Software vendors throughout the world often find it necessary to perform repetitive testing. Automating software testing provides them with a fast way to test their software product and also increases the productivity of their project. Here are 8 things to consider while implementing test automation:
What do You Want to Automate
The foremost thing to take into account while deciding to implement test automation is what you want to automate. Some of the things that are ideal for automation are test cases that operate under different conditions, test cases with plenty of data, risky application features, app features with complicated business logic, or attributes in customer interest.
The Right Automation software
You should choose automation software that your team members are comfortable using. If your team lacks expertise and knowledge in this regard, consider hiring a consultant, buying an online course, or organizing a training session for training your testers. If the tool you choose doesn’t offer everything you need, go for multi-tool platforms that provide everything you need. And make sure that the cost is within your budget and determine if you’d need any security implementations.
Things you should not automate for testing
Unless it is an agile situation, do not automate testing work in the early phase of development. And if the software’s UI is being modified extensively, refrain from automating its testing. If you do, the script maintenance expenses will be very high. Other areas that you shouldn’t automate testing are installation, documentation, recovery, compatibility, and modules that might be running just once.
Automation costs
The automation cost for the initial setup is quite high. If you are testing only to get some aesthetic tools and certain basic automation scripts, it would be better to go for manual testing. This way, you’ll get to avoid expenses associated with automation such as buying, training, and maintenance of automated testing scripts and hiring Automated Testing Engineers (ATEs) or Software Development Engineers in Tests (SDETs).
Automate tracking and reporting
If you choose to automate your testing consider automating your tracking and reporting as well. There are numerous tools available to integrate your testing tools and get useful reports of the test results. Automating your tracking and reporting are both automated, and will ensure that your testing will be well.
Define your automation process
The automation of your testing will be successful if you’ve defined a solid automation process. Detailing your process will serve as the resource and guideline for onboarding or for team members who are unsure about how to proceed. Also ensure that your process documentation is easily available and editable for everyone involved in the testing process.
Incorporate BDD
BDD refers to Behavior Driven Development, where non-technical stakeholders contribute towards enhancing the software’s overall quality. It facilitates writing better tests that are available to both the development side and operations teams. Incorporating BDD in your test automation enables clearer and better comprehension of software behavior. This lowers the necessity for rework.
Stakeholders’ and end-users’ expectations
Though test automation is carried out to check the software for bugs, its ultimate goal is to improve your product. So, you need humans to complete the non-automated testing segments. You can gain a lot of useful info to make the best possible decision for enhancing the software for the end-users. So, make sure that the management, your testing team, and other stakeholders accept and understand the anticipated outcomes of your automation strategy.
Wrapping up
Implementing test automation can enable the fast testing of your software product. It can also increase your project’s productivity and give rise to an improved product for the end users. This blog has discussed eight things that you need to consider while implementing test automation to ensure that it is beneficial, cost-effective, and worthy of your efforts.
Check out all the software testing webinars and eBooks here on EuroSTARHuddle.com
About the Author
Shivani is a content writer at NotifyVisitors, which provides marketing automation software that allows marketers to plan, coordinate, manage, and measure their marketing campaign’s performance.
