Test automation is one of the major novelty approaches that are here to stay. That’s because it’s not just a trend or a fad. It is actually a good strategy to reduce manual labor, involve stable processes, and, thus, foster testing and accelerate feedback, increase ROI on QA, and decrease expenses.
24% of companies that invested in test automation later said that their return on investment was literally “immediate.” A further24% reported an increase in ROI within the first 6 months, while 28% reached a positive ROI within a year.
This article will help you understand what automated testing is about, its major peculiarities, pros and cons. Thus, for you this notion will transform from something intimidating and difficult to apply into a useful tool to invest in to boost your project’s success.
To start with, here’s a short profile to help you grasp the essence of the notion itself.
What?
In a nutshell, test automation is a software testing procedure aimed at testing and comparing the actual results with the expected ones.
How?
It is implemented by writing test scripts and automating them via test automation tools.
Why?
Automation, when executed properly, enhances testing & QA and makes it more systematic, effective, faster, and human error-free.
What for?
It is needed to reduce the number of manual tests, of course, in case it is viable and cost-efficient. Test automation is also needed to save time, money, efforts, and perform tests that are challenging to run manually.
Note!
Our previous article focusing on the importance of QA proves that to develop a successful app, you need testing. Certainly, not just any testing, but good, thorough, well-planned testing. And that is what a test strategy should be specified for. In case of test automation, a respectable QA team is sure to use the test automation pyramid before shaping any strategy.
What?
The testing pyramid is a framework that strategically classifies software tests into major categories.
Why?
The pyramid defines what test levels should or should not be included into an automated test suite and the sequence and frequency of automated tests.
What for?
It helps the QA and development teams to:
The major focus is on timely feedback to make sure existing features are not disrupted by any code changes.
The main layers of the pyramid are as follows:
Let’s discuss each level in detail, starting from the bottom up.
Pros:
Cons:
The two types of tests on this level are:
A. Integration Testing - performed to check how different codes, features, and units interact with each other, i.e., how each part of the code communicates with the external components.
B. API testing - performed by sending calls to the API and obtaining output to verify the whole system's response to the input parameters.
All of these types are executed on the second level of the pyramid to make sure the development runs error-free. They also have their advantages and disadvantages.
Pros:
Cons:
Now that you are aware of what all the levels stand for, it’s time to draw the following conclusion. The Test Automation Pyramid shows that:
Tip 1. The most reasonable way for beginners is to push automated tests as low as possible and get a higher ROI.
Why? Unit tests are small and isolated so detecting bugs becomes faster and cheaper to execute. Tests on the top of the pyramid are time consuming, sometimes even brittle, fewer and more often tend to be carried out manually.
Tip 2. Sticking to test automation on one level to avoid additional costs is not an option.
Why? To perform successful automated testing every layer of the pyramid should be analyzed. Choosing what and how many tests to automate and what to remain manual is a different issue. Yet, covering all of the levels is obligatory if you wish to get a high quality product.
Tip 3. The test automation pyramid should not be confused with the strategy itself.
Why? Banal application of this pyramid is just a framework rather than a universal solution. Any and every project should be discussed with your QA team, risks assessed and test automation strategy carefully selected and drawn up.
Linkup Studio’s experience proves that the test automation pyramid can be really helpful for agile teams as it enhances speed and effectiveness. The matter is if you are lucky to have a good QA team, they are sure to introduce its logic into your test automation processes to manage their time more efficiently, run easier tests from the very beginning and, thus, save everyone’s time and money.
As a customer, you can also check if the QA team has the correct priorities. If they offer writing test scenarios for UI levels, you have every chance to doubt that their business logic and back-end functionality are correct. If they insist on that option, you should know it leads to more work, lower test coverage and lower quality of your project. Thus, by knowing how the pyramid must be implemented, you are sure to avoid such misunderstandings and choose truly skilled QA teams.
Test automation is one of the most important and effective approaches to the successful testing of any software application, and it is important for you, as a client, to know some popular strategies and principles that should be followed when undertaking test automation. The test automation guide also notes that one of the most prominent success approaches is when the testing process begins with the automation of test levels 1 and 2 – unit tests and service/API tests.
