The Top Ways to Succeed in Automation Testing

To advance in the digital world, your website or web application must provide a seamless experience across all supported platforms, web browsers, and operating systems. To achieve this seamlessly, testing becomes an important aspect. However, manual testing becomes tedious and time-consuming as more complex features are added to websites and apps. The use of automation testing makes this job easier. Since thorough testing is necessary for peak software performance, automation makes testers’ lives easier by reducing the amount of manual testing required.

When conducting repetitive tests like regression and integration, automatic testing is preferable to human oversight. Automated testing increases product quality, shortens time to market, boosts return on investment, and gives excellent coverage and accurate results.

However, automation testing must be paired with the appropriate tools, automated testing frameworks, and technical expertise to succeed. Several test automation best practices must be followed to ensure the success of these kinds of iterative, comprehensive, and data-intensive tests. By striking this equilibrium, testers can maximize the effectiveness of both human and automated testing. Some recommendations for best test automation practices are listed below.

What is Automated testing?

Automation testing compares the actual output with the projected output to find any bugs or faults in the program. An online or mobile app developer’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the app works as intended through testing. The more you learn about the various methods and tricks of automation testing, the less effort you’ll have to put in.

The Top Ways to Succeed in Automation Testing

Here are some tips or best practices to ensure that automation testing is fruitful.

Find the Automation-Ready Test Cases

Since it may not always be possible to automate all testing situations, it is essential to pick which ones to do so. When just running tests rarely, it is frequently better to perform them manually. Automated testing is most effective with test cases that can handle large amounts of data and can be run often. To ensure that each new release is thoroughly tested, test automation’s primary objective is to make it possible to run the tests repeatedly.

The benefits may not be worth the time and effort if the test only needs to be conducted once. However, regression tests can be conducted as often as necessary when the product under test undergoes iterative development.

Be thoroughly aware of the product. 

Your product’s technology stack should inform most of your tool choices. Do not begin the automation process unless you thoroughly understand your product. Find out which browsers will be compatible with your web app. Learn about the many technological components. If you’re using a desktop app, find out what language it was developed in. Where can I see a list of the application’s external controls? Because of this, you’ll have a simpler time choosing the right tools and automating the process in the future.

Build test plans and experiments.

Creating test cases and scenarios manually is a better idea than trying to automate the tests first. Automated testing is only as effective as the test designs used to run those tests, and having reliable test designs can help spot issues. Instead of delaying such crucial decisions until late in the development process, test design can identify high-risk locations or areas where test automation will likely assist considerably. All the tests that need to be done meet the needs of the team and the client and should be considered in a good test design.

Establishing a test scenario and creating test cases is a good action plan. You can build test cases beforehand to estimate how long it will take to run the tests and locate any bugs. It helps you see potential automation opportunities in your application that you would miss if you only look at the most common use cases.

Manual test cases are also critical

Well-written, robust manual test cases avoid test cases that are easy to automate but ineffective at finding problems. Manually drafting the test case is always the initial step to take. Find out what you need to get started and what information you need to put into tests. Clearly outline each step, and include the outcome you anticipate it will have. Each test case ought to have a well-defined purpose and rely on the others to a lesser extent. At least once, an automation engineer should manually execute this test case to determine which elements must be detected and how the navigation will proceed. Inquire with human testers by asking queries.

This process can help find bugs even before the automation script is built. Experts agree that most flaws are found in creating test automation, not running the tests themselves.

Choose the proper tool.

When automating tests, picking the right tool is critical. Several automated testing tools exist; choose the one that fulfills your requirements. Given that no two businesses are the same, a given tool may prove more useful in one setting than another. For this reason, it is essential to look for a test management system that can accommodate your organization’s current testing needs while accommodating potential future modifications to your testing strategy.

Is it a mobile app or a web app being tested? To test mobile applications, use an automated testing framework like Selenium. When it comes to web app testing, one of the most helpful automation tools is Appium.

Determine the architectures, languages, and tools to use based on the testing team’s expertise and familiarity. Java, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, etc., are the most common programming languages used for automated testing.

Free, open-source alternatives to commercial automation technologies like Selenium and Appium exist for those on a tighter budget. While this may be true in some cases, it’s crucial to remember that not all open-source programs are subpar to their proprietary counterparts. One such open-source technology widely used by automated testers is Selenium Webdriver.

Automation has limits

Automation involves conducting fewer tests on a more frequent basis. To avoid overwhelming yourself, you should begin by focusing on your smoke tests. 

It would be best if you next went over your build acceptance criteria. When you’ve mastered those, it’s time to move on to the timed tests you’ll use most often. If you must automate tests, ensure that everyone frees up time for a manual tester to focus on other crucial tasks.

Automation will not render manual testers obsolete, and we cannot expect it to. It will free up manual testers from mundane tasks so they can put all their energy into discovering novel testing scenarios and bugs.

Those tests that are particularly helpful, time-saving, or challenging for manual testers should be automated. Automatization is complete if you do that.

Maintain Logs for Efficient Debugging

To determine what went wrong during a test, testers must keep detailed logs of every test failure, including detailed descriptions of the circumstances surrounding the test failure and screenshots or videos of the failed scenario. Select a testing tool that can automatically save browser screenshots at each stage of the test. This will allow the faulty process to be readily isolated. Every QA team must employ bug recording and bug reporting procedures for continuity.

Examine the tests

It is essential to evaluate the reliability of your test data and examples regularly. Re-evaluating tests regularly helps find the ones no longer relevant to the current test cycle and can be removed. Because of this, maintenance will be less expensive and time-consuming. In addition, you can evaluate tests to confirm their accuracy, which has a far-reaching effect on test automation initiatives.

Using standardized testing methods

You may overcome several testing hurdles by employing industry-standard tools, frameworks, and test procedures tailored to your application or situation of interest. You can choose from several different testing approaches for a wide variety of testing issues. There are many approaches: exploratory testing, end-to-end testing, and regression testing. 

Conclusion

While automated testing can initially improve software quality and speed development, it is only effective with established standards. LambdaTest can significantly assist your website and application testing needs if you are looking for a reliable automation tool. The platform gives you fast, on-demand access to 3000+ desktop and mobile environments for browser and app compatibility testing while enabling you to execute Selenium, Cypress, Puppeteer, Playwright, and Appium automation tests on dependable, scalable, and secure cloud-based infrastructure.

Additionally, the Test Analytics package from LambdaTest gives you real-time insight into your testing activities so you can rapidly spot any bottlenecks or high-impact problems. This aids in determining what needs to be corrected so you can quickly deploy improved software while boosting brand confidence. The platform even lets you sign up for its Automation Testing for free.