Test Automation

Test Automation

What is Test Automation?

Test Automation is a software testing technique that performs using special automated testing software tools to execute a test case suite. On the contrary, Manual Testing is performed by a human sitting in front of a computer carefully executing the test steps.

Successive development cycles will require execution of same test suite repeatedly. Using a test automation tool, it’s possible to record this test suite and re-play it as required. Once the test suite is automated, no human intervention is required. This improved ROI of Test Automation. The goal of Automation is to reduce the number of test cases to be run manually and not to eliminate Manual Testing altogether.

Why we need Test Automation?

Test Automation is the best way to increase the effectiveness, test coverage, and execution speed in software testing. Automated software testing is important due to the following reasons:

• Manual Testing of all workflows, all fields, all negative scenarios is time and money consuming
• It is difficult to test for multilingual sites manually
• Test Automation does not require Human intervention. You can run automated test unattended (overnight)
• Test Automation increases the speed of test execution
• Automation helps increase Test Coverage
• Manual Testing can become boring and hence error-prone.

Automated Testing Process:

Following steps are followed in an Automation Process

Step 1) Test Tool Selection

Step 2) Define scope of Automation

Step 3) Planning, Design and Development

Step 4) Test Execution

Step 5) Maintenance

Test tool selection

Test Tool selection largely depends on the technology the Application Under Test is built on. For instance, QTP does not support Informatica. So QTP cannot be used for testing Informatica applications. It’s a good idea to conduct a Proof of Concept of Tool on AUT.

Define the scope of Automation

The scope of automation is the area of your Application Under Test which will be automated. Following points help determine scope:

• The features that are important for the business
• Scenarios which have a large amount of data
• Common functionalities across applications
• Technical feasibility
• The extent to which business components are reused
• The complexity of test cases
• Ability to use the same test cases for cross-browser testing

Planning, Design, and Development

During this phase, you create an Automation strategy & plan, which contains the following details-

• Automation tools selected
• Framework design and its features
• In-Scope and Out-of-scope items of automation
• Automation testbed preparation
• Schedule and Timeline of scripting and execution
• Deliverables of Automation Testing

Test Execution

Automation Scripts are executed during this phase. The scripts need input test data before there are set to run. Once executed they provide detailed test reports.

Execution can be performed using the automation tool directly or through the Test Management tool which will invoke the automation tool.

Example: Quality center is the Test Management tool which in turn it will invoke QTP for execution of automation scripts. Scripts can be executed in a single machine or a group of machines. The execution can be done during the night, to save time.

Benefits of Test Automation

• faster than the manual testing
• Wider test coverage of application features
• Reliable in results
• Ensure Consistency
• Saves Time and Cost
• Improves accuracy
• Human Intervention is not required while execution
• Increases Efficiency
• Better speed in executing tests
• Re-usable
• Test Frequently and thoroughly
• More cycle of execution can be achieved through automation

Disadvantages of Test Automation

• Need better tools and training
• Need better tools and training
• Lack of experience
• Lack of clear goals

Types of Automated Testing

• Smoke Testing
• Unit Testing
• Integration Testing
• Functional Testing
• Keyword Testing
• Regression Testing
• Data Driven Testing
• Black Box Testing

Automation Testing Tools

There are tons of Functional and Regression Testing Tools available in the market. Here are best tools certified by our experts

Selenium

It is a software testing tool used for Regression Testing. It is an open source testing tool that provides playback and recording facility for Regression Testing. The Selenium IDE only supports Mozilla Firefox web browser.

• It provides the provision to export recorded script in other languages like Java, Ruby, RSpec, Python, C#, etc
• It can be used with frameworks like JUnit and TestNG
• It can execute multiple tests at a time
• Autocomplete for Selenium commands that are common
• Identifies the element using id, name, X-path, etc.
• Store tests as Ruby Script, HTML, and any other format
• It provides an option to assert the title for every page
• It supports selenium user-extensions.js file
• It allows to insert comments in the middle of the script for better understanding and debugging

QTP (MicroFocus UFT)

QTP is widely used for functional and regression testing, it addresses every major software application and environment. To simplify test creation and maintenance, it uses the concept of keyword driven testing. It allows the tester to build test cases directly from the application.

• It is easier to use for a non-technical person to adapt to and create working test cases
• It fix defects faster by thoroughly documenting and replicating defects for developer
• Collapse test creation and test documentation at a single site
• Parameterization is easy than WinRunner
• QTP supports .NET development environment
• It has better object identification mechanism
• It can enhance existing QTP scripts without “Application Under Test” is available, by using the active screen

Rational Functional Tester

It is an Object-Oriented automated Functional Testing tool that is capable of performing automated functional, regression, data-driven testing and GUI testing. The main features of this tool are

• It supports a wide range of protocols and applications like Java, HTML, NET, Windows, SAP, Visual Basic, etc.
• It can record and replay the actions on demand
• It integrates well with source control management tools such as Rational Clear Case and Rational Team Concert integration
• It allows developers to create keyword associated script so that it can be re-used
• Eclipse Java Developer Toolkit editor facilitates the team to code test scripts in Java with Eclipse
• It supports custom controls through proxy SDK (Java/.Net)
• It supports version control to enable parallel development of test scripts and concurrent usage by geographically distributed team