Often, these are faster, more accurate, and easier to maintain than UI-level tests. It is easier to tackle test automation at the basic layers first while making it safer and more reliable for upper levels of test automation concepts.
The other fundamental idea and a concept of test automation is that the automated tests should be consistent and reliable. It is, therefore, important not to automate tests that are likely to fluctuate in frequency or show high volatility. The test automation guide states that testing scenarios that are going to be repeated should be given priority since it is within this area that most benefits in terms of time and cost will be accrued.
Still, in the case of test automation, the guide also stresses adopting suitable tools and frameworks. The right attitude should be to select tools that meet the requirements of the project and the competency of the staff. This may mean comparing elements like compatibility with the current CI/CD systems, reporting functionality, and usability. When done right, test automation becomes efficient, and the whole process offers the highest value.
Once you understand the test classification and their features, we’ve come to one of the most relevant issues in test automation - selecting tests to be automated. The general rule is it is necessary and advisable to automate those processes which both the team and your business will benefit from rather than experience any discomfort or new challenges.
It happens that the QA teams are eager to automate any and every test they can, but such decisions eventually backfire and cause a number of problems with quality, performance and budget numbers. Here’s a cheat sheet for you to be sure if your QA team is on the right track.
Test cases should be automated when:
To help you set standards and priorities for test automation and weigh your chances of higher ROI on investing in it, here are some things to consider as well:
Another important factor is tool selection. As it usually happens with highly-technological issues, there is no clear answer or a cheat sheet that gives precise instructions on what and how to use. Yes, the banal phrase works here perfectly – it always depends. Every project is special and, therefore, requires individual approach and thorough analysis. At Linkup Studio, we use the following guidelines to verify our choice of tools:
Finally, it is always up to a QA team to make thorough analysis of all the factors involved to make an informed and well-grounded decision.
After all, applying tools is always a good idea once it helps save costs and time rather than add pressure or disparity. Therefore, the key step in either tool selection or test automation in general is choosing the right QA team who can add value to your project and assess the processes with expertise.
Test automation is one of the key investments that can be made to get considerable returns for the company, as mentioned in the test automation guide. There are also some benefits to automated testing, such as the ability to test more and faster. Automated tests can be executed more often and from a greater variety of angles than in a manual test. This approach results in the discovery of initial flaws in development.
The other factor is the cost advantage of automation in the testing process, which is well understood by the experts. From the experiential point of view, some of the advantages are the initial costs needed to implement the automation framework, less time spent on manual testing, shorter feedback loops, and the capacity to extend the testing as the project expands. The test automation guide offers references to researches that prove the fact that identification and correction of errors can cost approximately 40 times less if they are detected at the beginning of the development phase rather than in the middle phase or at the end phase.
Better software quality is another essential factor that testers should consider when testing automation. The test automation guide also claims that by automating routine and time-demanding tests, teams can direct more efforts toward regression testing and find complex, difficult-to-spike problems. Such an approach and decision can result in having better-designed and better-built software, which not only satisfies the end user but also minimizes the chances of manufacturing faults.
Last but not least, the test automation guide identifies test automation as a vital element for the agile and DevOps methodologies. Automating tests as a part of a CI/CD phase allows the teams to obtain quicker feedback, more frequent deliveries, and improved interactions between development and test functions. This is not just an idea but a general trend in the information technologies industry that provides increased efficiency, responsiveness, and quality of software delivery.
So far, it must be obvious that the main aim of test automation is to make the QA process faster and with less effort involved. Yet, there are both benefits and downsides to every enhancement strategy. What you already get from this publication is that NOT everything CAN or SHOULD be automated. So, to get a better perspective of the issue, here’s what you should know about test automation.
Benefits of test automation:
Yet, there are a few things you should keep in mind when engaging test automation:
And finally, as it happens with any other process in project implementation, to avoid faulty or random results, opt for an experienced and scrupulous QA team that has both special expertise and skills.
