As technology improves, automated testing becomes more prevalent in the application testing world. This should not come as a surprise; automated testing has numerous benefits. For example, automation makes testing teams more efficient, saves money and other resources, and improves testing coverage.
Integrating automated testing into your system can improve the testing process and reduce time-consuming manual processes. In comparison with manual testing, automated testing processes not only let specialists test the software on different devices at the same time but also reduce the risks of mistakes which can be unavoidable while testing manually. Automated testing frees testers from repetitive manual tasks and allows them to concentrate their resources on other more important tasks.
If you want to know more, check out the rest of the article below.
Steps to Integrate Automated Testing into Your Testing Process
Follow these steps to integrate automated testing into your testing process effectively.
Come Up With an Automation Strategy
Many teams fail at the first hurdle if they don’t have a clear and concise test automation strategy. Teams need to understand their goals and remain on the same page at all times. Develop a strategy with well-defined plans, goals, and room to scale, so everybody knows what they need to do and where their automated processes should lead.
If a team does not have a clear strategy, they can get mixed up with wrong solutions and go down testing paths that do not benefit the application in question, meaning they’ll have more work than manual testing.
Understand Test Automation Basics
Teams should understand the fundamentals of test automation. These include:
- DevOps and Agile methodologies
- Automation pyramids
- Automating methods
- Framework building
- Architecture
- Reporting
- Metrics
Without a clear understanding, teams will be inefficient when executing strategies. Teams should also understand particular solutions and testing tools so they know the necessary skills required, problems solved, and how to use the tools in practice. In addition, teams should constantly try to learn new automated techniques and methodologies, making their process even more efficient.
One of the biggest mistakes teams make is becoming complacent. The industry evolves all the time; teams should keep up-to-date with technologies, solutions, and trends to avoid falling behind the competition.
As such, teams should consider testing courses and other online resources.
Develop Programming Skills
Another issue teams face when moving from manual testing is a lack of programming skills. Teams need to build up frameworks and write automated test scripts. Usually, teams use testing tools with low-code features. However, this limits their ability to scale their practices. Testers can only use keywords, record, and playback functions, which only work until a certain point.
When testers write complex test cases, scripts, and tests, they get more coverage and quickly debug failed tests. If your team is making the switch to automated testing, ensure you hire testers with an extensive programming background or train up your team until they have the right coding skills.
Figure Out Which Testing Tools Is Right for You
Many automated testing tools are on the market, making tool selection difficult for many teams. Most QAs choose tools based on reviews and success rates. However, while some tools work well for some testers, they may not be suitable for you.
Think about your resources and requirements when choosing automated tools. Then, consider what you’re trying to solve. For example, is your application web, mobile, or desktop-based? Are you looking for test creation, execution, or reporting?
Also, consider how much coding is required to use the tool. For example, manual testers will need low-code testing solutions. In addition, automated tools with native integration should fit into your practices more easily than standalone tools.
Teams should also think about whether the tools can meet future requirements, so they don’t need to learn another tool from scratch on later projects.
Start Small and Scale Over Time
Another mistake teams make is getting too ambitious and complicating the automated testing process. For example, you don’t need to cover your goals for the next ten years when developing a strategy. Instead, simply start small and use automated testing on smaller projects first.
Try to use a certain amount of automated test cases in a timeframe and evaluate your progress. You’ll learn from your mistakes quicker than trying to tackle lots of errors in one go. As you learn from failures, you’ll expand your test automation strategy in a more manageable way.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are numerous things you need to think about when making the switch from manual to automated testing. Teams cannot go fully automated overnight; some will keep manual testing as part of their testing process.
If you follow the steps in this blog post, you’ll develop a solid foundation and be in the best position to integrate automated testing. Then, when you have the right strategy, and everybody is on the same page, you’ll expand your testing process and set your testing team up for success in the future. Remember, start small, and eventually, you’ll have a much more efficient testing process.
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