Automated Testing

Automated Testing

Test automation is used to replace or supplement traditional manual software testing with a suite of test programs. Benefits to QA Engineers include increased software quality, repeatable test procedures, and reduced testing costs. Essentially, software automation testing is using a computer system instead of a human to test a software application. Most other forms of software testing require human interaction with the software product under development

Automated Testing is done to:

1. REDUCE TESTING TIME. A typical automated test suite will run in less than 24 hours. For a sophisticated product, manual testing may require dozens of staff months to perform the same testing.
2. CONSISTENT TEST PROCEDURES. With a complex testing process manual testing often yields inconsistent coverage and results depending on the staff and schedule employed. An automated test suite ensures the same scope and process is used repeatedly each time testing is performed

3. REDUCED QA COSTS. Automated testing has an upfront cost to develop, but over the lifetime of a product it will offer substantial net savings. An average automated test suite development is 3-5 times the cost of a complete manual test cycle. Over multiple product releases with multiple cycles per release, this cost is quickly recouped

4. IMPROVED TESTING PRODUCTIVITY. With its much shorter execution time an automated test suite can be run multiple times over the course of a product development cycle

5. IMPROVED PRODUCT QUALITY. Automated testing detects functional and performance issues more efficiently

Points to consider:

1. it's important to define the purpose of taking on a test automation effort. There are several categories of testing tools each with its own purpose. Identifying what you want to automate and where in the testing life cycle will be the first step in developing a test automation strategy. Just wishing that everything should be tested faster is not a practical strategy. You need to be specific

2. Developing a test automation strategy is very important in mapping out what's to be automated, how it's going to be done, how the scripts will be maintained and what the expected costs and benefits will be

3. Many of the testing 'tools' provided by vendors are very sophisticated and use coding 'languages'. Treat the entire process of automating testing as you would any other software development effort. This includes defining what should be automated, (the requirements phase), designing test automation, writing the scripts, testing the scripts,etc. The scripts need to be maintained over the life of the product just as any program would require maintenance

4. The effort of test automation is an investment. More time and resources are needed. The benefit comes from running these automated tests every subsequent release. Therefore, ensuring that the scripts can be easily maintained becomes very important


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