What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools ?
Automated testing involves the use of automation tools.
Here, we use an independent software tool to execute test cases & compare actual results against predicted results/outcomes.
With automation testing, one can increase efficiency, reduce cost, and improve the quality of the software being tested.
What is Automation testing?
Automation testing is a way of doing continuous integration and automated testing. This is done, without any manual intervention.
The aim is to have a series of scripts that will continually run the tests, run the builds or produce reports.
This software testing method uses scripted sequences that are executed by testing tools.
The scripts can be run with an automatic scheduler which will automatically produce the next step in the process, even if earlier test step has identified a defect in software code.
(Code which is getting tested). Upon identification of defects, these defects are added to the defect management system.
The use of automation testing will grow as more teams move to agile software development.
Test automation involves automating various parts of software without having them observed by humans.
The software ensures all aspects of the design work properly without humans spending hours manually testing each component.
Pesticide paradox: If the same tests are repeated over and over again , eventually the same set of test cases will no longer find any new bugs. This is called Pesticide paradox.
To overcome this pesticide paradox, the test cases are required to be reviewed and revised.
According to the latest survey, it was found that 96.5% of the people involved in the survey stated that automation testing and scripting is a very important QA skill to grow and achieve success in the industry.
Now, let’s turn our attention to what are automation testing tools, including a closer look at what they do, the benefits, and more.
What are automation testing tools?
A tool for automating testing is those that allow you to define your testing tasks and then perform them on your behalf.
Automating performance test runs means that they can run 24 hours a day, allowing the testing process to speed up due to the ability to test code without human intervention.
However, the ideal situation is for this to occur with little oversight from humans.
The availability of automation testing tools for both desktop computers and smartphones enables engineers to test across many platforms.
Now, let’s examine the steps involved in automated testing.
Important Steps in Automated Testing?
The automated testing process includes all the set of activities that are performed during the automation of different software applications.
We will learn each phase from the requirement understanding to the automated scripting and the integration phase.
- Requirements understanding
Understanding the requirements is the first step in test automation. The scope of automation and the right tool will be determined based on the understanding of the business requirement.
- Defining the scope of automation
Before you start the automation process, it is important to define the scope of automation. You should understand what is to be automated and why?
- Selecting the right tool
The selection of the appropriate tool depends on factors such as project requirements, programming expertise, budget, etc.
- Framework creation
A framework is required to construct robust test automation suites. Test scripts can be reused, maintained, and made robust using these frameworks.
- CICD Integration
However, nowadays, nearly every product or service-oriented company relies on CICD – (Continuous integration and continuous delivery) to run test cases on demand.
After setting up the system, you can schedule the test suite to run each night or to run the test cases whenever needed.
In addition to triggering the test cases automatically after deployment as part of the CICD pipeline, the automation suite can also trigger them with configuration records.
Why should we automate testing?
Automated testing has the following advantages:
- The overall execution time is reduced with automation testing. It is faster to execute automated tests than to execute manual tests.
- The project is less expensive and requires fewer resources since a script created once can be re-run an unlimited number of times with no change to the application.
- During manual testing, it would not be feasible/very difficult to handle such a large amount of input.
- Automation testing helps increase the number of test cases that can be run concurrently. This can help in reducing the overall elapse time of testing/certification cycle.
- Automation testing can increase the depth / scope of the tests.
- Automation testing can be scaled without extra work.
- Manual, human testing is prone to human error. But as we use software tools, automation testing is ‘almost’ error free.
- Burnout associated with repetitive tasks is eliminated by automation testing
What are Automation Testing tools :Best Automated Testing Tools
Many test automation tools are available for free and for sale on the software market. We should select the right tool based on several factors, including project demands, budgets, the skill level of our resources, etc. Some of the best and popular test automation tools in the market are:
- Selenium
- Katalon Studio
- UFT One
- Tosca
- TestProject
6. Cucumber
7. IBM Rational Functional Tester
8. TestComplete
Wrapping Up : What is Automation testing And What are Automation Testing tools?
Test automation is crucial for improving quality with speed. It is possible to automate some testing, but not all.
A considerable amount of investment is also required. You must choose the right mix of tests with so many available.
You can also Check
What is Control System Engineering? All about Control Engineering
Step 1- Understanding what automation can do and what it can’t — across the organization in general and the sponsor in particular.
Step 2- A very thorough strategy.
Step 3- What, How and When – what needs to be automated, when in the lifecycle and how
Step4 – Don’t focus on reducing effort at least till you are sure the strategy is working. Focus on making use of automation to increase coverage and not to reduce effort.