With the development of technology, we are witnessing changes across industries. One of the most obvious is the growing importance of software.
From being limited to the programs that users had on their computers, software is now everywhere and has become essential in our daily lives.
As software became more and more important, so did the need for it to be more secure. Automation testing has therefore become more advanced and today, represents a large part of what we call software development.
Today, test automation is the most effective way to improve the quality, performance and profitability of any software application. It redefines the way engineers perform test operations.
And in this article, we discuss the essential tools required for the most effective automation testing.
Come along.
What is Automation Testing?
Automation testing is a software testing technique that uses automation testing tools to execute a suite of test cases. The process is designed in such a way that it feeds the system with data and compares the actual result with the expected result and then generates a detailed test report.
The main goal of test automation is to identify software errors and fix them before a project moves to another phase or reaches the end user. A successful test automation process takes less time and produces software that behaves and provides functionality as expected.
Read more: The Benefits of Automated Software Testing in Businesses
Key Elements of Effective Test Automation
Have a well-trained test Automation Team
Automation testing has a different approach from manual testing. Here, scripts are written to automate test steps. This is in contrast to manual testing, where tests are run manually by a human. Good quality and a good number of automated tests result in reduced quality costs with increased test coverage.
Thus, a dedicated team will be required for automation testing to keep the automated test run time to a minimum. This team should be able to quickly adapt to various technologies needed for writing the tests, for example – Selenium for web or Appium for mobile applications.
This means the automation testing team should have expertise in multiple technologies for multiple application types. If required, the team must be trained on the application, the tools and the technologies to be used in Automation Testing.
Have the right tools for Automated Software Testing
Choosing the right automated software testing tools might be the most crucial step for the success of your test automation process. The automation testing tools must be chosen such that they meet the technical expectations of the team, meets business requirements (should support automation of required workflows and needed application types), and are within budget.
Today’s business requirements demand support for different application types and not just one. There may be applications that are Web-based, mobile, desktop or API based. Each application type would require different sets of tools, and one tool that suffices every application type hardly exists.
The team should be familiar with the testing tools being used and should require only a short learning curve for beginners.
Establish a strong testing framework
A strong framework improves the test structuring, reusability, and maintenance of code. It also helps reduce the time and effort required to create and maintain automated tests.
A framework is critical as it brings multiple tools like Test Management tools, Continuous Integration tools, Reporting tools, Collaboration tools and multiple resources together to make Test Automation effective.
There are different framework types available according to your development process.
They include Linear, Module-based, Data Driven, Keyword Driven, and Hybrid.
It is essential to have one solid framework that supports every application of your project. Test development, maintenance of test scripts and execution efficiency are heavily dependent on the test automation framework that you choose and is critical to the success of the test automation process.
Support for Integration with needed tools
Integrations with external tools make test automation complete. It is essential to view requirements and test results and also to identify and track bugs systematically.
Common integrations for automated software testing are integrations with bug tracking/reporting tools (say, Bugzilla or JIRA), test management tools like JIRA or ALM or continuous integration tools like Jenkins or TeamCity.
These integrations will make the test automation process complete and enable continuous testing. Without these, only a part of the whole testing process is merely achieved.
Availability of realistic test Environments and Executions
The availability of realistic test environments is important to execute tests continuously. With a growing number of end-user devices, it is required to have enough realistic test environments for application testing.
Also, having multiple test environments will help run tests in parallel for faster feedback and for Cross-Operating System, Cross-Device, and Cross-Browser testing.
Support for proper Reporting
Proper reporting with charts and tables that are explanatory gives clear ideas about the test results. A detailed failure report as to what, when, why, and how long it took to run is highly necessary for clear understanding and quick error correction.
If the reports are better complemented with screenshots and videos, it would be easier for people working at different levels of the project to understand better and take appropriate action.
These are just some of the basic requirements to check before getting started with automation testing. Based on the process and the application types, there may be multiple other things to consider.
Essential Integration Tools Required for Test Automation
Test automation cannot succeed without the aid of practical test automation integration tools. Over time, test automation trends have evolved significantly, incorporating machine learning and advanced techniques from artificial intelligence providers. It is crucial to identify the most suitable automation testing tools that align with these trends in order to reap maximum benefits.
All software testing is essential to assess the quality, reliability, and performance of a product. This is an essential phase of the software development life cycle. Although testing can be undertaken in different ways, the inadequacies of manual testing have only increased the demand for automated testing.
3 Essential Integration Tools required for Automation Testing:
Test Management Tool
Not every test case can be automated. Some tests have to remain manual, especially to check usability. Even though the tests are automated, it is necessary to document the functionality that the automated test is supposed to test. Your automation tool may not support this beforehand.
For this, dummy manual test cases can be written in your Test Management tool and be automatically integrated into your Test Automation Framework or Automated Software Testing tool.
This brings together both Manual and Automation Test cases in a common platform to avoid redundant efforts and to know the test coverage across Manual and Automation Testing at any time.
Bug Tracking Tool
A bug tracking tool can help record, report, assign and track the bugs in a software development project. A bug ignored at the initial stages would be more expensive to fix at a later stage, worse when brought back from Production.
Thus, the qualified failed tests should be collected and reported automatically to the Bug Tracking tool.
Continuous Integration (CI) Tool
Continuous Integration helps developers get actionable feedback for every change in the build by running automated tests with near-zero interventions.
Each build committed by a developer is verified by running the correct set of automated test cases at the right stage automatically and continuously to analyse possible business risks at a very early stage.
Additionally, integrations with Collaboration Tools like Email or Slack that involve the Management, Developers, Testers, end users or anyone who can contribute to the project would make the whole development lifecycle more transparent and agile.
Anyone can suggest or point out changes, track progress and communicate better. A common platform would allow the sharing of execution results immediately for quick feedback.
Conclusion
It takes significant time and effort to set up the test automation ecosystem but is highly essential in ensuring a successful automated software testing process. The objective of automated software testing is to simplify as much of the testing effort as possible with minimum effort.
The right selection of automation tools, test processes, and the team makes automated software testing successful. Though it involves several requisites and a huge initial investment to get started, automated software testing efforts would pay off as effective ROI gradually.
When all your test automation needs can be fulfilled by a single platform, it means better management opportunities with better results.
At Hidden Brains Africa, we provide an automation solution that lets you automate web, mobile and web services from a single place anytime, anywhere.
Because it is completely cloud-based, it also means near-zero initial time and effort.
Visit our website today: www.HiddenBrains.Africa/
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