It would is always quite challenging to develop cost-effective yet an effective test plan; the test development lifecycle and management can be carried out through many methods and approaches and testers need to have the clear and detailed view of each aspect to succeed. Using special software, automation controls the execution of test cases and the comparison of predicted outcomes with the actual results. It can automate earlier iterative cycle, but basic and crucial testing in a formalized process already existing. Using test automation in company software, the additional testing can be added, which otherwise would be hard to execute manually.

Automation Saves Time and Minimizes Human Errors

Some of the levels including recovery testing or regression testing or low-level interface testing, can be time consuming and laborious to be performed manually. Moreover, the manual testing method may not be that effective in finding certain types of bugs. Hence, automation tools are used to perform complex testing that requires lot of time and efforts, in a very effective manner, and eliminate the need for manual testing.
Once the process has been automated, it can be controlled and run repeatedly to save time and efforts. However, Software Build Automation process could be costlier, if the software requires lot of maintenance, and minor mistakes over a period could cause the features of the application to break down.

Approaches

Basically, test automation is handled through two approaches –

–       Code driven testing and

–       GUI-based testing.

In code-driven testing, the publically viewed interfaces to modules, libraries, or classes are tested with a variety of input statements to validate, and check whether or not the outcomes generated are correct. In GUI testing, a framework would generate user interface functions, like mouse clicks, keystrokes, and examines that the updates and modifications that display in UI to validate that the observed actions of the program is accurate or not.

When is Automated Testing Effective?

The tools are expensive and generally are used in combination with manual testing. The automation process can be cost-effective over the longer run, in particular when used many times in regression testing.

In automated testing, QA analyst or test engineer should have coding ability, as the test cases are written in code format that when run, generate output during computing. Unit testing is basically done by the developing team and test cases can be generated automatically through model-based testing, though many other methods are on the rise. It is also possible for non-technical users to utilize the model-based testing approach to generate automated test cases, so that no coding or programming language is needed for configuring them for several smart devices, browsers, and operating systems.

When it comes to automation, one need to know what and when to automate and what type of tool has to be used for testing. Not just the selection of the correct development or testing team matters, even the correct features of the product for testing decide the success of the process.

On the Whole

Automation testing provides advantages and capabilities that no other technology in the industry can match. Automated testing greatly speeds up the design and simplifies the process by making use of building blocks or components. It allows quality assurance and testing teams to begin the process as soon as possible for high quality product. It generates test case and automated documentation in a single step, reducing the cost and time that otherwise goes for maintaining or creating the test records.

Author Bio

Jacques Rohrer is a software testing manager who has over 6 years of experience in regression testing. He believes that automated testing tools help in improving the efficiency of testing process by leaps and bounds, and eliminate the need for manual testing, but they always need to be smartly to get the best results.