The importance of optimized testing processes cannot be overstated in today’s fast-paced business environment. According to the World Quality Report 2022-23, test automation skills are ranked as critical for an Agile project’s success by 57% of the survey participants from various industries. So, can automated web application testing be cost-effective and beneficial for companies? Let’s look into the matter.
Automated web app testing: 4 benefits
Implementing automated software testing when developing web apps can make a difference in the following four aspects:
Reduced operational costs
To automate testing processes, enterprises need to make significant initial investments. However, these upfront costs are offset by the long-term benefits of automation. Automated QA workflows lead to reduced operational expenditure and also allow for better utilization of human resources. This means that employees can focus on strategic tasks, driving overall efficiency and productivity. Meanwhile, automated testing can run 24/7 without human participation.
Expanded test coverage
Automated testing solutions help ensure optimal test coverage for your project and streamline testing of the web software UI, databases, and servers. In addition, automated scripts allow running the same test cases on different test data and environments, helping to achieve increased test coverage. As a result, test automation enables a more seamless and error-free experience.
Eliminated human errors
Automated tests are always executed in a pre-defined way across different builds and environments. It drastically decreases the risk of human error, ensures that all test scenarios are consistently checked, and guarantees accurate and repeatable results.
Accelerated feature lead time
By adopting test automation of web apps, you can significantly shorten the delivery cycle for new software features. This means that QA engineers can provide valuable feedback to the development team faster, enabling them to fix any bugs or issues in the code promptly. This streamlined approach minimizes potential delays and accelerates the overall software development process.
Automated web application testing: 3 considerations
If QA automation is so beneficial, why not go for automated testing from the early SDLC stages? When it isn’t done properly, automating web app testing can do more harm than good. The implementation of test automation is a complicated transformation requiring a well-grounded strategy. Here are three basic points to consider:
- What types of testing to automate?
As a rule, QA experts automate time-consuming and repetitive tests that produce predictable results. As for web application testing, top candidates for automation include:
- Regression testing. This type of testing is vital to ensure that software remains fully functional even after changes, such as adding new lines of code or configurations. By automating regression testing, you can efficiently review basic scenarios, swiftly assess various modifications, and receive prompt feedback.
- API testing. Many modern web applications heavily rely on API integrations, with both internal and external sources. Automated API testing is the fastest way of identifying issues which would require much more time to be caught via UI. API tests are among the first candidates for automation at the initial stages of development, even when the user interface is not ready.
- Cross-browser testing. Assists in enabling the smooth performance of your web application across various browsers, including both desktop and mobile devices. By thoroughly testing your IT solution across different platforms, you can provide a seamless and user-friendly experience to all customers. By automating cross-browser testing, you make sure that potential issues across all platforms are identified and resolved before they impact your end users.
- Performance testing. Helps validate that the web software can handle heavy traffic and prolonged activity. Simulating extreme stress conditions or load levels with manual testing can be challenging, so test automation is essential to ensure that your application can operate flawlessly under any circumstance.
- Which test automation tools to choose?
To make your testing workflows more effective, I suggest leveraging these three reputable web app testing tools:
Selenium
Selenium is an open-source test automation tool specifically designed for automating the web applications UI. It supports multiple programming languages like C#, Java, Python, just to name a few. One of Selenium’s standout features is cross-browser combability, which allows writing one script for multiple browsers and running it at the same time thanks to the parallel test execution function. Selenium has one of the largest communities in the test automation sphere, which helps it to quickly evolve and support latest browser features and development technologies.
Cypress
Cypress is one of the most popular open-source test automation tools based on JavaScript. In addition to UI automation, it also supports API testing out of the box. Its intuitive syntax, built-in reports, dashboards and debugging capabilities make it a great tool of choice to start test automation. Just keep in mind that it has some limitations in terms of cross-browser testing, Cypress supports only Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
Katlon Studio
Katlon Studio is an open-source codeless test automation tool that offers comprehensive support for web, mobile, and API testing. It provides a user-friendly visual test editor, empowering even non-technical individuals to create and run tests effortlessly. Katlon Studio boasts keyword-driven testing capabilities, enabling consumers to write tests using a natural language syntax. Additionally, it offers automatic test reporting that simplifies test result tracking.
- How much effort does it take to maintain automated testing?
It’s crucial to understand that automated testing is not a one-time transformation. Instead, test scripts are an asset that should be maintained.
Test automation solutions should be designed using the best development practices to eliminate code duplication, increase code reusability and configurability. The test automation scope should be planned based on the project roadmap, keeping in mind potential changes in functionality and UI in the future. In case maintaining the scripts calls for excessive time and effort, manual testing can be more efficient.
Summing up
Applying test automation helps companies accelerate feature lead time, reduce operational costs, expand test coverage, and eliminate human errors. However, to be successful in the long run, businesses should know what types of tests to automate and what tools to pick.
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