Few Things to Consider before Investing in Automation Testing

With the competition in the software industry getting increasingly intense, every business needs to come out with software packages that are pregnant with seamless functionality along with a variety of value added features so as to have a firm grip on the market, and to edge out its nearest competitors. Hence, there is simply no room for any error or laxity whatsoever, when it comes to the effectiveness or usefulness of the software, from the users’ perspective.

Naturally, in this situation, which to say the least is tense, what the businesses need is a superlative software testing infrastructure that will rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of the software systems developed, before they are put live to be used in real life scenarios. Automated testing is the most effective way to do that.

There are a number of testing tools that facilitate this activity, thus helping developers to make software systems absolutely foolproof and at the same time, perfect for use. However, when it comes to automated software testing it is imperative to take into account quite a few things to ensure that the entire process remains absolutely perfect as well as spotless.

Let us look into some of the basic factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Taking account of the cases that need to be automated

In order to successfully conduct automated testing, the first and foremost thing that needs to be done is taking an account of the cases that need to be subjected to automated testing. Now, when it comes to conducting automated testing, it is virtually impossible to automate all the test cases. Therefore, it is imperative to automate only those cases, which need to run regularly, or are poised to involve a huge volume of data. Hence, it is always vital to chalk out an automation plan on the basis of the automation objectives, so that it helps in identification of the assessment cases that need to be automated subsequently. Also, it is important to refer to a definite plan that will help in deciding the way the tests need to be performed and a suitable time for the same.

Frequency

In order to guarantee return of the best possible results, the tests need to be conducted whenever they are needed. This should also be done at regular intervals. Again, the evaluation needs to get off at the earliest, during the development cycle, ostensibly during the sprint. This is because, as and when the functionality of the tests start getting added, the complexity also keeps on increasing, thereby making the entire process of testing more cumbersome, time consuming as well as expensive. Conducting automated testing in the early stages, and integrating them into the project early will always make it easier for the QA engineers to identify as well as rectify the errors, flaws, bugs, or loopholes in a software application. Furthermore, it will quicken the tests, thereby negating the need of any additional time frame.

Choosing the right tools

The choice of testing tools is another extremely vital point that needs to be taken into account. There is a wide range of testing tools available. Some of them are open source, while some are commercial. Hence, it is important that they are evaluated on the basis of their merit or efficacy and then the most appropriate one of them is picked up for conducting the test. Some of the qualities that need to be taken into account while choosing the tools include the specific technology or platform the tool is based on, the extent of flexibility the tool in question is associated with, availability of the option of manual testing, recording and playing back prowess of the tool and the likes.

Breaking the testing process into segments

In order to effectuate the process of software testing, it is crucial for every company to break the entire mechanism or process into various segments based on the experience and the expertise of the QA engineers involved. For example, scripting should be done by someone who extremely well versed with the language that the tools use and should have enough experience in that.

Maintaining the Quality and Relevance of the Test Data

The end result of every testing project is severely affected by the quality and the relevance or pertinence of the test data. That is the reason, while conducting the evaluation it is essential to ensure that the data that are used and fed into the input fields are always stored in any external database or as a test file or external XML. Effective use of the external data helps in the increase of the maintainability as well as reusability of the evaluation cases.

Preventing any modification of the UI

Generally, the process of automatic testing involves the use of keyword tests and evaluation of the scripts that are written on the basis of the app that is put under evaluation. Hence, any change or modification in the UI will surely have a direct influence on the results yielded by the tests. Now the UI has the tendency of undergoing modifications quite frequently, and this is why there is every chance of the test results getting altered. That is the reason, it is important to resist any modification in the UI whatsoever. This can be done by assigning unique names to the controls instead depending too much on the location coordinates. If you are planing to hire qtp automation testing companies for software testing projects, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently dexterous or not!

We provide certified automation testing services. If you would like to hire automation testing experts for your testing needs, please contact us Mindfire Solutions.