Test automation assists in the execution of test cases. You are able to run multiple test cycles without the hassle to write & report results at every step.
All companies prefer to use test automation because of the following benefits.
- It helps them to execute more tests in lesser time period.
- It supports continuous development practices.
- It addresses more situation using data-driven testing.
- It fast-tracks cross-device and cross-browser testing.
By looking at the significance of test automation, you would want to know the techniques companies handle it.
So, lets look at the six ways big and small companies handle test automation.
They Select Test Cases That They Want to Automate
Careful planning and design work are pre-requisites for success of test automation. Therefore, organizations usually begin by creating a 4-steps automation plan.
- State your objective for automated testing and determine which sorts of tests you want to automate.
- Select the actions you would want automated testing to perform.
- While creating tests, try to keep small and focused objective per test.
- After this, they group these tests in one larger automated test.
They make sure That They Test Early and Test Often
They begin testing early and often to get most out of their automated testing. This results in better projects being delivered. Automated testing can be implemented from the very beginning and they can slowly build their automated test suite. Big and small enterprises believe that early bug detection is cheaper to fix in comparison with those detected later in production or deployment.
They do not choose the Automated Testing Tool they want but the one they need
Opting for an automated test tool plays an extremely critical role in test automation. There are a lot of automated testing tools available in the market. Hence, it is significant to select the automated testing tools that proves to be a good fit with your overall requirements.
Consider these key points when opting for an automated testing tool:
- It offers support for your technology and platforms.
- It provides flexibility for testers of all skill levels.
- Feature rich but also simple to develop automated tests.
- Form automated tests that are maintainable, reusable and impervious to verifications in the apps User Interface
They Break Down Their Automated Testing Efforts into Small Tasks
Usually, the creation of different tests is based on the QA engineers’ skill levels. It is important to identify the level of experience and skills for each of your team members and divide your automated testing efforts accordingly. For instance, writing automated test scripts requires expert knowledge of scripting languages. Thus, in order to perform these tasks, you should have QA engineers that know the script language provided by the automated testing tool.
You should also collaborate on your automated testing project with other QA engineers in your department. Testing performed by a team is more effective for finding defects and the right automated testing tool allows you to share your projects with several testers.
They Generate Quality Data
Good test data is extremely useful for data-driven testing. The data that should be entered into input fields during an automated test is usually stored in an external file. This data might be read from a database or any other data source like text or XML files, Excel sheets, and database tables. A good automated testing tool actually understands the contents of the data files and iterates over the contents in the automated test. Using external data makes your automated tests reusable and easier to maintain. To add different testing scenarios, the data files can be easily extended with new data without needing to edit the actual automated test.
They Create Test Scripts That Are Immune to UI changes
Automated tests created with scripts or keyword tests are dependent on the application under test. The user interface of the application may change between builds, especially in the early stages. These changes may affect the test results, or your automated tests may no longer work with future versions of the application. The problem is automated testing tools use a series of properties to identify and locate an object. Sometimes a testing tool relies on location coordinates to find the object. For instance, if the control caption or its location has changed, the automated test will no longer be able to find the object when it runs and will fail. To run the automated test successfully, you may need to replace old names with new ones in the entire project, before running the test against the new version of the application. However, if you provide unique names for your controls, it makes your automated tests resistant to these UI changes and ensures that your automated tests work without having to make changes to the test itself. This also eliminates the automated testing tool from relying on location coordinates to find the control, which is less stable and breaks easily.
