Have you ever seen executable automation scripts in pure English?

Does BA or Product Owner contribute towards defining the acceptance scenarios?

Are your automation test scripts maintainable?

Are they written in a DSL (Domain Specific Language)?

NO ..!!!

I present you WATIR and RSpec stories

What is WATIR?

WATIR is a simple open-source Ruby library for automating web browsers. WATIR Accesses an HTML page using the COM (Component Object Model) interface of Internet Explorer. We Can get Full access to the contents of an HTML page

Why WATIR?

Ruby is a nice language to use. Its not VendorScript. Ruby framework RSpec can also be leveraged for writing test scripts

What is RSpec story framework?

RSpec story is a Behavior Driven Development (outside-in) framework. It starts at the outside by identifying business outcomes, and then drills down into the feature set that will achieve those outcomes. Each feature is captured as a "story", which defines the scope of the feature along with its acceptance criteria. Following is an executable test scenario!!

Story: Google Search

Scenario: Search on Bhargav Gandhi

Given that I am Google.com
When I enter string Bhargav Gandhi in the search box
And click on search button
Then I should see the first result as Ruby on Rails developer: Bhargav Gandhi from India, Mumbai

The above scenario is an example of a test scenario which is written in DSL and is maintainable (anyone can understand this English). It introduces the layer of abstraction where BAs/POs can write stories and scenarios in the above format.