Investing in Automation Testing - Few Things to Consider

To become popular, each software application must work perfectly. So each organization has to identify and fix the errors, flaws or bugs in the software before its release. Nowadays, most organizations automate their testing efforts to avail a number of benefits. When the QA engineers assess the software using a variety of testing tools, it becomes easier to run detailed, repetitive and data-driven tests without putting extra time and effort. But each organization has to incur some expenses to automate its testing efforts. As a manager, you must focus on some key points when your organization decides to invest in automation testing.

Important Points to Consider while Investing in Automation Testing

Test Cases to be Automated

To successfully automate the testing efforts, you must decide the test cases to be automated. As you cannot automate all test cases, you must automate the cases that need to run frequently or requires large amount of data. It is always important to make a test automation plan based on the test automation objectives. The plan will help you in identifying the test cases that should be automated. Also, you can refer to the plan to decide how and when to perform the tests.

Frequency of Testing

To get better results, the test cases must be run as often as needed. The testing also needs to be started in the early cycle of development. When the automation testing in integrated into the project early, it will be easier for the QA engineers to identify all errors, bugs and flaws in the software application. Further, it will be easier for them to build automated test cases gradually without requiring additional time.

Test Automation Tools

Your choice of testing tools will have a direct impact on the outcome of the test automation project. You have option to choose from a wide range of commercial and open source tools. So it becomes essential to evaluate the tools according to your test automation plan and specific requirements. While selecting test automation tools, you must focus on features like support for the specific platform or technology, flexibility to create test cases, option to reuse these test cases, and option to create the tests manually and through record and playback.

Division of Automation Testing Efforts

To effectuate the software testing process, you must divide the testing efforts according to the experience and skill of the QA engineers. For instance, the test cases must be written by a QA engineer who is familiar with the scripting language used by the test automation tools. However, there are certain test automation tools that can be used by the QA engineers without knowing the scripting language in-depth. It is also important to involve the entire testing team to complete the testing efforts within a stipulated timeframe.

Relevant and Quality Test Data

The outcome of a data-driven testing project will be impacted by the relevance and quality of test data. While running the tests, you need to ensure that the data entered into the input fields are stored externally in a database, or as an external XML or test file. The use of external data will increase the reusability and maintainability of the test cases. You can even ask the QA engineers to create well-structured test data. They have to invest additional time to structure the test data, but the efforts will result in creation of relevant and high quality test data.

Option to Test Changes in the User Interface

Normally, the automated testing uses keyword tests or scripts written based on the application being tested. So any changes in the user interface have a direct impact on the test results. As the user interface undergoes frequent changes during the initial stages of production, you need to explore ways to get accurate test results. You can make the automation test resist the frequent UI changes effectively by providing unique names for the controls. The unique names will make the automation tools find your controls without relying on location coordinates.

Before investing in automation testing, a business must conduct a thorough cost-and-benefits analysis. It also needs to clearly decide when and what to automate. Also, the managers must answer a series of questions to determine how to optimize the entire test automation process. There are few list of automation testing companies providing software testing services. If you are planing to hire a company for testing, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently dexterous or not!

We are providing automated regression testing services. If you would like to hire automation testers for your testing needs, Please contact us Mindfire Solutions.