An important part in a software development is the software testing. This phase ensures that the software products are working according to the user requirements. Software testing is a process, to evaluate the functionality of a software application with an intent to find whether the developed software met the specified requirements or not and to identify the defects to ensure that the product is defect-free in order to produce a quality product.
Software testing can be done manually as well as automatically. Manual testing involves some types like such as discovery testing and usability testing. But the major problem with the manual testing is that it takes a lot of human efforts and resources to get the job done. To make the job easier, the concept of automated testing introduced.
Test automation is the practice of running tests automatically, managing test data, and utilizing results to improve software quality. It’s primarily a quality assurance measure, but its activities involve the commitment of the entire software production team.
Advantages of Test Automation:
- Automated testing improves the coverage of testing as automated execution of test cases is faster than manual execution.
- Automated testing reduces the dependability of testing on the availability of the test engineers.
- Automated testing provides round the clock coverage as automated tests can be run all time in 24*7 environment.
- Automated testing takes far less resources in execution as compared to manual testing.
- It helps to train the test engineers to increase their knowledge by producing a repository of different tests.
- It helps in testing which is not possible without automation such as reliability testing, stress testing, load and performance testing.
Disadvantages of Test Automation:
- Automated testing is very much expensive than the manual testing.
- It also becomes inconvenient and burdensome as to decide who would automate and who would train.
- It has limited to some organizations as many organizations not prefer test automation.
- Automated testing would also require additionally trained and skilled people.
- Automated testing only removes the mechanical execution of testing process, but creation of test cases still required testing professionals.
Test Automation Life Cycle
The structured automation testing life cycle comprises of a multi-stage process that supports the activities required to utilize and introduce an automated test tool, develop and run test cases, develop test design, build and handle test data and environment. In automation testing life cycle methodology, test design is constructed to portray test efforts, to give project and test team a framework on the scope of the test program.
- Determining The Scope Of Test Automation
- Selecting The Right Tool For Automation
- Test Plan + Test Design + Test Strategy
- Setting Up The Test Environment
- Automation Test Script Development + Execution
- Analysis + Generation Of Test Reports
Determining The Scope Of Test Automation
It is the first stage of automation testing life cycle and it aims to identify the feasibility of automation. Every aspect should be considered while analyzing the feasibility. Also, it is essential to perform a feasibility analysis on the manual test case pack that allows automation engineers to design the test scripts.
Selecting The Right Tool For Automation
Automation testing is highly tool dependent. That is why finding the right automation testing tool is a critical phase for an automation testing life cycle. When you are looking for an automation tool you need to keep in mind the budget, technologies being used in the project, familiarity of the tool with resources on-board, intuitiveness, flexibility and more.
Test Plan + Test Design + Test Strategy
It is the most critical phase of automation testing life cycle methodology that defines how to approach and accomplish the goal of test automation. Selecting a test automation framework is the first and foremost thing to do in the Test Strategy phase of Automation Testing Life Cycle. Selecting a tool depends on the technologies used in the application. Understand your product completely before starting the automation test.
Setting Up The Test Environment
This stage of Automation Testing Life Cycle involves setting up a machine or remote machine where test cases will be executed. Keeping a check on different devices is one thing, but we also need to be cautious about various browsers and browser versions.
Automation Test Script Development + Execution
It is the time to execute the test script. So, this phase of automation testing life cycle is dedicated to the execution of all test scripts. To perform script execution, signed-off and unit-tested test scripts are delivered to automation testing team. It is essential to ensure that all test scripts are running correctly.
Analysis + Generation Of Test Reports
After all types of testing are performed, the testing team analyzes to identify particular functionality or components that experience a relative number of problem reports. The result of the analysis suggests that if it requires additional test efforts and procedures or not. Test results generated from the analysis can confirm whether executed test scripts/procedures can identify errors.
Test Automation Tools
Tool selection is one of biggest challenges to be tackled before going for automation. First, Identify the requirements, explore various tools and its capabilities, set the expectation from the tool and go for a Proof Of Concept. There are tons of Functional and Regression Testing Tools available in the market. Here are some commonly used tools:
- LambdaTest
- TestComplete
- QMetry Automation Studio
- TestProject
- Katalon Studio
- Selenium
- Subject7
- Appium
- Micro Focus UFT
- Test Studio
Selenium
Selenium is a free (open-source) automated testing framework used to validate web applications across different browsers and platforms. You can use multiple programming languages like Java, C#, Python etc to create Selenium Test Scripts. Testing done using the Selenium testing tool is usually referred to as Selenium Testing.
Selenium Software is not just a single tool but a suite of software, each piece catering to different Selenium QA testing needs of an organization. Here is the list of tools
- Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Selenium Remote Control (RC)
- WebDriver
- Selenium Grid
Pros and Cons of Selenium
References:
What is Selenium? Introduction to Selenium Automation Testing (guru99.com)
All You Need To Know About Automation Testing Life Cycle (lambdatest.com)
Automation Testing Tutorial: What is Automated Testing? (guru99.com)
Advantages and Disadvantages of Automated Testing — GeeksforGeeks
