Software test automation is widely accepted as an efficient software testing technique. However, automation has failed to deliver the expected productivity more often than not. The goal of this research was to find out the reason for these failures by collecting and understanding the metrics that affect software test automation and provide recommendations on how to successfully adopt automation with a positive return on investment (ROI). The metrics of concern were schedule, cost and effectiveness. The research employed an experimental study where subjects worked on individual manual and automated testing projects. The data collected were cross verified and supplemented with additional data from a feedback survey at the end of the experiment. The results of this study suggest that automation involves a heavy initial investment in terms of schedule and cost, which needs to be amortized over subsequent test cycles or even subsequent test projects.

The property market has experienced rising property values over a long period, resulting in lower yield requirements. In the spring of 2022, a war in Ukraine began that would unbalance the global financial system, resulting in high inflation and rising interest rates that significantly impacted the property market, the transaction volume fell, and prices began to fall. As a result, we wanted to understand better how directly owned real estate funds operating in Sweden are acting in their investment strategies in the face of a coming economic downturn. The report mainly used qualitative data collection, where 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted over five weeks. The results were collected and summarised together with the theory and literature review. The conclusion clarified that directly owned real estate funds operating in Sweden do not change their investment strategies significantly in the face of an upcoming economic downturn. The same applies to their investment parameters. The majority had raised capital before the shift in the market and thus committed to investing the capital according to the strategy set at that time. In contrast, real estate funds consider property segments that follow macroeconomic trends with a defensive nature as most desirable in the face of a coming economic downturn. / Fastighetsmarknaden har under en lång period upplevt stigande fastighetsvärden som resulterat i lägre avkastningskrav. Under våren 2022 inleddes ett krig i Ukraina som skulle sätta det globala finansiella systemet ur balans, vilket resulterade i hög inflation och stigande räntor som satte stor prägel på fastighetsmarknaden, transaktionsvolymen föll och fastighetspriserna började falla. Det resulterade i att vi ville få en större förståelse över hur direktägande fastighetsfonder med verksamhet i Sverige agerar i sina investeringsstrategier inför en kommande lågkonjunktur. Rapporten använde främst kvalitativ informationsinsamling där det genomfördes 16 semistrukturerade intervjuer under en femveckorsperiod. Resultaten samlades in och sammanställdes tillsammans med framförda teorier från litteraturgenomgången. Slutsatsen klargjorde att direktägande fastighetsfonder med verksamhet i Sverige inte ändrar sina investeringsstrategier avsevärt inför en kommande lågkonjunktur, detsamma gäller för deras investerings parametrar. Majoriteten har rest kapital innan skiftet på marknaden och därav ålagt sig att investera kapitalet utifrån strategin som sattes då. Däremot är det tydligt att fastighetsfonderna i sin helhet anser fastighetssegment som följer makroekonomiska trender med defensiv karaktär som mest önskvärda inför en kommande lågkonjunktur.