Software development companies always test their products before launching. Still, end users always detect defects, which most users do not find pleasing at all. The job of test engineers is to ensure that they eliminate these defects before the product is released. However, despite their best efforts, defects always appear in the software.
Since the advent of test automation, this has been a thing of the past, especially for businesses that have shifted from regular or manual testing to more advanced automation testing.
Test automation presents an effective, efficient, and total way of testing your software. But what is it, and what benefits does it contribute to your business?
Understanding Automation Testing
The benefits of automation testing cannot be over-emphasized as they are undoubtedly irreplaceable in regard to reducing the risk of human error and providing faster feedback on the system’s functionality. Although manual testing still has benefits, automated testing is simply the best way of testing software. Large software development companies have noted the importance of automated testing despite the initial hesitation and analysis of cost. Understanding automation testing is the key to ensuring that defects and bugs in your software are discovered early and eliminated.
Automated testing uses a tool to execute a test case suite and predefined actions on a software application. In other words, it is the practice of performing tests automatically. Manual software testing was the go-to method of software testing. It involved testers sitting in front of their system and carefully analyzing application screens, trying various combinations, and recording their results. This software testing method is clearly tenuous, time-consuming, and not durable for large projects. Automated testing improved many of these techniques.
Importance of automation testing
Manual testing may have been overtaken by automation testing. However, it is because it has provided many benefits to developers and software development organizations, especially for those using the right kind of testing tool for their business.
Deciding which automation tool might be a hassle for you if you don’t know what you are looking for. However, whatever your business needs are, you need an automation tool like Functionize. It is not as expensive as most other automation tools, but it has many benefits.
Functionize can help you save costs, reduce the amount of time used in testing, and reduce the number of employees or personnel you need to handle the testing. Also, because of Functionize low-code intelligent tests, you can empower your team with skills that are future-proof.
Other automation testing tools have their benefits, and some of them include:
Easy regression testing
It is understood that regression testing takes time, but developers have long hated manually conducting regression testing. In manual testing, testers have to repeat the same test cases constantly to ensure no defect or bug in the code. Performing the same test over and over takes time and slows down the tester’s efficiency. However, with automated testing, regression testing can be performed much faster and without all the issues that come with manual testing.
Improves accuracy
Even the best manual tester is prone to mistakes during repeated testing periods. Automation testing has no such worries as it is done automatically by the machine and presents detailed results of test execution. This feature makes the tests more accurate, and testers are saved from repetitive manual testing.
Improved Shift-left testing
Shift-left testing improves product quality and is one of the major benefits of automated testing. With shift-left testing, testers can improve test coverage, automate repetitive tests, resolve bugs efficiently, and record everything. With automation testing, you can start testing immediately after the software development process starts. This way, you’ll detect bugs early and eliminate them quicker, saving time and resources.
Automation Testing Tools
Any software that allows you to define testing tasks that take over to perform the tests for you and requires minimal supervision is an automation testing tool. Several testing tools can be used to test platforms, including desktop computers, mobile devices, and smartphones.
With test automation, performance testing can be done without human aid. Testing automation can test code for a whole day if required; in this way, test execution processes are sped up. Test automation can also test multiple platforms, which is not obtainable with manual testing. The best automation testing you can use include Functionize, Selenium, TestRigor, etc. However, Functionize is flexible and can be used by anyone.
What test should be automated?
Several types of software tests can be automated, and they include:
Unit testing: as the name implies, unit testing tests a unit of the code. A unit of code is the smallest code that can be isolated in a system.
Regression testing: no matter how effective software is, the smallest bug or defect can lead to unexpected results. Regression testing, therefore, tests existing software applications to verify that a modification didn’t introduce bugs to the software.
Conclusion
Other tests which can be automated include functional testing, integration testing, smoke testing, data-driven testing, black box testing, and keyword testing. All these tests make automation testing the best way of testing software.
Additionally, because of several benefits they provide, like boosting the morale of the QA and development team, saving time and money, and accelerating cross-browser testing, automation testing can maximize input.
