Test Automation Strategy: Which is right for your team?

Software testing is now an essential and constantly expanding component of the development life cycle. At first, it was dependent on sizable teams doing manual test cases. This has evolved in recent years as a result of testing teams discovering automation testing as a means of enabling a quicker deployment cycle. The secret to success in automation testing is always to choose a method that is both cost-effective and results-oriented.

In this article, I will walk you through automation testing best practices and the vital areas to think about when creating a test automation strategy.

1. What’s an automation test strategy?

Automation testing is a type of functional testing technique that uses automated testing tools and frameworks to execute a test or suite of tests. Think of automation testing as the opposite of manual testing. This type of testing necessitates a significant amount of time, effort, and financial investment... However, it saves you a bunch of time with rigorous and repetitive manual testing.

Some of the automation test benefits include:

• Reduces time
• Reduces efforts
• Increases productivity
• Increases predictability
• Increases reliability

2. Types of automated testing

There is no denying the fact that comprehensive types of automated testing include functional as well as non-functional testing.

Functional testing verifies that the app’s functionalities work according to the requirements by identifying the areas where performance does not meet the desired results. On the other hand, non-functional testing helps identify the broader quality concerns in an app by verifying all the non functional aspects.

Here are some types of functional automated testing and non-functional automated testing:

Security tests

Security checks run functional and non-functional tests to check for system vulnerabilities, ethical hacks, risk assessments, and security auditing

Performance tests

Performance tests check the speed, response time, stability, reliability, scalability, and resource usage of a system under a specific workload. These types of tests are often non-functional.

Smoke tests

Smoke tests, also called confidence tests, sanity tests, build verification tests (BVT), and build acceptance tests, are a type of functional testing, that determines if the developed module is stable or not.

Regression tests

Regression tests run a combination of functional and non-functional test cases to check if a change or update in an active system has not changed adversely and affected existing features. For example, old-fix regression is where the tester checks if a previously fixed bug has regressed to a bad state.

Usability testing

This method of non-functional testing evaluates the system for human use. GUI testing ensures the output is correct, meaningful, and the same as expected per the predefined goals.

User Interface (UI) testing

UI testing evaluates the GUI and ensures the GUI is consistent and provides easy navigation for application use.

3. Test automation vs manual testing

Manual testing: pros and cons

Manual testing is not a one-size-fits-all solution in all cases, as it has both pitfalls and benefits. So, let’s lead you to a better understanding of them!

Pros:

• The cost of manual testing is lower compared to an automated one for small testing projects.
• You can evaluate UI components (color, size, button length etc.) on the go
• Manual testing doesn’t require programming skills, but hands-on experience is a must
• Manual testers can assess users’ behavior when they interact with the software
• Minor changes to software like a button type or ID modifications are better to be done with manual testing.

Cons:

• It’s difficult to test software performance manually
• Manual testing is time-consuming in executing multiple regression tests
• There is a high risk of human errors

QA automation testing: pros and cons

Despite the firm belief that automated testing is one of the most effective ways to test software, there is a fly in the ointment, of course. So, let's take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of automated testing.

Pros:

• Fast test execution that can be launched automatically
• Fewer human mistakes in running a test case
• Good for repetitive tests that should be executed several times
• All automated tests and scripts are recorded
• It is resource-efficient to complete test cases with several databases.

Cons:

• Automation instruments are usually expensive
• It is ineffective in testing user experience in applications
• Coding knowledge and experience are a must.

4. How to build an automation testing strategy

Identify the goal and scope

Prior to beginning the automated testing process, it is essential to identify testing objectives to keep the process on track. Improvements in accuracy, speedier test execution, shorter regression times, cost savings, and other objectives are possible.

Pick test cases for automation.

As much as developers would want automated testing from A to Z, there are bottlenecks that can only be assessed manually to the fullest extent of their severity. So, before figuring out the logistics of automated testing, you will have to decide which cases will be up for automation.

