Automation testing (also known as test automation) is a testing technique for software that performs with the use of special testing automated software tools. The purpose is to execute test cases. In manual testing, humans perform the test.
Automation testing software is also capable of entering test data into a System Under Test, it can compare actual results and expected results, and can generate highly-detailed test reports. Considerable resource and money investments are necessary with software test automation.
Why Is Automation Testing Important?
Automation testing services are highly beneficial for businesses because they increase test coverage, effectiveness, and even execution speed when software testing is needed. The main reasons why this is important are the following:
- It is tough to manually test for the multilingual sites but automation makes it easy.
- Can manually test all fields, workflows, and negative scenarios.
- Automation testing does not need the influence of humans.
- Test execution speed needs to increase.
- Test coverage is increased.
- With manual testing, the process can be error-prone and quite boring.
What Test Cases Should Be Automated?
Those that need to be automated are those that increase automation ROI. This includes high-risk test cases, those that are very difficult to be performed manually, those that are executed repeatedly, and time-consuming test cases.
You should not automate test cases that have not been executed manually at least one time in the past, those that have frequently changing requirements, and those executed at the ad-hoc level.
Automation Testing Benefits
With automation testing, you save time and money while ensuring consistency. All results are reliable and you can test many more application features. Statistics show that test automation is around 70% faster than with manual testing.
Accuracy is improved and you do not need to worry about human intervention. Efficiency is very high and while executing tests, the speed is higher. Test scripts can be re-used and products can reach the market faster.
Automated Testing Types
Some examples of common automated testing types include:
- Unit testing
- Smoke testing
- Functional testing
- Integration testing
- Regression testing
- Keyword testing
- Black box testing
- Data driven testing
Choosing Automation Tools
For businesses, it can be difficult to choose the best tool to perform automation. In order to make the correct choice, it is mandatory that you think about the following:
- Environment support
- Database testing
- Easiness in use
- Error recovery testing
- Image testing
- Test support
- The script language used
- Multiple testing frameworks support
- Extensive test results and reports
- Can recognize different objects in different environments
- Training cost is minimized
The biggest challenge is tool selection. You need to tackle this before considering automation tools. For starters, you can identify requirements, explore all the various tools, capabilities, and select the best one only based on proof of concept.
