What and What Not to Automate

Test automation is an extremely essential way of ensuring that a particular software product is working in the desired way. Irrespective of the amount of research as well as effort that goes into the making of the software products, they might still retain some defects or bugs that lead to an immensely undesirable user experience. Considering all this, automated testing is must. Basically, it is a process followed by the Quality Assurance professionals in which they make the software tools run some repetitive, in-depth and data intensive tests automatically. The procedure makes room for improvement in the software quality along with facilitating maximum utilization of the limited resources.

Determining What Should be Automated

While test automation has a lot of benefits, it is necessary to be able to implement the process properly. Building a framework and then deciding upon what to automate and what not to automate is essential in this regard. Prior to looking into the areas that need automation as well as those that can do without the same, let us consider some of the best practices that allow deriving the maximum returns from the investment on the procedure.

To begin with, one must not only decide upon the cases to be automated and those not to be automated but also make sure testing often to be absolutely sure of the results. Alongside, tool selection should be done carefully enough while the testing efforts divided in the right manner. Above all, the data must be of good quality and the tests that are created should be such that are resistant to any sort of changes in the user interface.

Now, following is a list of tests that require automation:

• Tests that are repetitive and run for multiple builds
• The ones that are subject to human error
• Those that make manual testing an impossibility because of the time as well as efforts that go into the process
• The ones that cannot be performed manually in any ways need automation too
• The functionalities that are used quite frequently and brings with them certain high risk conditions
• The tests that can actually run on different hardware and software configurations as well as platforms.
• Those that are in need of multiple data sets

What Not to Automate?

Instead of delineating the tests that might not be automated, it would be better to look into the situations where a manual testing is more preferred over the other. Automation is not a welcome option for anyone who is rather inexperienced in the matter. In fact, this should not be considered as being a cost- lowering technique but a process that needs considerable expertise to function in the desired way.

Again, using the automation testing tools is of little significance if it is found that the time to create, maintain as well as run the scripts is much more than what was allotted for the purpose of conducting the quality testing of the application. This difference in cost can be understood at the time and in the course of the process of the analysis. Manual tests must be created if, in case, it is found that the quality that is produced is not in keeping with the time or costs that have been devoted in it.

As already mentioned, tools are very important and if the automation tools cannot be prepared or arranged in- house, there is no guarantee of the quality of the same. In this case as well, manual testing is more preferred. This is because the results automation will possibly lead to may not be satisfactory, especially when compared to the expertise that is usually demanded from the same. You can hire software testing companies who can help you in this regard.

We provide software testing services. If you want to hire testers from top automation testing companies India or you would like to speak to our certified software testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.