Getting Started with Test Automation

Test Automation implies specialized tools to automatically execute test cases, delivering faster and more accurate results than manual testing. It saves time by quickly executing test suites, reducing human intervention, and improving testing’s return on investment (ROI).

Automation testing allows you to easily input test data, compare expected outcomes with the actual results, and generate detailed test reports. Despite requiring a certain level of investment, automation testing streamlines the software testing process for your organization.

Let’s discover the main differences in the following chart:

Although automation testing has clear advantages, it is important to note that manual testing can provide benefits that automated tools cannot match. Manual testing benefits from human expertise and knowledge.

Therefore, the ideal approach is to have a combination of both manual and automation activities in your testing cycle. This way, you can leverage the strengths of each approach and ensure comprehensive testing.

Automation testing enhances effectiveness, expands test coverage, and increases execution speed in software testing.

The key benefits include:

• Increased Speed: Automated tests can run continuously, in parallel, and without human intervention, speeding up test execution and reducing overall testing time.
• Improved Accuracy: Automation testing minimizes human errors by following predefined steps, eliminating the chances of testers introducing mistakes during execution.
• Cost Savings: Projects with advanced infrastructures or diverse applications see the highest automation ROI. While costs may be a barrier, long-term ROI in accuracy, speed, and consistency is guaranteed.
• Continuous Testing: Automated tests can be run frequently at any stage of development, even integrated into the development pipeline for automatic execution upon software changes.
• Consistency: Automation testing ensures test cases are executed consistently every time, making it indispensable for continuous testing scenarios, such as regular regression test runs.
• Enhanced Test Coverage: Automated test suites can be reused for multiple browsers, devices, and operating system combinations, improving coverage and efficiency.
• Improved Test Reusability: Automated tests can be stored and reused across systems, saving time for testers during each testing cycle.

Investing in automation testing brings significant benefits to software businesses and individuals working in the digital industry.

Prior to automating any situation, it's important to balance the advantages and disadvantages.

The following test cases are good candidates for test automation:

• Tests that are vulnerable to human mistakes;
• Monotonous and repetitive examinations;
• Extensive tests using a variety of data sets;
• Tests that cannot be carried out manually;
• Manually demanding testing spending a lot of time;
• Tests that carry a high risk;
• Tests that must be run on different hardware and software systems.

Remember that not all test cases are appropriate for automation. Due to their unpredictable nature, test cases whose requirements change frequently, and test cases run on an as-needed basis shouldn't be automated.​​​​

Automation testing is a process that usually involves four steps, explained below:

1. Test Tool Selection

The first step in automation testing is to decide which type of tests you want to automate. Once you have defined your test requirements, you need to select the appropriate set of tools to perform these tests. There are several testing tools available in the market. The industry-standard tools for automated testing are based on code and code-based test scripts.

• While selecting an automation tool, you should ask yourself:
• How easy is it to develop and maintain scripts using the tool?
• How many different platforms does the tool support? For example, web, mobile, desktops, etc.
• How many different programming languages is the tool compatible with?
• Does the tool provide a reporting mechanism?

2. Define the Scope of Automation

Once you have selected the best-suited test tool, you should define the scope of your test automation. You should consider defining the scope of automation by:

• The complexity of test cases
• Technical feasibility
• Common functionalities across applications
• Reusability and scalability of test cases for cross-browser testing

3. Planning, Design & Development

The Planning, Design & Development phase includes the following points:

• Framework design & its features
• Test case development
• Test suite preparation (e.g., Smoke, Sanity, Regression)
• Plugging framework with some CI/CD pipeline to achieve continuous testing

4. Test Execution

You can use either the test management tool, which will employ the test automation tool, or the automation testing tool at this phase. It is advisable to begin running the test scripts as soon as possible.

The Shift Left Testing method also suggests this. The Shift Left Testing approach recommends pushing the testing activities "Left" or "earlier" in the development cycle as opposed to traditional models like the Waterfall Model, where testing intervenes at the conclusion of the cycle. Involving testers sooner in the software development life cycle results in better results.

5. Maintenance

The last phase of automation testing is maintenance. In this phase, testing is performed to determine whether the newly added functionalities are working correctly or not. Maintenance improves the effectiveness of automation scripts with each successive release cycle.

Many organizations use this phase for Shift-Right Testing. “Shift-Right Testing”, or rather “Testing In Production”, happens after the software is deployed in production environments. It is mainly done to ensure the correct performance, stability, and usability of the application in the production environment.​

As software projects become more complex, and project development cycles accelerate, traditional manual quality assurance (QA) testing may not be fast or complete enough to meet testing objectives within acceptable timeframes.

Test Automation decreases the time and effort needed for manual testing while ensuring the quality and dependability of applications.

You can increase the speed and quality of your testing, find bugs earlier in the development cycle, and ultimately provide better products to your customers with the correct tools and strategy.

Download our Test Automation Infographic! 

Regain confidence in your software's quality

Qualysoft offers a wide range of result-oriented and cost / time-effective testing services to ensure software availability, smooth, and uninterrupted functioning, cybersecurity, scalability, and stability.

Get in touch with us regarding your testing and QA needs and we will promptly get back to you.