Are you a tech enthusiast? Then, today, we dive into the fascinating world of QA automation.
You might have heard about the buzz surrounding software testing and QA automation. But what’s the real deal?
Hang in there as we explore together what lies at the heart of QA automation—the mainstay of software testing. Let’s discover how and why QA automation is essential to any successful software project.
We are not just referring to the drawbacks. But we also discuss the best practices, benefits, and tips that help you become a QA automation expert!
Introduction to QA Automation
QA automation, also known as automation software testing, deals with creating automation scripts to run tests for software programs with the help of automation tools. You can execute automation scripts repeatedly.
Typically, QA automation tools perform repetitive testing that manual testers have completed. The advantage is that it increases test coverage and prevents the chances of human errors.
Automation testing provides test results with several statistics— for example, the execution time, trends, step details, pass or fail, and so on.
In addition to performing repetitive tasks without much effort, automation testing also undertakes advanced testing that consumes time if done manually.
Further, it frees up the software testing team’s time as they can shift their focus to more complex test cases. Also, it is ideal for situations where automation testing becomes almost impossible. Isn’t that interesting?
What are the Key Benefits of QA Automation?
Automated software testing is essential for businesses that use continuous integration—for example, developing, testing, and launching software programs several times a day instead of in different stages.
Now that we have a brief idea of QA automation and its functioning, let’s explore the advantages of automated QA testing. Let’s roll!
Enhances Test Coverage
Automation in software testing improves the scope of tests. It focuses on improving the software quality. It features cross-platform testing and makes use of testing on multiple platforms all of a sudden at ease.
Automation testing can execute several thousands of complex test cases during every test run. As a result, it provides maximum coverage, which is almost impossible while performing manual tests.
Savings in Time and Money
You must execute test suites during every launch or when a new update gets deployed. Manual testing eats up a lot of time while conducting such tests. However, with test automation, you can reduce the execution time.
Early Detection of Bug/Errors
Want to detect bugs in the early stage? Indeed, you can do it with the help of test automation services. With the help of QA automation, you can identify bugs.
Further, early bug detection helps reduce the cost of fixing errors. Apart from this, it aims to improve the efficiency of your QA automation testing team.
Increases Accuracy
Manual testing is prone to errors. On the other hand, automated testing performs every step precisely every time it gets executed.
It optimizes the testing process, reduces manual effort, accelerates test execution, and ensures test coverage. Further, QA automation helps identify defects in the early stages of software development.
Fast Development
Test automation is done repeatedly and in less time. Faster tests and quicker results are the hallmarks of automated testing. In other words, your QA automation teams can get feedback frequently.
Hence, it helps detect errors. Fast feedback is part of agile software development, which aims to improve development speed and deployment.
Test Script Reusability
Reusing test Scripts created for automation testing with minimal or hardly any change is possible.
Further, several QA teams can use these test scripts as per the project’s needs.
Drawbacks of QA Automation
QA automation offers excellent benefits. However, it comes with some limitations. Let us see the most significant disadvantages of QA automation.
Task Handling
Automation testing can manage simple and repetitive tasks. On the contrary, manual testing handles more complex testing needs.
Misses out on Human Element
Entirely relying on automated testing can draw out the creativity and native experience of QA engineers.
Test scripts can identify errors, but a human touch in testing implies that they can see beyond what the automation testing can. Also, manual testers can take measures before they do further damage.
Mobile App Testing
Testing mobile apps with automation can sometimes take time and effort due to the need for support across several devices and operating systems.
For this reason, QA testing can become more complex and expensive. Some may wonder why it’s much more costly than developing mobile apps.
More Resources Needed
Automation is all about agility. It needs continuous script updating to accommodate the changes.
Hence, automation combined with manual testing works better. In other words, automation testing helps manual testing.
What are the Best Practices in QA Automation?
Test Automation optimizes the testing tasks, enhances efficiency, and focuses on the success of the software development process. Under the best practices in QA automation, we shall explore a few strategies that support solid testing efforts.
It doesn’t matter if you are a seasoned QA automation expert or a newbie in the automation field; these insights will help you go a long way! Let us explore!
Identifying Test Cases Requiring Automation
Not all test cases require automated testing. In some cases, you need manual intervention.
Create a proper automation plan and analyze the test cases to be selected for automated testing.
Use the Ideal Automation Tool
Depending on the project’s platform and the technology, you should select the automaton tool accordingly. Based on web-based or mobile-based projects, select Selenium or Appium tools, respectively.
Also, you need to choose a programming language that aligns with the skills and experience of most testers in your team. Finally, verify the project’s budget and decide on the automation testing tools.
Create Scalable Data Driven Tests
For data-driven testing, you need to create good test data. External data makes automated tests reusable.
If you want to test with new data, you can change or include data without affecting the actual tests.
Division of Work Based on Skillset
Make sure that you allocate work properly between team members. Creating frameworks and writing test scripts are the two essential tasks. Some may be good at framework utilities, while some are experts in writing test scripts. Therefore, proper work allocation is critical and one of the best practices in QA automation.
Perform Test on Real Device
It is essential to test on real devices. You might think of simulators for testing applications. However, simulators have limitations. Testing your application on real devices enables you to develop your application in such a way that it can deal with real-life scenarios.
Closing Remarks
Automated testing meets the accuracy requirements by speeding up the testing process. It saves time and money for a QA automation company. If you perform automated testing alongside manual testing, you can detect bugs and errors more efficiently.
We should understand that automation alone cannot give the best results. Hence, you must first analyze and create an idea regarding the choice of automation framework, test scripts, and proper tools and integrate and deploy the application.
If you are looking for QA automation services to streamline your testing process in software development, get the help of test automation experts. We offer web application testing, mobile applications testing, and datacom testing for various consumer, healthcare, manufacturing, government, and service industries.
We offer continuous verification and quality assurance services to ensure top software quality. ThinkPalm possesses an extensive library of test suits for conformance and Layer 2/Layer 3 testing, ensuring the highest quality for software applications.
Contact us for a free trial and make all efforts to streamline your software development lifecycle.
Author Bio
Silpa Sasidharan is a content writer and social media copywriting expert working at ThinkPalm Technologies, who aspires to create marketing texts for topics spanning from technology, automation and digital business solutions.
