The software testing process is always an important and essential step in the whole Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The testing process helps to make the software application more efficient and seamless to provide a better user experience. That is why the software companies are giving so much importance to the testing process these days.
Also, after so many analyses and reports, the software companies got the idea that user experience and functionality of the software play a very important role in grabbing the attention of users and establishing them in the market. To perform testing and deliver efficient and capable software quality, organizations use test automation to save time and increase efficiency.
However, implementing test automation becomes much more efficient if you follow some best practices. In this article, you will see what are the top 5 ways that can be used to ensure an effective and efficient testing process.
What is Test Automation?
Automation testing is defined as the process of testing your software application or website using many automated tools. There is involvement of various automation technologies and tools to write the test cases so that they can be used to perform the testing process of the software. You can perform many activities using these utilities such as fetching the data, controlling the testing process, and comparing the outcome of the testing process to make the testing efficiency better. Automated testing focuses on executing the test cases in less time so that the software can be made seamless and user-friendly.
This was all about test automation but why is test automation given so much importance in the software testing process? And why do we need this? There are several parameters that reflect why we need test automation. Let us have a brief look at these parameters and then we will move to the top 5 tips to make your testing process more efficient and effective.
- Automated tests can be run considerably more quickly than manual ones, whereas human testers would take much longer to do it on their own.
- Reliability is ensured via automation tests, which enable consistent bug identification and resolution through multiple runs free from tiredness or mistakes.
- Regression testing is necessary to make sure that existing features of a software program continue to work as intended after the addition of new ones. Automation testing enables immediate confirmation that outdated bugs don't reliably and quickly reappear.
- User acceptance testing, performance and stress testing, user interface and database testing, and many other scenarios are all included in automated testing.
- Savings: Although automating testing may involve an initial expenditure, the long-term savings are substantial because manual testers are eliminated and faults are discovered early in the development process.
Top 5 Ways to Ensure Effective and Efficient Testing Processes
Now, let us see the top 5 ways to ensure an effective and efficient testing process.
Use Test Driven Development Strategies
Test Driven Development (TDD) is a very important and effective practice used in the software testing process. The TDD practice aims to build unit test cases before developing the actual testing codes. As we know the software development process is an iterative approach that consists of many steps such as unit test development and refactoring. If any of the testing code fails, it is recommended to fix the error and move on to the next function.
The Test Driven Development approach is designed by combining two concepts that are Agile Manifesto and Extreme Programming. It is a structured and well-organized practice that is used to guide the testers during the whole testing or test automation process so that they can get the best possible optimized code and the code will be sustainable in the coming time too.
In TDD, the testing team and developers create small test cases for each of the functions and these test cases are based on their initial understanding. The main objective of the TDD is to bring the change in testing code immediately after it fails. This helps a lot in reducing any kind of duplicity while writing the testing case.
Apply User Acceptance Testing
User Acceptance Testing is defined as a software testing process that is used to determine whether it can be accepted by the end-user or not. The User Acceptance Test (UAT) is also known by some other names such as Beta testing or End-user testing. This step is taken in the last stage of software testing and it makes sure that the final results are acceptable by the users, and it is done after all the functions, system, and regression testing gets executed. Basically, it is the final step and it must be followed to increase the testing efficiency.
The objective of this practice is to validate that the software application requires the business requirements and demands of the client. The validation is performed by the end users who have knowledge of end-user requirements and business trends.
As we know UAT is the final process before the software application goes live for users, it is very important to measure if it fits their purpose. That's why you need to rate your product. You can hire professional UAT testers or involve end users independently in the evaluation process. This practice will really bring more efficiency to your test automation process. and you will also get a lot of insights that will help to increase the application's usability.
Setting Test Automation Environment
Setting the test environment for test automation is a very important step. This step helps the testing team to get maximum advantage of the testing process, resulting in better testing efficiency. Setting the test environment for test automation helps to plan the strategies for test execution, generate test reports, and manage the data storage.
There are many things that together make the test environment. It includes software. hardware along with network configurations that are necessary to perform automation testing. To detect any kind of configuration-related error, first, you need to set up the testing environment by the production environment. Also, there are some tips and guidelines that should be strictly followed by the team when they are setting the testing environment for automation testing. These are:
- Always remember that the hardware and network configurations are properly installed and set up.
- To maintain the consistency, you need to follow some environmental setup rules. The test environment and the development environment should be the same as the production environment.
- Take the data as a part of the test case. For example, the data-related location to sort data, should the data be masked or not, and how the data will be treated after the test execution.
- If there is any production data involved in the process, always remember to hide this sensitive data because it may be vulnerable to attacks.
Involve Developers in the Testing Process
In recent years, a significant change can be seen that is making the QA testing a cross-department process and assigning it to both testers and non-testers staff members. Here the developers play a very important role because they are responsible for writing the internal software coding part. This makes it possible for the organization to leverage deep professional information into the software testing process and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the testing process.
Some testing types require knowledge of the internal code and it is referred to as “white-box testing.” In this testing, the developers can perform the testing more efficiently because they have sufficient skill and knowledge to test the software and improve the performance and user experience.
Choosing the Right Automation Tools & Frameworks
For increasing the efficiency of test automation, choosing the appropriate automation tools and framework is essential practice. Numerous open-source and paid automated testing technologies are available. When selecting a tool, take into account elements including the application's technological stack, the team's experience, and your budget. Selenium, Appium, and TestComplete are a few well-liked automation testing solutions. Selecting the appropriate automation tools demands careful thought.
The several parameters that must be considered while choosing the perfect test automation tool and framework to increase the efficiency of test automation are as follows:
Technological Stack: The technological stack of your application has a big impact on the tools you choose. While some automation systems are better suited for desktop software or mobile apps, others specialize in web applications. There can be no compromise on compatibility with your tech stack.
Team Expertise: Take into account the knowledge and experience of your testing team. It might go more smoothly if they are already familiar with a particular automation tool. On the other hand, consider the learning curve if they must start from scratch.
Budget: There are many types of automation technologies, ranging from open-source solutions like Selenium to for-profit solutions like TestComplete. Naturally, your pick will be influenced by your budget. Keep in mind that purchasing a dependable instrument can frequently result in long-term cost savings.
You can further leverage the capabilities of tools like Selenium over cloud platforms like LambdaTest. LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated tests at scale. The platform allows you to perform both real-time and automation testing across 3000+ environments and real mobile devices.
Conclusion
Test automation is the process of testing software or websites using many automation tools and technologies. As the demand for automation testing is growing, we also need to follow the best practices and strategies to make our automation testing more efficient and accurate. To make sure you are implementing automation testing efficiently, these are the top 5 practices that we have discussed in this article that a tester must follow.
These practices are Applying User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Setting Test Automation Environment for test automation, Choosing the Right Automation Tools and Frameworks, Involving Developers in the testing process, etc. Hope you get a good idea of how to make the best of testing output using these top 5 tips to make your test automation efficient and effective.