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You’re losing the race if you’re a software development company still relying on manual testers to find and fix bugs. Times have changed, and while testers still conduct manual tests to identify issues, they also use software and code scripts to execute multiple tests simultaneously on a single machine. Automation testing has come to stay.
What is automation testing, how to do it, and what automation testing tools do we need to use – I am sure there are many such questions you have in mind. We’ll answer them all in this blog. Let’s begin:
What is Automation Testing?
Automation testing is a process for software testing where we execute test cases using automation tools and scripts. The idea is to find maximum defects in the least possible time without any chances of error.
Automation testing is an alternative to manual testing that is resource-consuming, time-consuming, and leads to many inconsistencies.
How Does Automation Testing Work?
The automation testing process involves meticulous planning. Following are the steps we follow in this approach:
Step 1. Choose an automation testing tool based on the tests you want to run.
Step 2: Decide which tests you want to automate and which you don’t.
Step 3: The next step is planning, designing, and developing the test cases in which you choose what actions will your test automation do.
Step 4: Implement the automated test scripts, either directly or through the test management tool for execution.
Step 5: Regularly maintain the test scripts to improve automation efficiency.
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Types of Automation Testing
Various types of automation testing exist. Here are the most prominent ones:
1. Unit Testing
Unit testing is the first level of the software testing process in which we test individual components of a software application. Usually, automation tests are developers’ responsibility, but automation testers can also conduct them.
2. Smoke Testing
In smoke testing, we examine whether the software build we’re deploying is stable or not. It acts as a verification of the work your software testing team has performed before it proceeds further.
3. Functional Testing
In function testing, we test a software application for user interface, APIs, database, security, client/server applications, and overall functionality. The idea is to analyze whether your software application is behaving as expected.
4. Integration Testing
In integration testing, we logically integrate the modules of an application to verify its functionality. The idea is to verify the data communication between different modules.
5. Regression Testing
In regression testing, we ensure that adding new code doesn’t affect the existing functionality of your software application, and the code works as before.
Apart from the above testing types, several other types of automated testing also exist, such as data-driven testing, black box testing, keyword testing, etc.
Best Automation Testing Tools
Hundreds of automation testing tools exist in the market. Here are the ones I found reliable:
1. Ranorex
Ranorex is an all-in-one testing tool that can easily automate functional UI tests, data-driven tests, regression tests, and much more. It has a click-and-go interface using which you can easily automate test cases.
Ranorex offers cross-platform & cross-browser testing and can quickly integrate with tools like Jira, Jenkins, TestRail, CI, Travis, etc.
2. Selenium
This open-source automation testing tool comes as a testing suite with four other automation testing tools. Most automation testers use this tool for regression testing because they can record and playback their regression tests.
Selenium supports multiple browsers and almost every programming language, and they can run various tests on it.
3. LambdaTest
With Lambda test, you can run cross-browser testing across 2000 browsers, multiple operating systems, and several devices. You can even run Selenium scripts on a scalable, secure, and reliable cloud-based Selenium Grid.
LambdaTest can easily integrate with project management tools like JIRA, Asana, GitHub, Trello, etc.
Benefits of Automation Testing
- 65-70% faster than the manual test and a lot more reliable in outcome
- A higher ROI as automation testing requires less time and resources
- No need to write multiple test scripts, not even after the OS upgrade
- More accurate as the chances of error are minimal
- You can easily detect the bugs in earlier stages
- It saves QA teams time so that they focus on more crucial tasks.
Disadvantages of Automation Testing
- You need experts to write the automation test scripts.
- Test scripts can be tricky to debug, and even the slightest test script error can be devastating.
- Maintaining the test data files is tricky.
Does Automation Testing Have a Scope?
Keeping in mind how automation testing plays a crucial role in agile software development, Automation testing indeed has a great scope. However, this doesn’t mean it will completely replace manual testers. Software development companies still need experts to write test scripts and work on these tools, and automation testing will only replace mundane tasks and ensure the QA team can focus on things that matter.
Your QA team has nothing to be worried about. Automation testing will make it more efficient. Also, it’s worth the time and money spent. Implement it today and see the difference.
