, Oluyinka Oginni, and Ravi Mantrala discuss how Reusable Tests work, provide a live demo, and share best practices to make the most of this new feature.

What Are Reusable Tests?

If you're familiar with ATF test templates, you know that while they allow some level of reuse, they have limitations when it comes to flexibility and scalability. Reusable Tests are the next evolution, allowing developers to:

• Modularize test components for reuse across multiple test cases

• Reduce maintenance efforts by centralizing updates

• Enhance test consistency by ensuring common steps are uniformly executed

Instead of duplicating the same steps across multiple tests, you can now create a single reusable test, modify it once, and see the updates reflected across all ATF test cases using it.

Live Demo: How It Works

During the episode, Ravi Mantrala walks through a hands-on demo of Reusable Tests, showing:

1. Creating a Reusable Test – Defining input/output variables and test steps

2. Using a Reusable Test in an ATF Test – Calling it from a main test case

3. Debugging & Results – Seeing how execution flows and results are logged

4. Managing Categories – Organizing tests under relevant categories for easier navigation

 

Best Practices for Using Reusable Tests

To maximize the benefits of this feature, consider these strategies:

✅ Think Modular – Break tests into small, reusable components
✅ Use Custom Scripts – Combine UI testing with efficient server-side scripts
✅ Integrate with Test Templates – Make your test coverage more robust
✅ Manage Complexity – Avoid overly complex reusable test designs
✅ Handle Dependencies Carefully – Ensure that reusable tests don’t create unintended dependencies
✅ Document Everything – Clearly document reusable test purposes and categories for easy team collaboration

Getting Started

Reusable Tests are available out-of-the-box in ServiceNow Yokohama—no additional installation required! Simply upgrade your instance and start leveraging this feature in the ATF module.

Conclusion

By implementing Reusable Tests, ServiceNow developers can significantly cut down test maintenance time while ensuring better consistency across testing environments. This is a huge step towards faster, more reliable automated testing in the Automated Test Framework (ATF).