Accelerating Agile Testing- Beyond automation

As implied by the name Agile, it refers to doing something very quickly. Validating the requirement of a client as fast as possible and making it user friendly is the basic functionality of Agile Testing. With the building of the software done and out, it is expected that testing will be started so that bugs if any may be quickly fixed. Testers need to express their thoughts on the requirements of clients instead of being just audiences. The main emphasis is on the deliverable's quality despite the short time-frame; this will help in further reduction of development cost and the code will be implemented with the tester's feedback, thus avoiding defects that may come from end users.

Agile testing methodology has a number of benefits. The first and foremost advantage that should be mentioned is the fact that the company can save a lot of money and time. You require very less documentation; some documents are necessary for validation and verification of requirements but since the time frame is short, the focus is less on documenting and rather more on application. Agile methodology also offers another benefit in the sense that if between any of the phases the software needs some adjustment it can be easily done without thinking about budget constraints. You can guarantee total customer satisfaction since continuous attention is focused on good design as well as technical excellence. Even changing circumstances are taken into consideration and regular adaptation is carried out as such.

There are several different approaches in which Agile Testing can be carried out for compression of the test schedule; out of them the most remarkable is the test automation. The process of test automation involves the computer to get to do some repetitive tasks. In software testing, automating the processes help in making Agile Testing and acts as great alternative for manual testing. Tools related to that help the organization to run a battery of tests repeatedly and quickly; the tools also manage test execution, compare results with tests runs done earlier and report the outcomes.

This process has some problems so while following this you should keep some strategies in mind-

• Try to find roadmaps otherwise if the automated tests fail even before they become useful it will be worthless to even start with them in the first place.
• Determine path tests that are happy as well as stable, then only others should be included.
• With schema changes incremental changes should be applied to schema.
• If UI is brittle to deal with, automating should not be tried; instead go the API route to test all the business rules.
• For problems related to deterministic response received from interfaces of external applications stubs can be created to return precooked responses.

Automation is perfect for some facets of user interface testing. However, in case of validation of the fact whether the application looks good or not cannot be done through automated tests. Automated tests, although well-designed can be shallow and as such it is necessary to conduct such tests in collaboration with exploratory testing that is manually done. Testing on automation basis just indicates that there is something not quite right in the software. The extent of potential problems can be evaluated by human beings only; also there are no limitations associated with manual testers unlike automation.

There are several advantages as well as disadvantages associated with automation. It is hard to let go of this system in Agile Testing as it is of huge help in uncovering of any defect. Since the effort involved for the maintenance of this is not any more than manual tests, it is a good idea to give equal importance to both. Save time as well as money by implementing automated testing in regression phases of stable applications. You can hire testers from top software application testing companies who can help you in testing your application within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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