In today’s software-driven businesses, it’s critical to deliver flawless products faster than ever before. Therefore, its testing is paramount as it compares de facto the outcome with the expected one and suggests edits and fixes.
The average website visitor needs 50 milliseconds or fewer to form an opinion of a website and decide whether to continue browsing or leave. The stakes are also significantly raised by the fact that in a competitive technology market, the strongest win. But, it is also a trigger for evolution beyond Agile software development, DevOps methods, and shortening software delivery cycles from months or weeks to hours. A profound change has already occurred, marking the shift from supporting simple test execution to incorporating AI into the development cycle.
What to choose: manual or automatic testing?
The classic method of finding unexpected platform behavior is manual testing. It includes human observation and evaluation of user-friendliness and is appropriate for simultaneous learning, test design, execution, ad hoc, and usability check. Although the initial funding is significantly lower compared to automation, it proves unprofitable in the long run.
Such control does not require coding skills – on the one hand, it is a good thing as it diversifies the labor market, but on the other, it only boosts the human factor risk (e.g., the possibility of omitting an action or spending a considerable amount of time needed to perform). So for anyone looking to be a major player in their ecosystem, there’s a smarter way.
Automated testing is a series of repeated scenarios of pre-defined operations through software. This technique eliminates human activity with systems that gain efficiency. The product goes through a complete cycle of bug identification in a short time, but this is not a guarantee of a positive customer experience. For such a check to work productively, it should be applied for regression and load testing.
Neither of these methods is technically better or worse than the other. Nevertheless, the decisive moment can be the timing and interface usability.
Which areas to automate?
It is not necessary to automate all processes, but there are situations for which it is best suited. Let’s consider them.
- Routine actions are the first automation candidates as they are usually the reason for fatigue and the so-called blindness to errors.
- Data processing can be too difficult for humans.
- If you have multiple data sets, you need AI and ML.
- The performance check is a good case study.
Nevertheless, the success of the automation procedure requires preparation and planning. Read more about determining the test’s purpose, scope, and execution.
How to conduct automated testing?
Before you start to check, you have to understand why you need it. Years of experience in IT suggest that the right question can change the planned path.
Testing typically focuses on five critical steps:
- Finding and choosing a tool;
- Automation scope definition;
- Design planning;
- Test execution;
- Support.
For instance, if you want to define what scenarios your MVP supports, think about how it will work on different devices, how many languages it will support, and what option is the best. Then specify the scope of the work: the technical complexity of the scenarios and the number of checks to be repeated. Then take up developing a set of tests and their execution. After performing such cases, what comes next is generating reports to record the actions during test execution.
Test Automation Approaches
There are three basic approaches of test automation: code-driven, graphical user interface (GUI), and framework. Each of them aims to perform checks on a particular area of the MVP and includes different scenarios. Code-driven: it applies frameworks that allow the fulfillment of unit tests to understand whether multiple code sections are acting accordingly as expected under different factors. GUI: it is a functional test to view the product from a user’s perspective. Framework: it is a set of recommendations or rules for designing test situations.
Top automation testing tools 2022
AI-powered applications
ACCEL
This is quite a beast, establishing itself as one of the most in-demand solutions based on artificial intelligence for web UI, API, mobile, and desktop checking. It supports visual testing, built-in frameworks, compatibility with most browsers, and complete taxonomy.
Eggplant
With this platform, you can make detailed models of complex systems and work processes. It halves deployment time and automates as much as 75% of regression testing.
IBM Rational Functional Tester
It is appreciated for its numerous development environments, including Functional Tester. Siebel, Dojo, Flex и Net. In addition, the app supports functional and non-functional tests.
Kobiton
This application focuses on providing complex quality and releases with DevOps speed. It is applied for failure detection, visual inspection, and CI/CD integration.
Virtuoso
This platform is gaining popularity but has already earned the users’ love. IC designers can easily include system-level layout in the IC verification flow.
Universal web and mobile testing
Appium
It is excellent for native mobile, web, and hybrid apps. Appium is cross-platform, allowing you to reuse code between different OS test suites.
Ranorex
This is applied for regression tests, drag-and-drop UI components, code modules, and the Studio IDE to develop checks in C# or VB.NET.
TestComplete
The platform is suitable for GUI testing and is unique in its broad functionality. For instance, you can produce code and codeless checks, detect any object with ML and AI, have tight integration with the client’s test management, etc.
Cross-browser tools
LambdaTest
This is a safe and reliable cloud for running automated browser checks (in more than 3,000 views) and devices at scale.
Selenium
This platform is in high demand because it can be applied to different OS and browsers. For example, you can write test scripts in many languages. Selenium IDE also has recording and playback capabilities.
Any product release aims to obtain high-quality results while decreasing costs. This is achieved through regular checks – manual or automated. In the article, we discussed how they differ, what depends on the choice of one or the other, and what tools are best to use.
