Automation has been quite the buzzword in the past decade that has the prospects of staying in trend for the foreseeable future. This technological innovation has paved the way for paradigm shifts in the business, product development, and service industry ecosystems. And, the software testing landscape is no exception. Automated software testing has witnessed growth by leaps and bounds, thanks to the plethora of cutting-edge automation testing tools.
In this blog, we will be covering all about test automation, its benefits, challenges, how to choose the right automation tools, and test automation best practices.
What is automated software testing?
Businesses strive to launch flawless, robust, resilient, smart,secure, and scalable web and mobile applications to their target audiences. And,no matter how robust, and efficient the application development has been,testing the applications comprehensively is highly imperative for ensuring theapplication meets the functionality, usability, feature, and securityrequirements. With Gen-Z audiences leaning towards applications withmulti-device, multi-platform, and multi-browser support, manual testing is nolonger enough. Automation testing aims at addressing manual testing challengesand helping businesses achieve greater test script writing efficiency,scripting automation, top-notch automated executions, recording, and reportingcapabilities.
Unlike manual testing where dedicated QA teams are responsiblefor analyzing the application features and other aspects, automated software testing leverages the software tools/platformsto automatically run tests, execute test scripts, record the test executions toplay later for future requirements. This helps free up the time and resourcesof the QA teams. Besides, test automation ensures greater test coverage,testing the application across real-time devices, browsers, and platforms toanalyze the compatibility, and functionality. This ensures greater testingefficiency, and ROI.
What are the benefits of testingautomation?
Automation testing is gaining ground quite rapidly, andcomplementing manual testing in more than one way. Here are some of the keybenefits of automation testing.
Cost-effective Software Testing
Unlike manual testing, with automation testing, businesses won'tneed to invest in terms of in-house QA professionals, additionalinfrastructure, and resources. Cost-effectiveness is one of the key aspectsthat make test automation unarguably adoptable.
Faster feedback cycle
With manual tests, it can be a time-consuming process fortesters to get back to your DevOps department with feedback. By leveraging testautomation tools such as Sahi Pro,businesses can execute faster validation during the development phases. Bytesting early on and significantly narrowing down the feedback cycle, they canensure the application functionality and features are flawless, robust, andsmart.
Faster time to market
With test automation, businesses don't need to wait to testuntil the application is fully developed. One of the lucrative benefits of testautomation is that testing can be carried out for applications underdevelopment as well. Automation testingtools can also get test results faster, expediting final softwarevalidation. So, no more prolonged testing cycles. And, thus businesses canlaunch their product sooner to the market.
Better test coverage
With automation making it easier for creating test scripts thatare reusable, and self-healing in nature, businesses can ensure greater testcoverage.
Better insights
Automation tests not only tell you when a test fails but alsopoint you in the right direction of the source of the failure. This helps yourDevOps team to work on the corrective measures on time.
Improved test accuracy, test reusability, less stress on thein-house QA team are some of the other benefits of leveraging automated testing software.
What are the types of automatedsoftware testing tools?
Automation testing toolsare primarily categorized into:
Open-source automation tools
These tools are free platforms that allow users to access anduse their source code. It is up to the users whether to fully or partiallyadopt the code or make the necessary tweaks to suit their testing needs.Testing professionals with a programming background can make the most of thesetools to customize advanced test cases.
Commercial automation tools
Commercial tools, as the name suggests, are crafted forcommercial purposes, and are available via subscription plans. These tools tendto have more premium features and thorough customer service.
Custom framework
There are circumstances wherein businesses don't find the abovetwo variants of automation toolsviable for their testing needs. They need to harness the technical eloquence ofniche testing experts to craft custom testing frameworks with requisitefeatures, and capabilities.
What are the key factors toconsider while choosing the right test automation tool?
Here are some of the key factors to consider before initiatingfull-fledged automated software testing.
● Project requirements -what are the testing requirements such as the types of applications andplatforms to be tested, whether cross-browser testing is needed
● Team Learning Curve -whether the in-house team is capable of leveraging the tool under selection,the training needs that may emerge in the future, etc.
● Testing budget
● How easy the toolmakes the test case creation and maintenance processes
● Test case reusability
● Whether the software testing tools supportdata-driven, parallel, and dynamic testing
● Data-driven, deeper,actionable test reporting
● Ease of integrationwith existing systems, tools, and testing frameworks
● Training, andtechnical support
Why Sahi Pro?
Sahi Pro, the enterprise-grade, tester-centric yetbusiness-driven, low-code test automation platform is one of the go-to automated software testing tools forenterprises of all sizes. This easy-to-use, learn and navigate test automationtool has been crafted for agile teams to launch builds 2X faster, ensuregreater test automation accuracy, coverage, and ROI.
Some of the key features/capabilities that set Sahi Pro apartfrom its counterparts include:
- Single tool for automation of various technologies like browser based applications, Windows desktop applications, Mobile applications on iOS and Android, Web Services and SAP based applications
- Easy test creation and maintenance
- Rapid stable playback with continuous Integration for quick feedback
- Minimal programming requirements
- Detailed error reporting for all testing stakeholders
- Auto-healing, reusable test scripts that can run across browsers
- Business Friendly Frameworks
- Parallel and Distributed Playback
Conclusion
Contrary to the popular belief, software automation testing tools are not here to replace manualtesting. There are certain test cases, and complex scenarios that need thepower of human intelligence, and interaction. Businesses need to choose theright automation tool that is in alignment with their business and testingneeds and forge an equilibrium between manual and automated testing to ensure testingsuccess.
