There are mainly two approaches to software testing. It can either be automated testing or a manual testing approach. The testers use automated test tools to execute different test cases for automated testing. On the other hand, testers manually create the test scripts and execute them per the system’s requirements.
Automated testing is an inexpensive and less error-prone approach you can adopt for your software testing. With the automated testing tool selenium, you can create many test scripts and execute more test cases compared to the manual testing approach. The initial cost of purchasing the testing tool might be expensive, but the automated testing tool’s service is worth it compared to outsourcing a tester. Human involvement in automated testing leads to many errors as the human ability to detect and prevent errors is limited. On the other hand, automated tools will perform each test scenario per the instructions. And this implies that the number of errors will be reduced.
Why automation testing is less expensive
There are different reasons why software automation testing is less expensive. With automation testing, it’s easier to identify the workflows involved. This implies you can easily take inventory of all the data stores, workflows, and applications in the development process and account for the overall cost. As a result, it will be effortless to identify the repetitive tasks and decide which test cases are worth investing your time and efforts in.
It’s easier to improve and standardize the processes you are carrying out, which means that the overall process will be as efficient as possible. You can quickly review and fix all the inefficiencies before setting up the automation, and this saves you from wasting the organization’s resources. In this case, you are only executing test cases that are essential to the working of your software product.
Increasing the test coverage also contributes to low costs in automation testing. Just imagine being in a situation where you have to hire a lot of testers to carry out repetitive tasks that can easily be automated! It can be costly. Right?
When you build test cases that isolate each element, you reduce the chances of failures in your test cases. You will quickly identify when something goes wrong and when a test case is about to fail. This will also help you build reusable components, unlike in manual testing, where testers bundle multiple tests.
Types of automated testing
There are several types of automation testing that you can adopt in your organization. The cost for each type of test varies depending on the software requirements and specifications. Most of the automated software testing approaches you will use are less prone to errors, and you will save a lot of the organization’s resources.
However, understanding which method to use can be tough, as they all have different benefits. On top of that, they require different skills and equipment so it can be an expensive start-up cost to get everything in place. For a lot of businesses, this isn’t worth it so they would rather outsource to full cycle software development services that can support them through the process and integrate many tests at different stages of development to make sure the product meets requirements. This can save money and means your product will often meet a higher standard than what your business might be able to achieve in-house.
If you do intend to test things yourself, then make sure that you fully understand the test requirements and have the right tool to handle the disparate processes. Below are the different types of automation testing:
Smoke tests
Smoke tests are functional tests that determine whether a build is stable or not. These tests verify the functions of the significant features to ensure that the software can endure further testing. The term “smoke” is derived from the idea that this testing prevents the program from catching fire, especially when it’s not ready for additional testing.
UI testing
The UI testing approach tests the application’s visual elements to verify proper functionality and the software product functions as expected. This testing ensures that the UI functions and the software product have no defects. Remember that the primary aspects of UI testing include performance, functionality, usability, visual design, and compliance with the software product.
Acceptance tests
These functional tests determine how the end-users respond to the final software product. This test must be passed successfully before it’s released to the market for the software to be effective.
In this case, you evaluate the compliance of the system with the business requirements and assess whether the software is acceptable for delivery or not. There are several types of acceptance testing, including user acceptance testing, business acceptance testing, contract acceptance testing, and regulation acceptance testing.
Security tests
Security test uncovers different vulnerabilities of the system and helps to determine whether data and resources of the system are protected from intruders. These tests ensure that the software system is free from security threats that can cause huge losses to the software product. The main goals of security testing include identifying threats in the system, measuring the system’s potential vulnerabilities, and detecting and fixing every possible security risk.
Unit testing
Unit testing helps to test the individual units or components of the system. In this case, your primary role is to validate that each unit of the software code performs its operations as expected. Unit testing is primarily performed during the development phase of the software, where testers isolate a section of the code and verify its correctness.
Conclusion
Automated testing is the most cost-effective and less error-prone testing approach you can adopt in your organization. With automation tests, you can carry out repetitive tasks fast and with high precision because you are using test automation tools. The manual testing approach is prone to costly errors, especially when executing repetitive test cases.
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