Testing software is an integral component to the entire IT project. The software is tested more and more frequently to increase its quality. How do you get there? You can choose between the manual method and automation testing.
If you stick to manual testing, it could result in you being in trouble, because the process of achieving continuous testing using manual testers can be a lot of work.
Furthermore, manual testing can be susceptible to human error and is costly, time-consuming and can impact customers’ experience severely.
Companies are always under pressure to innovate, change, and remain competitive. Staying on top of all technological advancements in the sector is a huge issue, and companies must automate the repetitive testing process in order to make sure that the software works in accordance with expectations and delivers worth in a short amount of time.
This is achievable through the use of agile practices to create shorter development times and faster Time to Market (TTM).
However, in my view, manual testing continues to play an important and essential part in the life cycle, even though it needs to be paired with an effective automated testing strategy.
All You Should Know About Automation Testing
Testing automation is the practice of performing tests with the help of scripts, tools, and software, by repeating specific actions.
In simple terms, you could consider automated testing as a kind of testing that is focused on replacing tedious lengthy, error-prone, and costly manual processes or tasks by automating scripts to increase the efficiency of the software as well as efficiency.
Testing is a crucial aspect of every software development lifecycle. To ensure higher quality software, it is essential to make sure that it is tested more thoroughly.
Automation testing provides testers with the opportunity to concentrate on other tasks that are of high quality, such as running test-driven tests and analyzing test results and so on.
In addition, it takes over mundane and repetitive tasks such as regression tests. In the end, automated testing lets you achieve more coverage for your tests within a shorter time.
Different Types Of Automated Testing
Automation Testing is a great way to test your advantages and is ideally suited for those areas that need to test repeatedly. However, can we get 100% automation of tests?
It’s not easy to attain 100% automation of tests so it’s important to know the test cases that are able to be automated.
a) Repetitive Tests
They are among the top test subjects for automated tests since their number keeps rising with the addition of new functions. This means that they are becoming difficult to manage and running them manually repeatedly becomes tedious.
b) Complex Tests
The most complex tests are better to automate. Consider, for instance, those areas that require large calculations. They are susceptible to human error. Automating them will guarantee the accuracy of your program.
c) Smoke Tests
The smoke tests that will likely need to be conducted in different environments such as Dev Env or QA Env or production Envs are also suitable to automate testing. It can save a lot of time when these tests are run through automation each time a new system comes into. That way you could also run tests on various browsers or OS variations with less time.
d) Data-Driven Tests
This software-based testing technique employs a table of conditions to supply test inputs, and then store the outputs. The first step is to create a database that contains test scenarios with fields that vary from the best to worst. Then, developers can use the table to write an application that makes use of the data from the table as variables.
Data-driven testing allows the creation of an automatic framework in which the data is stored in the testing process and speeds up the creation of new tests for every data set.
Automation is already a part of the process of testing driven by data. This test lets testers connect the right values and then get the results of several tests.
e) Performance Tests
Performance testing determines how the application performs under different circumstances. The test tests the speed, latency of the AUT and stability with respect to the characteristics of the system regarding reliability and efficient utilization of resources.
By performing tests developers try to simulate real-world scenarios and test the application to its limits. Then, they gather and examine the results to identify the root cause of the operational problem.
Performance testing evaluates whether the software meets the specifications of performance metrics set by engineers, in the event that such information is available.
In the majority of cases, software testers utilize automated regression testing to permit an increased frequency of tests against accepted standards that are needed for testing the performance of the product in the course of development.
Different Ways to Perform Automation Testing
i) Test Tool Selection
Before beginning any type of automation for tests it is important to determine what kind of tests you want to automate. Once you have your test plan in place then you must select the appropriate set of tools to aid you in the execution of the tests.
There are a variety of test tools to choose from. The standard tools used that automatize testing is built on code and test scripts.
The most well-known web automation framework that is based on code for automated testing, is Selenium WebDriver which lets you test web applications with different web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.).
It also supports various languages, including Java, Python, C# as well as C#, Python, and so on. However, picking the right one is a crucial element in the automation process.
Take note of the following points when choosing the right automation software:
- How simple is it to write and maintain scripts with Test tools?
- What are the different platforms that the program will support? For e.g., Web, Mobile, Desktops, etc.
- What are the languages it compatible with?
- Does the tool allow the reporting process?
ii) Defines Your Goals (Scope of Automation )
After you’ve chosen the right test tool for your needs The next step is to determine the purpose of your automated testing. Think about the following factors when setting the scope of automation
- The complexity of test case scenarios
- Technical feasibility
- Common functionality across applications
- Reusability and Scalability of test cases to allow cross-browser testing
iii) Planning, Design and Development
The phase of Planning, Design & Development phase is comprised of the following points:
- Framework design and its characteristics
- Test case development
- Preparation of the test suite, e.g. Smoke, Sanity and Regression
- Plugging framework using pipelines for CI/CD to ensure continuous testing.
iv) Test Execution
The scripts created during the designing phase can be executed in this stage. Execution is performed with the automated testing tool, or the test management tool. This will then trigger the tool for testing automation.
Start the process of executing the test programs as soon as you can. This is exactly what is suggested by the approach of Shift Left Testing approach recommends.
Contrary to conventional models, such as that of the Waterfall Model, in which testing is a part of the picture towards the final stage of the process, Shift Left Testing is a different approach.
Shift Left Testing approach suggests moving testing tasks “Left” or more “earlier” during the development process. This means that it includes testers earlier during the software development cycle.
The earlier testers are involved and involved, the greater the number of bugs you will find and, as a result, you will have a higher-quality product.
v) Maintenance
In this stage of automated testing, tests are conducted to assess whether the recently added features are working properly or not. Maintenance and updating of test suites is done to enhance the effectiveness of automation scripts in each release cycle.
Many companies even utilize this process for Shift-Right Testing. Testing in shift-right, or more precisely Testing In Production, happens following the deployment of the software into a production environment. This is usually used to verify that the application is running at the right speed, has the security, and usability of the application within an environment that is production.
Why LambdaTest Proves To Be The Best When It Comes To Perform Automate Testing?
Selenium is an open-source framework that allows testing across platforms and cross-browsers for web-based applications. It is a software suite that can run automated tests on websites and web-based applications using different browsers and on various platforms, using any programming language you prefer.
Cloud-based testing tools such as LambdaTest provide the cloud Selenium Grid that lets you test in parallel on an online web-based browser farm that includes 3000+ operating systems and browsers. All you have to do is install your remote Selenium WebDriver instead of the local Selenium WebDriver.
With LambdaTest you don’t need to fret about downloading and configuring hundreds of browsers for your computer, since they’re all accessible via the internet Selenium Grid. All you have to do is sign-up with LambdaTest for free, get your free automation testing minutes and use the Selenium IDE tests on the cloud.
Wrapping Up
In the twenty-first century, investing in automation testing is crucial to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the process of developing software. It is crucial to determine the ROI (ROI) from automated testing particularly when a company has a limited budget and is unable to fund all of the projects that are requested.