If your test case matches one of the following categories, you can be confident about automating it:

• Runs on multiple configurations
• Requires a large data input
• Takes a long period of time to perform
• Performance tests
• Data-driven tests

Define test environment

The testing environment is a combination of software and hardware needed to test the performance of the system. Setting it up the right way is the bedrock of a successful testing session. Here’s a short checklist for creating a favorable environment for automated tests.

• Make sure all the needed equipment is available
• Ensure that the system has all the applications needed for testing.
• Check the availability of standard datasets
• Plan the scheduled use of the testing environment

Select the Right Automation Tool

Choosing a suite of tools for testing is crucial when it comes to an automated testing strategy. You need to ensure all the software you use for script execution will improve, not limit the process. At the moment, there are dozens of solutions with a similar range of features—choosing the one to go with is by no means easy.

Create the test automation framework

When creating a test automation framework, a QA specialist has to ensure it is scalable. Keep in mind that the framework is rarely used for a single project; instead, it is a template of test automation strategy, guidelines, and principles your testers should be capable of using for any kind of automated testing.

Reporting

After a series of tests is executed, a QA manager has to capture insights and put them into a readable and concise document that will help developers improve the product. While there are tools that create reports automatically – you’d only need to revise the content

Maintain test scripts.

As the last step, it is necessary to maintain the test scripts so that they can be reused for regression tests or for testing similar kinds of software. Also, keep cleaning the obsolete test cases and adding the new test cases to the repository to ensure effective automation and future reuse of the test scripts.

5. Handy tips for selecting the best automation testing tool

There’s no shortage of automated software testing tools on the market. Having too many options can also be a challenge when trying to make your test tool selection. Here are some tips for selecting the best automation testing tool.

Team’s experience

Automation testing requires a certain amount of technical skill that not all testers may possess. Knowing your testers’ expertise or strength will help you know the kind of tool to go for.

What are your team’s strengths and weaknesses?

This question and similar ones will help you evaluate the team’s expertise. It is vital to get a tool that everyone on the team can use and work with.

Versatility

Choose a tool that supports the type of automated testing you need, including functional testing, unit testing, and load testing. Ensure that the tool provides broad testing support, as your needs may change in the future. Add-ons may be available to expand the versatility of a given tool, but these come at an additional cost.

Costs

Is the tool truly worth the cost? Consider the product price as well as the costs that may pop up in the future, such as compatibility add-ons, upgrades, and support fees. The tool should do everything you need it to do without being a slow drain on your testing budget.

6. Tools for automation testing

We will introduce some tools for automation testing are the best as per these trends

Selenium

The Selenium tool currently takes first place among all the automation testing tools. Selenium is among the most popular automated testing tools for web applications. It is an open-source platform that is compatible with numerous browsers, operating systems, and programming languages.

Selenium features detailed and advanced automation scripts, supports the execution of parallel tests, and integrates other software testing tools. As the best web testing tool is the Selenium Framework, it will make code maintenance easy.

Cypress

Cypress is a relatively new player in the arena of automation testing and web app testing. Like the Selenium framework, Cypress is also open-source, and the project is hosted on GitHub. Lately, Cypress has gained significant traction, as is evident from the number of forks and stars for the project.

Appium

If you search a mobile automation testing tools list then Appium will always be at the top. Appium is designed on a server, and the user gains access to its automation framework through vendors. Appium has a high compatibility rate, enabling it to automate different mobile apps in any language using any test framework.

Appium features high compatibility; testing doesn’t require recompiling or SDK tools, and it can run on mobile and computer operating systems using WevDriver protocols. With the Appium Studio, you can easily analyze, debug, and execute tests on real devices.

SuperTest

SuperTest is a Node.js library that helps developers test APIs. It extends another library called superagent, a JavaScript HTTP client for Node.js and the browser. Developers can use SuperTest as a standalone library or with JavaScript testing frameworks like Mocha or Jest.

Conclusion

This sums up the article as well as the series of automation tests. I learned many things while writing these tutorials, and I hope you learn as well by reading. Test automation is an interesting and rewarding career. Doing it correctly is beneficial not only for you but for the organization as well.