Software now permeates almost every aspect of modern life – from driving a car to going on a hike. Our reliance on online banking and transport systems applications is immense, and this dependence mandates high quality and reliability.
Software testing has become relevant to every industry. It helps ensure applications function as intended, before being released to the public. In the early days of app development, the consequences may have been bugs in a game, or your CCTV app freezing. Today, our cars may be running on these apps, and just about every aspect of our lives.
The issue with manual testing, though, is that it involves the lengthy process of humans physically interacting with the application. It’s not just time-consuming but is prone to error. This is where automation testing has become increasingly relied upon, and this article will attempt to define how and why.
Defining Automation Testing
Automation testing uses software tools to execute pre-written test cases. These tests simulate user interactions with a given application. Think of it as a little bit like a macro. This means computers conduct the tests, such as clicking around and entering forms, rather than humans.
Automation differs fundamentally from manual testing because it’s a machine-driven process, executing much faster and reliably. Test frameworks structure the process, and the scripts run within that. Test data sets are inputs for the tests, and a report is generated after the execution. An example is a script that automatically logs in to a website. It enters a username then a password and clicks the submit button, and the automaticity of that helps find bugs efficiently and effectively.
The Types of Automation Testing
Automation testing comes in a few different forms, and these categories tend to target different aspects of an application. Functional testing automation is one key area, with it focusing on the user interface (UI) – the element that the customer directly interacts with. It ensures features work correctly from the user’s perspective, though, humans are better at judging subjective design choices. In fact, AI is increasingly competent at weighing in on design choices, and may be something that could be integrated into automated testing in the future (i.e., auto-testing the text hierarchy, font, branding, etc.)
Automatically validating a user registration process or a shopping cart purchase flow are functional tests, for example. Performance testing automation is another example, which examines speed scalability and responsiveness. Load tests simulate multiple users to see how a system handles it, for instance, while stress tests check the system’s stability under extreme conditions.
API testing automation concentrates on the application programming interface (API) layer. These tests are done in the background and verify that data is handled correctly between the front-end and back-end systems. Examples of these are testing the data returned from a database request. Other types of automation may include security testing and mobile app testing.
The Benefits of Automation Testing
As already stated, efficiency and speed are the key benefits. These automated tests run far faster than humans, but they can also run concurrently and perpetually, reducing the time it takes to find bugs – or testing many iterations at once. Feedback on defects is much quicker speeding up the overall development cycle, and with higher accuracy. Because they test the same steps every time, it’s systematic and easy to spot problem areas.
The long-term cost savings are significant, even for relatively light software. Whilst there’s an initial investment in tools and setup, the savings in labour hours are clear. That’s if it’s done in-house, of course, but many companies are now reaching out to outsourcing solutions like Qualified, who already have rigorous templates and processes in place.
Addressing Common Concerns
Automation doesn’t fully replace manual testing, as this is still used for exploratory tests. This kind of testing involves finding bugs through investigation, for example, and shouldn’t be neglected. It’s important for testing usability too, and humans can still be better for complex or unique tests. A balanced approached is ideal, as automation simply frees up more human labor for more complex user testing.
Maintaining automated test scripts is also not to be overlooked – it’s not a totally one-off cost of setting up. Changes to the application mean the scripts require updating, and a consistent process is needed to keep scripts effective.
The Future of Automation Testing
As touched on, AI is likely to have an impact on automation testing. Its greatest power is bridging this gap between automated and human testing, where it can somewhat perform as both. It may be able to test unique scenarios and complex tests from its own intuition.
Though, AI can also be used for script maintenance and helping keep automated testing usable as and when the apps are updated. This is because it can read the changes to the app more broadly, and suggest what needs to be updated in the testing script.
