The world of software testing is constantly evolving, and with the emergence of new technologies, there are many tools to help get the job done.
Companies are using these new tools for automated testing to improve efficiency and reliability in their software development lifecycle.
One of the most commonly conducted tests is a manual test, where a tester manually performs various tasks to check if the application is working as intended. With automated testing, it is easy to achieve more in less time and use fewer resources.
Test automation software is functional to perform automated testing on a software product or application. Test automation helps reduce regression bugs by reusing what has already been tested and helps make it easier for testers to debug applications with thousands of code lines.
Why use Test Automation?
Automated testing can help speed up the software testing process, making it more efficient and cost-effective. It can also help improve the quality of the software by catching errors and bugs early on in the development process.
Automated testing can be used for various tests, including unit tests, regression tests, and acceptance tests.
Types of Test Automation
- Unit Testing: This type of test automation software tests individual software components (units) to ensure they are functioning correctly.
- Integration Testing: This type of automated testing is used to test how different software components work together.
- Functional Testing: This type of automated testing is used to test the software’s functionality as a whole.
- Regression Testing: This type of automated testing ensures that changes made to the software do not break existing functionality.
- Load Testing: This type of automated testing tests how the software performs under heavy load conditions.
- Stress Testing: This type of automated testing tests how the software performs under extreme stress conditions.
Functional test automation vs. Nonfunctional test automation
There are two types of test automation: functional and non-functional.
Functional test automation focuses on the functionality of the software under test. Nonfunctional test automation focuses on the non-functional aspects of the software, such as performance and scalability.
Robot test automation vs. Manual test automation.
Robot automation refers to software tools that automatically control a computer to execute tests, collect and compare results, and generate reports.
It can automate repetitive tasks without human intervention. In other words, a robot can do what a human does but much more efficiently, frequently, and accurately.
Build to break vs. build to learn.
Many companies provide their tests as part of the product they are building. Robot automation can also be used as a teaching tool or to help junior (junior-level) engineers learn how to test by becoming a member of an automated testing team.
Robots don’t get distracted by unimportant details. Instead, they help focus on the essential functional and regression tests. This improves the quality of test results while they are being developed, reducing work later when bugs are discovered in production.
Robot automation can also be used to identify how to re-work (rewrite) the code to fix defects found during testing. Tests that discover bugs are good because they often indicate how the code should be improved.
Conclusion
Automation software tools facilitate automation in various ways. In some cases, they provide a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows testers to record test scripts without learning a scripting language.
In other cases, they provide APIs that enable testers to integrate test automation into their continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines. And in still other cases, they offer both GUI and API-based automation capabilities.
The most important thing for testers to remember is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for automating software tests. The right tool for the job depends on the specific needs of the team and the application under test.
