• What is automated software testing?
  • Why is automated software testing important?
  • What are the benefits of test automation?
  • How do I pick the right tests to automate?
  • What is test automation framework?
  • Role of test automation
  • How to improve coverage using test automation
  • Choosing the right test automation tool
  • Challenges in test automation

What is automated software testing?

Automated software testing is the process of automating a specific set of tests rather than running them manually. While automated testing involves automating a specific set of tests like regression tests, unit tests, etc., test automation refers to the entire process of tracking, managing and reporting of tests. Test automation is used to streamline the software testing lifecycle as a whole and goes hand-in-hand with continuous deployment.

Learn more about the importance of software testing and techniques.

Why is automated software testing important?

Applications are built using complex architecture and connected with a web of workflows. The frontend, backend and API integrations of these applications need to be tested. Automated testing optimizes IT operations by creating predefined test cases that can be re-run multiple times. As a result, businesses can achieve high levels of technical resourcefulness.

What are the benefits of test automation?

 

Cost effective

Repetitive tests like regression testing incur high operational expenditures. These can be automated to cut down on unnecessary costs and increase ROI.

 

Fast time-to-market

Automated testing in CI/CD helps identify and fix bugs early in the software development lifecycle.

 

High productivity

Business-critical software products require 24/7 monitoring to identify and fix bugs, which in turn requires a large IT team doing rotational shifts. With automation, engineering teams can re-prioritize, focus on critical tasks, and achieve high efficiency by running tests overnight.

 

Improved test coverage

Various types of tests can be automated to eliminate manual errors and improve test coverage. Businesses can leverage parallel tests to speed up the automation process.

How do I pick the right tests to automate?

In order to identify the tests that can be automated, it's crucial to understand the scope and extent of test automation. This is the first step towards automated testing and is known as automation feasibility analysis.

Automation can help resolve various bottlenecks, such as:

  • Repetitive and monotonous testing
  • Cross-browser, multi-environment, and multi-device test coverage
  • Regression tests that need to be re-run every time the code is modified
  • Manual errors
  • Tests that don't require manual verification

What is test automation framework?

QA teams run multiple tests in each stage of the SDLC across environments, platforms and devices. Various test engineers are involved in the testing process and in order to maintain uniformity among them, a test plan is necessary. In testing parlance, this plan is referred to as a test automation framework. A test automation framework is chosen based on various factors.

Some of the popular test automation frameworks are as follows:

  • Record and playback framework
  • Data-driven testing framework
  • Modular testing framework
  • Library architecture testing framework
  • Keyword-driven testing framework
  • Hybrid test automation framework

Here's a handbook on test automation frameworks.

Role of test automation

The expertise and skillset of manual test engineers cannot be replaced. However, tests such as web testing, mobile testing and API testing can be complemented with automation tools.

TestOps

TestOps utilizes a DevOps-based approach to testing. Threats that escape to production could potentially cause revenue leakage for businesses. In order to eliminate this risk, threats should be identified and rectified earlier in the SDLC.

Testing in CI/CD will improve the quality of the code through continuous testing to ensure scalability, usability, security and performance. TestOps enables testing and operations teams to collaborate, thereby increasing productivity and cutting costs. This cannot be achieved without a test automation tool.

Android emulator

In continuous testing, test engineers may not have the bandwidth to test every function on various devices thoroughly. Android emulators are software programs that mimic real android devices and provide virtual devices for testers.

iOS simulator

On the other hand, simulators mimic only the behavior of another platform; they don't emulate the hardware of the other platform. For example, an iOS simulator can run on a macOS computer and mimic the behavior of an iOS device, but it doesn't emulate the hardware of the iOS device.

This makes simulators faster than emulators, but it also means that they're not as accurate. QEngine has the ability to test on Android emulators and iOS simulators, ensuring faster time-to-market.

Automated testing on cloud

In order to avoid hardware limitations and to enable scalability, test automation platforms like Zoho QEngine can leverage cloud infrastructure.

Check out this article: Seven reasons to choose Agile testing and the importance of automation.

Use the links below to understand how you can leverage a tool like QEngine for your web, mobile and API testing needs.

 
Web applicationtesting
 
APItesting
 
Mobile applicationtesting

How to improve coverage using test automation

Test coverage is a quality metric used to estimate the amount of tests executed in the QA lifecycle. The goal is to maximize test coverage so that when a piece of software is deployed, it's released with the fewest possible threats.

Test coverage fundamentally boils down to measuring the number of tests performed for every line of code written, signifying the percentage of tests that are automated in the entire test suite.

The full scope of automated testing can be understood using some popular techniques:

  • Product coverage: Bifurcate the product into various components to understand which ones can be covered under test automation.
  • Requirement coverage: Identify the requirements in the product specifications that are successfully rolled out when the product is ready for launch.
  • Compatibility coverage: Identify the browsers and devices that can be covered.
  • Risk coverage: Identify major threats that could affect the business.

Choosing the right test automation tool

With a wide array of test automation tools in the market, picking the right tool can be a bit of a challenge—but it's crucial. There are various factors you need to consider:

  • Project requirements: Understand the scope of the project, types of tests, and amount of test cases to be automated.
  • Ease of use: Pick a tool that makes running and maintaining tests scripts easy and saves you a lot of time and effort.
  • Learning curve: Choose a tool that enables you to adapt to new processes quickly.
  • Cloud: Find a tool that leverages cloud resources for testing.
  • Budget: Check the current operations costs and evaluate a tool that offers good ROI.
  • Usability for manual testers: Manual testers often lack automation knowledge and need a simple intuitive UI.
  • Coding language: Check if the tool supports multiple coding languages.

Zoho QEngine is feature rich and comes with extensive functionalities such as multi-platform support, data-driven testing, advanced reporting, self-healing AI, test cases written using syntax similar to Java/Javascript, has cloud infrastructure, a reusable test case library, integrations with CI/CD and project management tools, and much more. It's highly cost-effective and easy to adopt.

Challenges in test automation

Initial investment

Picking the right tool and adopting it often involves a lot of time and effort.

100% coverage is impossible

Manual intervention is an undeniably important aspect in testing, as certain tests like exploratory testing and UAT can only be done manually.

Technical knowledge

Test automation tools use programming language to write test cases. QA engineers need coding knowledge to employ these tools.

Identifying the right tests

This can be a challenge. Once you understand the scope of test automation, you need to ensure that you prioritize threats with high impact and high probability. Threats with high impact but low probability can be next on the priority list. Low impact threats can be the lowest priority.

Despite these challenges, a carefully chosen test automation tool can prove to be an invaluable investment, as the benefits outweigh the odds. Time-to-market is crucial as changing market conditions have led to higher expectations in terms of software procurement, installation, and maintenance. And the best way to achieve this is to have a solid testing plan and the right tool to execute it.