Automate to Elevate: The Complete Guide to Test Automation

Test Automation is one of the major enablers for the explosion of different types of software and apps in the market. According to AIMultiple, “33% of organizations are planning 50-75% of their automation process, while 20% are planning to automate more than 75% of their testing process.”

What Is Test Automation?

Test automation refers to an approach to running your tests with minimal human intervention.

For a long time, developers used to automate their unit testing alone. In this process, the tests check whether a given function is working properly or not. Then came automated frameworks like Selenium, which helped automate the testing of modules and entire applications. These frameworks replicate user actions and interact with your UI. For example, they will scroll down, click a button to see how it is responding, locate the entry text box, and fill it out. With these actions, you can check whether the UI is working correctly or not.

Visual Summary

Benefits of Test Automation

Test Automation will help you to do more testing faster and more efficiently.

How Test Automation fares in comparison to manual testing?

As you can see, test automation brings in more benefits to the table, it is efficient and reliable.

What kind of Tests should be Automated?

There are some factors that you need to consider while deciding whether to automate a test or not. Here are the types of tests that you need to automate:

• Recurrent: You need to automate the tests that are repeated regularly.
• Determinant: The system should be able to clearly determine whether the test is right or wrong.
• Business Critical: If any test is important and requires attention to detail, it is better to automate it.

There are some other tests that can be automated as well. We have curated an in-detail blog discussing this topic. Make sure to read that.

How to Automate the Tests?

When it comes to test automation, there is a 4-step process that you need to follow:

• Choosing the right tool that aligns with your requirements.
• Defining the test strategy and test case.
• Choose the right framework and ensure that your test cases can run in it.
• Run the test and evaluate

Test Automation Best Practices

Once you have chosen the tool and have a proper plan in place, it is time for you to implement the test automation in the best possible way to leverage it.

Select the Right Tests to Automate

Not all tests are suitable for automation. It’s essential to choose the right tests to automate. Typically, tests that are repetitive, time-consuming, critical, and require frequent execution are the best candidates for automation. Prioritize tests based on their impact on the application and consider factors like ROI (Return on Investment) and stability. Complex, constantly changing tests may not be the best candidates for automation.

Let the Test Cases Stabilize Before Automating

Before automating tests, ensure that the manual test cases are stable and well-defined. Frequent changes in the application can result in a high maintenance overhead for automated tests. Stabilizing the test cases means that the application’s functionality and user interface are relatively stable, reducing the likelihood of frequent test script updates. This practice helps avoid unnecessary rework and maintenance.

Create Good Quality Test Data

Test data is a critical aspect of test automation. Ensure that you have a well-defined strategy for generating and managing test data. Good quality test data should cover various scenarios and edge cases, providing comprehensive test coverage. Keep the test data separate from the test scripts and ensure it is easy to maintain and update when necessary. Avoid using sensitive or production data in your test environment.

Set Up the Test Environment Closer to the Deployment Environment:

The closer your test environment mirrors the production or deployment environment, the more reliable your test results will be. Ensure that the test environment matches the configurations, hardware, software, and dependencies of the production environment as closely as possible.

This minimizes the chances of issues being missed during testing due to environmental differences. It’s also essential to maintain version control for the test environment setup to ensure consistency.

Test Early, Test Often (Shift Left Testing):

Shift Left Testing is a practice that emphasizes testing activities early in the development lifecycle. Begin testing as soon as possible, ideally during the requirements and design phases. This helps in detecting and addressing issues earlier in the development process when they are less expensive to fix. Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines are often used to automate and streamline this process, allowing for faster feedback and quicker bug resolution.

Conclusion

The best practices mentioned above will pave the way for successful test automation implementation. However, choosing the right tool, like Webomates CQ, can simplify the process and make it even better. Connect with us at info@webomates.com to transform your software testing process.

Tags: AI Testing, Artificial Intelligence, Automation Testing, Manual Testing, Software Testing, Test Automation