The promise of successful software intensive system test automation has been advertised by test tool vendors for many years. However, those promises have yet to be fulfilled pervasively on government and industry software projects. There are several types of test automation technology available today but the biggest opportunity for a return on investment (ROI) for software maintenance programs is in the test execution (also called "Capture/Playback" category of test technology). Test Automation problems and the ROI opportunities will be identified and discussed. Further, we will describe the cadre of test automation types then focus on the application and results of keyword-based functional/system/regression test automation.