To sum up, test automation certainly is a win-win as it increases software quality while making debugging and time to market faster. Talking numbers. Finding bugs at the early stage can save you 40x the cost of detecting it during the coding phase.
Yet, you realize that 100% is not just impossible but unnecessary. So, to assess this option objectively, you have to consider the other one, i.e. to understand the benefits and drawbacks of manual testing.
Pros
Cons
Your main takeaway at this point is the idea that testing automation does not replace testing in general. Automated tests lack domain knowledge and human intelligence, thus, they should never eliminate manual ones but complement them and reduce their number when it’s appropriate.
Good quality and successful delivery of your dream project are achieved by proper combination of both. The latter is possible through engaging a skilled QA team capable of finding the right balance between the two types of testing to ensure maximum efficiency in terms of technological features and user appeal.
The test automation guide also captures the great innovation in test automation through the incorporation of AI and ML. Self-healing tests are now one of the ways in which AI has impacted test automation.
In conventional script-based forms of test automation, there are major issues in managing the test scripts whenever the application to be tested is changed. However, self-healing tests can be created with the help of AI, which means that the manipulations needed to consider such changes can be done automatically, thus freeing the time of the person who created the test suite. The test automation guide further reveals that such a self-healing test approach can be accomplished with the help of machine learning algorithms: these tests can determine patterns in application behavior and adjust the test script to incorporate new functionality or UI changes on their own.
There are now other aspects of test automation where AI has boosted the generation of test data as well. The test automation guide says that by using AI, it is possible to derive application requirements to produce practical datasets with a variety of test data. This idea aids in achieving the accomplishment of all the testing processes and limits the amount of work that goes into creating and maintaining test data.
Also, the test automation guide focuses on algorithms for test case prioritization and optimization based on artificial intelligence. Through the study of previous test results and usage of applications, AI algorithms are able to choose the most vital and potent test cases that should be run in order to minimize the work of test automation and, at the same time, ensure that the most significant part of the program is effectively tested.
Moreover, the test automation guide also covers the subject of incorporating Artificial Intelligence in Visual Testing. These techniques are applied to do image analysis and recognize the difference in the application’s visuals without having to visually inspect it to maintain usability across different platforms and devices on which the application is used.
In conclusion, the test automation guide underlines that current test automation has become heavily infused with AI and ML technologies, which improve the process of test automation and make it more effective and easier for teams to scale their testing efforts.
The core method our QA team applies is CI\CD as it helps us to introduce test automation into various stages of the project development.
In this approach, CI stands for continuous integration, while CD means continuous delivery and continuous deployment. The main reason we stick to this principle is that it helps to ensure flawless integration of new codes on every stage of alterations (CI) and error-free delivery and deployment in the long term (CD). Moreover, we are sure it provides ongoing monitoring and automation of the SDLC.
The core idea is to merge all changes, efforts, workers, and ideas to enable the development process to run as a whole.
In order to make sure the clients see the outcomes and improvements introduced we are always ready to present them with thorough reports on any of the milestones of the QA process. Here are some samples from our previous projects for you to understand what a client can review and discuss.
Another Linkup Studio project includes the allure report containing detailed information about the results of conducting UI testing.
To sum up, we all know the better the QA, the better the deployment. And even if it seems outrageous or impossible to expect any step in development or QA to both save time\costs and enhance quality, test automation does appear to be the real deal. Certainly, as long as it is properly applied and well-planned. Like any other implementation of new software, tools or principles, test automation requires patience, accuracy and expertise to make you experience its benefits at their best.
Yet, it is worth trying in the long run as it is one of the QA tricks that can definitely enhance the quality of your product while saving time, effort, and costs. Another thing you should bear in mind is that not every test that can be automated should be. Mostly, it is the right balance between automated and manual testing that ensures sustainability and success.
So, it is only up to an experienced QA team to figure out what risk-based approach and tools to use in every single case to make your investment profitable. Thus, if you have further questions concerning your project, please contact us.
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