Learn more about when to automate tests for software development projects.

1. Need For Automation Testing

2. Introduction: Need For Automation Testing
Better development process begins with a better testing process.
To advance in software development and design, enterprises need
to first improve their testing capabilities. The testing needs of an
app changes throughout its development cycle.
In the initial stages of development, as more features are added,
manual exploratory testing becomes crucial. As a product
matures, complexity of an app increases. Relying solely on manual
testing to execute repetitive testing steps is not only costly but also
time consuming and ineffective. Testing with the use of tools or
automation testing is the best solution when you have lot of
regression cases. For better accuracy and speed, test automation
is crucial to achieve test coverage & speed for large projects.

3. When To Automate Testing
With automation, developers can get feedbacks faster & reduce
the risk of breaking things as they progress from one build to the
next. Not only can the defects be found faster, the cost of fixing
them can be reduced as well.
However, before opting to automate tests, companies must factor
in the need & measurable benefits of test automation. Factors
including productivity, test coverage & accuracy must be
considered. A good & simple rule would be to aim for automation
of repetitive testing tasks that are prone to human error.

4. 1) When the app is stable
Any feature that is at least 80% stable & unchanging can be
automated. Automation involves considerable investment in time
& effort. A product that is not stable is likely to change
functionality wise. There is no point in test automation for
products that are not stable in terms of functionality.

5. 2) When there is no manual regression testing
Regression testing involves testing of unchanged parts of an
application. As these tests are repetitive in nature, they need to be
automated to save cost & time. The automation framework for
regression tests should include the option to add & update test
cases.

6. 3) When you need faster results
Automation allows companies to execute repetitive & difficult tests
faster. Product managers can get quick feedback & ensure that no
feature is broken from one build to another.

7. 4) When testing steps are repetitive
Any static or repetitive test that is relatively unchanged in new test
cycles can be considered for automation. The time saved can be
devoted by testers in conducting critical exploratory testing of the
product.

8. 5) When there is huge volume of data
Data driven tests that involve validation with huge volume of data
and inputs are more likely to get errors when done manually.
Setting up test data again & again is a major pain point. Further as
& when new features are released, you have to set up the complex
test data in various test environments. Uploading multiple
variations of the same data is a time consuming and difficult
process. Automation in these cases not only speeds up the
process, but ensures better accuracy. A simple script will allow you
to upload different variants of the same data & track the test
easily.

9. Challenges In Test Automation
Test automation of workflows requires the help of skilled domain
experts. The major roadblocks to achieving adequate automation
coverage is the huge investment required for testing an app in real
world conditions & the investment required for setting up a test
automation framework. Further, when functions change,
automation scripts need to be updated accordingly. A good rule is
to not try & automate everything at once. Start with critical
workflows that are crucial for your app. Individual test cases that
need to be automated must be identified.

10. Test Automation Powered By Crowd
Automation testing powered by crowd sourced platform provides
a cost-effective solution that can help combat both these
challenges of attaining maximum coverage and accessing skilled
QA experts. Incorporation of an ACC (Attributes, Components &
Capabilities) model will enable you to identify critical workflows
that needs to be automated.
With a strategic approach, using a combination of In-house QA
team and crowd platform, companies can thus gain maximum
automation coverage & align their testing efforts to match the
speed of their development plans.

11. About 99tests
99tests is a crowd testing platform to get your mobile & web apps
tested by top notch software testers. The platform provides
economical, and effective crowd-sourced testing solutions that
enable individuals and businesses to pursue excellence in software
technology.
Learn more about the software testing services provided by
99tests. Visit www.99tests.com . For more information, e-mail :
contact@99tests.com