Software test automation is a software testing technique that has become a big thing in the past few years. Almost every type of software testing organization widely accepted and adopted it. This article will cover all about test automation. Let’s get started.
What Is Test Automation?
Test automation is a software testing technique used to automate software testing procedures. In this type of testing, the software testers use different automation tools to write, execute and record results of test cases. These test automation tools help to perform testing activities without or very little involvement of the testers. Hence, overall testing activity becomes faster and efficient.
Now let’s have a look at how test automation works.
Process of Test Automation
Test automation includes following steps:
Define Scope of testing:
Testing scope means the coverage of testing, i.e. defining those components or features of the software on which the testing team will perform tests and what features they cannot test under the specific circumstances.
Select suitable tools for automation:
This is one of the most important decisions during the whole automation testing procedure. There are lots of tools with vast functionalities that are available to automate software testing, but every tool is not suitable for every project. Teams have to decide after making keen observations that which tool is going to be more beneficial for the testing theory is going to perform.
Plan the test procedure:
Test procedure planning is again another important phase. Here, the team decides the whole roadmap of the software test automation. They define all the activities, procedures, deadlines, challenges etc. that the team has to follow throughout the testing phase.
Configure Test Environment:
Configuration of the test environment is the process in which the testing team set-ups the environment where they need to perform test automation. They fulfill all the prerequisites of the testing and make all the installations to make the testing smooth.
Write Test Scripts:
Testing engineers write scripts to execute test cases. These scripts are basically pieces of code that are necessary to automate the test execution. Based on test scripts, the testing team executes the test cases and examines the end results.
Test Results Analysis:
This is the last phase of the software test automation, where the testing team analyzes the end results of the test execution and prepares its feedback accordingly. These analytics decide the working condition of the software.
How Test Automation Simplifies Software Testing:
Here, we have listed some points that show how test automation has simplified the software testing:
It’s Time and Cost Saving:
Test automation uses smarter ways to execute test cases and to find out problems timely. This is the reason it is quite beneficial in terms of time saving and cost-saving perspectives.
Error-Free Results:
Test automation has no chances of human-error. The automation tool executes all the test cases according to the defined test data. Hence, human intervention becomes minimum, which yields more robust results as compared to manual testing.
Provides More Test Coverage:
Software test automation is a smart mechanism which makes it possible for testers to run more test cases at a time, providing more test coverage.
Perform Repetitive Tasks more Accurately:
Using software test automation, testers can automate the repetitive test cases. Such tasks are not only boring to perform but also contain more risk of human-error. So, test automation can solve these problems by automating repetitive tasks with no error.
Reusable Test Scripts:
In automation testing, we can use the test scripts at any later stages of our testing phase. The test scripts are flexible enough to cater to minor changes in them and we can use them for any other related test automation process.
Early Identification of Issues:
Software automation testing facilitates testers by automatically running test cases when it notices any change in the source code of the application. So, the testers can identify issues and report them to the developers at very early stages of the software testing.
Help in Regression Testing:
Regression testing makes sure that the changes in source code have not affected previous working of the software application. Since we need to perform this testing repeatedly, automation of this testing helps to make things easier.
Improved Efficiency:
With introducing new technologies, customer demands are also strengthening day by day. So, if we automate software testing, it makes the whole testing and delivery of the end-product much faster, error-free and efficient.
End-Note:
Privileges of test automation seem quite captivating. However, this technique can only yield best results if implemented properly. There are some challenges in test automation to face before or during the automation testing, but codeautomation.ai puts extra effort into the start of the testing. Hence, we yield successful test automation with the help of teamwork and correct decision-making at the right time.
