Software Automation Testing and Why is It Used for

Now there are two types of software testing: manual and automated. Compared to automated testing, manual testing requires time and human resources to ensure that the code of the developed program meets the requirements. In addition, the results of manual testing must be documented.

Defining an automated testing process

Automated testing is a specific technique that uses various tools, scripts, and software to test environments by resuming specific actions in advance.

Automated software testing focuses on replacing the manual work of the tester with unique software systems removing the constant routine work. Because this method uses special tools for automation, it requires much less time for research, but more time is spent on maintaining test cases, thus increasing test coverage. Automated tests check the following levels:

• verification at the level of components (units);
• software interface;
• user interface.

Manual testing is best used for small projects. It allows the tester to extract the necessary information from the testing process, which can be missed during automated testing. Automated tests are practical for large projects that must be tested repeatedly in the same environment or scenario. Automation is also helpful for projects that have already gone through manual testing.

Benefits of automated testing

Automated verification has a range of benefits for various software verification cycles. It enables efficient application development with fewer resources. We list the advantages of automated tests:

• it is possible to start testing (remotely) at any convenient time from any geographic location;
• saving time for the tester: for such tests, an automation specialist will be needed to create specific scripts for the tests, instead of a large number of workers repeatedly testing manually;
• reusable: created test scripts can be reused, and for this, there is no need to develop new scripts each time;
• the ability to detect problems in the early stages of software development, reducing time and human resources for error detection;
• the high reliability of this method and the accelerated verification of repetitive tests should be remembered, but they can cause problems when testing manually.

It has quite an impressive range of advantages in favor of automatic checks. You can learn more about building and managing an effective test team from this article.

Consider a step-by-step automated process

Testing in an automated way involves going through several stages, which we will discuss below.

Decide on verification tools

Initially, it is necessary to identify the purpose of automatic testing and select the tools for testing the software of the products being developed.

The selection of tools should consider the complexity of developing and maintaining scripts for the devices and on which platforms the selected tool will operate. In addition, you need to know whether the tool contains a function for generating test reporting and how many types of testing and programming languages are supported by the selected device.

Select Test Scenarios

The next step will be to determine the scope for automated verification processes, that is, which cases need to be automated, based on such points:

• scenarios where a large amount of information is provided;
• scenarios that have the same functionality as applications;
• scenarios to determine technical feasibility;
• level of multiple uses of components;
• level of complexity of test scenarios.

Once you have identified cases for automated testing, you can move on to planning and developing the process.

Drawing up an action plan and development

The planning and development process includes two main steps for testing:

• development of test scenarios: complex testing is challenging to correct, so it is recommended to divide it into several simple tests;
• development of a set of tests provides consistent and automated testing of the created scenarios in a specific sequence without the intervention of a tester.

Thus, having compiled a set of tests with a library and the necessary tools, you can start an automated testing process.

Testing

At this stage, an automated check of the created scripts occurs in a specific sequence. Testing can be performed using computerized tools directly or through a test control tool that invokes an automated tool.

Maintenance

At the end of the testing of scenarios, reporting should be generated to record the actions of the testing process. As new functionality is added to the software under test, the generated scripts should be added and tested for each loop. Maintenance increases the efficiency of automated testing.

Automated Testing Path Options

There are 3 main path options for the automatic process.

Code driven

This variant focuses on passing a test case to determine the health of many pieces of code based on expected results. It is a common technique used in the elastic development of a product program.

Checking the GUI

This method allows you to test applications with a graphical interface. Therefore, testers are permitted to document the actions of the user audience and repeatedly analyze these actions. Moreover, test scripts can be created using various programming languages.

Automated testing platform

It is a platform with recommendations to achieve high-quality results of an automated process that integrates library functionality, information about objects, data sources, and other applied modules. Testing in a computerized way increases the efficiency of the developed software and facilitates the work of testers.