Best Practices in Test Automation

I am looking for one of my clients into how costs can be reduced, or quality increased, by increasing the extent to which testing is automated.

As a first step, I am trying to develop a comprehensive list of test automation “best practices”, grouped roughly by life-cycle (or iteration) stage. I’m trying to find practices which are broadly independent of specific methods and technologies, although obviously tool support may vary depending on the chosen technology.

This article is my first draft of such a list.

I’d welcome suggestions from my readers if you think there are any omissions (or if you substantially disagree with anything I’ve included).

Thanks

Andrew