Software Testing Library

What is Automation Testing?

Automation testing is a contemporary software testing approach that involves the use of specialized tools or platforms to carry out test cases and track test execution automatically.

In this kind of testing method, most activities are automated, and automation testers will need to write scripts beforehand. Well-written automated test cases can accelerate the project, minimize errors, and help to save time and effort. 

Benefits of Automation Testing

• Increased test coverage: Automated testing allows testers to execute a greater number of test cases. More tests guarantee that each test cycle exhaustively covers all requirements and features. In addition, greater test coverage increases the likelihood of finding defects and eliminates preventable difficulties that might result in a poor user experience.
• Time-saving for testers: Since mundane and repetitive tasks are handled automatically, QA experts can now devote their time to project tasks that require judgment and intellectual involvement. It also helps decrease time spent on regression tests, allowing continuous testing while other features are released.
• Higher accurate test cases: It's obvious that not every manual tests are correct 100%. Automation testing, on the other hand, executes a script flawlessly and records results precisely as instructed.

How to Start Automation Testing from Scratch?

In automation testing, it’s essential to know which step should be executed first and why. The following process will help you implement automation testing method smoothly and avoid common pitfalls which lead to undesired failures.

1. Defining the Automation Scope

Initially, you will need to determine which test cases will be executed automatically and which will continue to be tested manually. This will aid the QA/QC team in decreasing testing time and effort spent on redundant processes.

The most common use of automation is performing repetitive testing. This section comprises most of the tests for core product features that must be examined whenever a new build is released. Since the manual execution of these tests is time-consuming, doing automation testing is worth considering.

In addition, Data processing and validation, Impractical manual tests, and Cross platforms tests also should be automated.

2. Choosing Testing Tools

There are more and more test automation tools available in the market, making it even more difficult to identify the appropriate one for your team and project. This step may take time and effort at first, but it will benefit your team's testing performance in the long run. Here are some recommended practices to assist you in choosing the right tools for your project's requirements:

• The best tool might not work best for you.
• List down key considerations when choosing automation tools, such as team budget, testers' skills, and experience, ability to meet testing requirements, etc.
• Consider Selenium for web testing and Kobiton for mobile applications for organizations with considerable test automation specialists.
• In case there’s a shortage of automation capability, choosing tools that come up with free trials and experts is worth considering.

Besides, you can also check out our hand-picked list of the top automation testing tools for reference!

3. Planning, Designing, and Developing

After determining your goal and the sorts of tests to automate, determining which actions your automated tests should conduct next is needed.

Daily actions and procedures that can be automated should be outlined in great detail in the plan of action. As a starting point, select the automated test cases you have defined in the previous section. Then, you should create comprehensive testing scripts to ensure that test cases are resilient to changes in the automated system. Finally, performing test cases with the pipeline orchestrator.

Once the strategic plan is completed, you can base on it to choose whether to create test cases or test suites.

4. Executing Test cases

In this stage, the concentration is on conducting automation testing scripts, such as those that use provided test data. In order to ensure that subsequent tests go smoothly and without incident, a comprehensive test report is generated after each test completion to indicate any potential defects or failures.

How to Implement Automation Testing for your Agile Team? 

In contrast to traditional testing, which is time-consuming and reliant on a large amount of paperwork, Agile testing welcomes the accelerated testing process that ensures both the software's release velocity and product quality. To improve testing quality without sacrificing agility, here are a few approaches:

Prioritize your Testing 

In traditional software development methodologies, such as Waterfall, the assignment of testers is often made on a project-by-project basis. However, with the advent of Agile and Scrum, it is now common practice for the same QA experts to work on different projects. The testing team will need to prioritize their tasks to ensure all aspects of testing are covered. 

Include Test Automation in the QA Team's Skillset

Testing in non-Agile projects consists of three stages: test analysis, test design, and test execution. These steps must be completed in a certain sequence and require thorough documentation. However, Agile's rapid iterations and feedback loops make it more suitable for the Agile development process than manual testing.

Automated tests can simplify the testing of new and minor improvements since the testing code may run in the background while developers and testers concentrate on other chores. As mentioned above, to take the most advantage of automation testing, testers will need to have programming languages and technical skills.

Automation leads to far more Agile testing, regardless of whatever approach the team selects.

Create a Formal Release Test Cycle Process

With the traditional testing method, after each sprint, digital teams just complete a single build, which is not optimal for Agile projects. It's best practice to build software and testing on a daily basis, with developers.

An effective method for teams to do this is via a CI/CD pipeline. Early detection of considerable bugs is achievable when automation testing and CI/CD are integrated, allowing developers to repair critical flaws ahead of the scheduled client release.

Track Testing Process and Defects Frequently to Help You Find Inefficiencies

When there is a lack of transparency in the agile development process, such as not knowing how much time different workers spend on a given task, what are their responsibilities, etc., the testing performance can be reduced. The QA team leader will need to concentrate on mapping tasks for each individual, tracking their performance based on the set sprint.

Moreover, recording, analyzing, and tracking the associated defects per each test case can help you find inefficiencies instantly. Understanding project requirements for each test case can help you identify the key point to test and save time spent on unnecessary tasks; hence, improving the product's time-to-market.

Kobiton is an end-to-end testing platform that accelerates the delivery and testing of mobile apps. Tests may be run manually or automatically on actual devices in the cloud or on your own servers.

This tool provides developers with access to real iOS and Android devices, permitting them to run automated or manual scripts, and identify issues in real-time.Kobiton gives developers command over every aspect of the mobile user interface (multi-touch, GPS, camera, etc.), keeps full records of user behavior, and makes those records and reports available to the whole team in real time.