The process of automating software testing with the help of tools, frameworks and coding languages is known as automation testing. The primary goal of Automation testing is to minimize the testing efforts. This process ultimately helps the companies to deliver high-quality software at an efficient budget quickly.
Automaton testing helps software development companies to survive in this competitive generation. Presently, many companies have already started introducing automation testing in their testing environment. However, manual testing continues to dominate a massive portion of the development industry. A primary reason for this dominance is that the developers are unaware of automation testing’s enormous benefits.
Manual testing involves repeating predefined test cases. After this process, the developers have to carefully compare the final results to verify the application’s functionality. The developers have to repeat the tests for every minor change in the software’s primary source code. It is tough to perform manual tests on multiple platforms.
Due to these reasons, the companies have to invest a massive amount of time and effort to transition from manual to automation testing. On proper analysis, the companies need not consider the financial angle for introducing automation testing to a small extent. This is because various open-source automated testing tools can help them perform basic automation tasks.
Companies also feel that the returns won’t be significant enough to justify the investments for automation testing. However, the reality is just the opposite. In this article, we will discuss the massive benefits of automation testing that can help revolutionize the testing industry. We will also discuss the various tools that can help the companies utilize automation testing’s full potential.
Why Is Automation Testing Necessary?
Reduce the Cost of Failure
A common myth is Automation Testing has very high initial investment. Your company will need better Automation Testing tools only when the development process has ultimately adopted automation testing. You will also require better service and high resources to maintain the complete infrastructure for automation testing. The developers need to create test scripts that are responsible for conducting automation testing.
To justify the introduction of automation testing, the developers need to consider the consequences of failure in Manual Testing. You also have to consider how much time, money, and human resources need to be spent to rectify these mistakes. Automation Testing helps to find all the bugs in the early stages of the development process. There are very slim chances of any error sliding into the production process.
Save Time in the Development Project
The initial setup for automation testing requires a lot of time and effort. However, once you have finished creating the test scripts, you can reuse the various development projects’ scripts. Automation tests are less labor-intensive, which means that you can finish them faster than manual tests.
While using a continuously changing codebase, automation testing plays a vital role in the testing phase. Automation tests also help to abolish the redundant processes that you have been conducting with manual testing. This complete process helps to save a significant portion of the development budget and time.
Lays the Foundation for CI and DevOps
Continuous integration and DevOps are highly dependent on automation testing. These processes work on the principle of early error detection. It ensures that the developers check every change to the codebase in an automatic manner.
Then, all the tests’ reports are to be sent back to the development and QA teams. It would be best if you also prioritized fixing any test that can break the entire build for the application. This process will help you to ensure that the mainline code is working efficiently.
Accuracy and Reliability
There are various chances of errors in Manual Testing. The primary reason for these errors is the prerequisites for every test involved in this process. Manual tests involve heavy human engagement and humans are prone to errors.
The outcome is inaccurate results have been propagated to every member of the development team. Furthermore, every test in the manual testing environment requires a separate sequence for execution.
On the other hand, Automation Testing carries out all these processes with utmost precision. All the members of the Automation Testing team can access this information in a concise period. Automation testing guarantees reliability as it allows you to carry out all these tests on multiple servers simultaneously.
Load Testing
Load testing is a process to ensure an application can handle expected and unexpected user load. Generally, load testing is pushed to the last phase in Manual Testing. Agile and continuous integration methodologies believe that load testing should be conducted in the early stages of the development process.
This is because a delay in load testing can result in the late delivery of software to end-users. Automation Testing can run thousands of tests at the same time while simultaneously simulating millions of users. This entire process is impossible to conduct with the help of manual testing. Developers have to remember to add parameters for load testing. This will allow them to randomize these tests, depending on the requirements.
Increased Confidence
Sprint is the term to denote short cycles of feature development that Agile methods will recommend. Typically, these cycles last for about 2-3 weeks. The companies repeat these sprints for completing the more extensive release life cycle. The companies have to organize the test effort to increase the efficiency of the testing environment. Each sprint has a focus on the development of a small set of features for the application.
