Automation testing is not your departmental goal. Period. So when software testers or automation testers create automated test scripts, they should focus on how the tests will add value to the business or product instead of focusing on increasing the script count. Since analyzing the goals and objectives of automation testing before starting any project is very important, let’s learn about it in this blog.
A Confidence Booster
Automation test executions boost the confidence of your team to release a product. Testing a system manually on multiple browsers & devices is a tiring effort for a tester. Moreover, it is very much prone to errors. Whereas, if rightly done, automation scripts can execute your tests without any deviation. So this ultimately frees up the testers and lets them focus on the problem-solving activities.
In DevOps, there is always a need to automate as much as possible so that the testers can concentrate on Exploratory Testing to unearth bugs, identify new features, and capture edge cases for automation testing. So if there are no application issues, robust and reliable automated tests will run without any hassle, and the passing automated tests will boost the confidence of your team.
Avoid False Positives & Negatives
An automation test script should fail only when there is an application issue. But if your scripts are flaky, you will not be able to reap the benefits of automation testing, and your team will eventually lose confidence in the automated test scripts. That is why we have it in our top 3 objectives of the automation testing list. As a leading automated software testing company, we have seen success in our test automation by following the points.
How to avoid false positives & negatives:
- Recruit talented test automation engineers.
- Train your team to follow the best practices and coding patterns.
- Strictly avoid boilerplate codes.
- Enable the peer-review process.
- Quarantine flaky tests and bring them back to the execution pipeline only if & when they are stable & robust.
- Park the adequate test data required for automated test execution to avoid failures due to invalid data.
You need a highly skilled team to develop robust automated test scripts. We have been providing automation testing services to many of our clients over the years. During this period, we have revived many of the projects that had failed to reap the benefits of effective automation testing. We achieved it by trying to reuse the existing scripts and libraries. But at times, we have thrown away the poorly written automation test scripts into bins. So it is important to keep in mind that if the best practices and coding designs patterns are not followed when creating automation test scripts, you will have to suffer from such scripts forever.
Scripts fail due to invalid test data as well. But feeding the test data before starting the execution is a cumbersome task. In DevOps, automated test executions are kicked off as soon as product changes are pushed into master. So you cannot hold the execution for feeding the test data. Moreover, you will not be able to feed the data a day before the execution if your team is part of the continuous delivery pipeline as they will deliver changes into production multiple times a day.
So make sure to use a test data management tool to upload adequate test data for script executions. Your test automation scripts should be able to pick up the required data from the test data management tool.
Maintenance
When there is a change in the application, you have to accommodate the change in your script as well. If an automated test suite is not changed for a longer period, then it is going to perform the same testing again and again. You should have a process to obtain the below details constantly to keep your scripts up-to-date.
- You should know when a change is introduced in existing functionality.
- Note when a new feature is getting adding to the product.
- Note when an existing feature is removed from the system.
Conclusion
Adding more automated tests to improve coverage is a primary goal of an automation tester. However, if you do it without thinking about the system, goals, and objectives of automation testing, you will be missing out on the many benefits. Automation testing is not an isolated activity and it is pivotal for you to know how your scripting efforts are adding value to the system.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the objectives of Test Automation?
Test automation aims to optimize testing by increasing efficiency, speed, and accuracy, improving test coverage, and enhancing software quality. It achieves this by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, reducing time and effort, and ensuring comprehensive test coverage.
- What are the major benefits of Test Automation?
Test automation allows you to run a vast number of complex and lengthy test cases and brings in the necessary agility to testing which helps it to respond faster and more effectively to changes that would be impractical to run manually. It can enhance software quality by increasing the thoroughness of testing and reducing the likelihood of errors, without manual intervention.
- What are the Challenges in Automation Testing?
Some of the challenges faced in automation testing are
1. Finding the right tools and frameworks that fit the project's requirements and technology stack.
2. Creating and maintaining reliable and efficient test scripts that can keep up with the constantly evolving application can also be difficult.
3. Ensuring that automated tests are accurately mimicking user behavior and covering all edge cases can be a time-consuming and complex task.
- What is the future of Automation Testing?
Automation testing is evolving rapidly and is expected to become more sophisticated and intelligent with the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This can help create self-healing test scripts, improve test coverage, and increase the accuracy and reliability of test results. As companies increasingly adopt agile methodologies, cloud-based testing solutions, and continuous delivery, automation testing will remain a critical component of software development processes, ensuring high-quality releases and faster time-to-market.
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