However, these features must be in perfect synchronization with the application during the production phase. There are high chances that you will fail to deliver functional sprints without proper testing. In the case of manual testing for sprints, it is a counter-productive, inefficient, and expensive process. Automation Testing helps the developers repeat all the tests quickly to ensure the application’s proper functioning. So, they can deliver a properly functional website in a short period.
Measure Quality Metrics
Automation Testing provides various features that can help the developers to improve the quality of the testing environment. For instance, the developers can use automation testing to measure good quality metrics like code coverage, technical coverage, code semantics check, and much more.
Generally, the developers conduct these tests during the execution phase as a part of the continuous integration setup or DevOps workflow. Automation Testing allows the developers to perform these tests as all the codes coexist with each other. So, the developers can measure the quality of huge codebases in a few minutes. This entire process is impossible while conducting tests with manual testing.
Best Tools for Automation Testing
As we already discussed before, developers will require various tools to utilize automation testing’s full potential. Currently, there are thousands of tools available in the market for automation testing. Now let’s take a look at some of the best tools that you should consider implementing in a test environment:
1. LambdaTest
LambdaTest is a platform to conduct automation testing on a cloud based Selenium grid. This platform allows the developers to perform automation testing on a scalable, secure, and reliable Selenium grid. LambdaTest empowers testers to perform automation testing on thousands of devices and browsers.
Currently, millions of users across the world use LambdaTest to perform Automation and manual Testing for their web applications. In simple terms, LambdaTest is the ultimate platform for testing, debugging and delivering high-quality web applications to your end-users. This platform also has multiple plans for a small growing company. So, LambdaTest is your one-stop solution to all automation testing needs.
2. Test Project
TestProject is the first free, cloud-based open-source test automation platform. Developers can use this platform to perform Automation Testing for web, Android, and iOS applications on multiple operating systems. It is an effortless process to use TestProject for conducting basic and even complex automation tests. It also allows the developers to collaborate with other teams using Selenium and Appium easily.
TestProject ensures that you can develop applications quickly while ensuring their quality. It provides various features such as recording capabilities, to create and use add-ons or develop code tests. All these features are powered with TestProject’s powerful SDK that is available for free. Since it is an open-source platform, you have a massive community of enthusiastic developers who are always ready to help.
3. Kobiton
Kobiton is like a dream come true for any mobile or IoT developer. This is because it allows the developers to perform IoT continuous testing on mobile platforms. The developers can use this tool to easily automate the functional, performance, visual, and compatibility tests for every application.
It uses an Augmented reality-driven approach to create the test scripts for automation testing. The developer can also integrate these scripts with open-source tooling to enjoy comprehensive quality in a testing process. Kobiton allows developers to implement release speed that is similar to DevOps.
4. Ranorex
Ranorex Studio allows over 14,000 users all over the world to accelerate the testing process. In simple terms, Ranorex is a tool to perform automation testing of various software and web applications. The simple click-and-go interface makes it easily accessible to all the new developers for automation testing.
The integrated development environment for C# or vb.NET and open APIs makes it a powerful tool for automation testing experts. The functional UI also allows the developers to perform end-to-end testing on desktop, web, and mobile platforms. Lastly, the testers can also use Ranorex to perform cross-browser testing to verify the web application’s responsiveness.
The Final Verdict
The quality of the software must be the primary priority for every developer. Automation Testing helps the developer to ensure the quality of software and web applications. The proper testing for any software gives confidence to the developers, management, and end-users.
The companies must remember that Automation Testing has an upfront cost, and it takes time to implement this process in the development environment. In the long run, the investment will pay off in reduced workload, elimination of manual errors, and accuracy. The companies will also find massive savings in terms of time and money.
Automation Testing helps the developer to get feedback about the software and quickly work on the errors. In simple terms, it ensures quality in a way that manual testing will never be able to. In this article, we discussed the various benefits of automation testing and the tools that can help you bring out this wonderful Technology’s full potential.
