Meaning of test automation
With the popularity of automated testing, there is much debate about whether manual testing has fallen behind. Despite opinions to the contrary, the importance of test automation today is indisputable.
The software market is now demanding fast and quality products from industry players, which means that higher-quality products must reach end users in a shorter time. This onerous requirement has driven the phenomenal growth of test automation, allowing QA teams to execute faster and more accurate test cases.
The types of tests that require repeated operations, such as regression tests, are the ones that need the most automation. Frequent software changes greatly increase the total cost in terms of time and human resources for running tests manually. Therefore, automated testing is a wiser and more effective choice in this situation.
Choose the right automation tool, not the best one
Despite its merits, test automation is not suitable for all projects. While many QA teams benefit from automation, some companies waste time, effort, and money implementing automated tools.
The success of automated testing lies in identifying the right tools for different requirements. This process takes time and effort at first, but in the long run, teams must automate tests efficiently.
Type of automated test tool
Roughly speaking, all available test automation tools fall into the following three categories. Open Source automation Tools These tools are free platforms that allow users to access and use their source code, and users can choose to adopt the code entirely or modify it to meet their testing needs. Tools are free and developed by the community. The open source tool is the first choice of many automation testers with a programming background because of the freedom to access and customize advanced test cases. Commercial automation tools Commercial tools are used for business purposes and users must purchase and pay to use the software. Compared to open source software, such tools typically have more advanced features and complete customer service to complete the entire testing process for a company or enterprise. Custom frameworks In some projects, individual open source software or fixed commercial testing tools may not be sufficient, mainly due to differences in testing procedures and testing environments. In this case, the team needs to develop custom software itself. The custom framework is much more complex than the other two solutions and can be deployed by technical experts.
Choose the right automation tool for your project
Understand testing requirements
Not all QA teams need automation to speed up the testing process. Manual testing still plays a critical role in this area for specific requirements and project requirements.
When do you need test automation?
Frequent regression testing when there are many repeated test cases to be done, when the team must simulate a large number of users for performance testing, when the user interface is apparently stable, and when critical functions cannot be manually tested alone are the most demanding requirements for test automation applications. QA practitioners need to have a deep understanding of their projects in order to accurately identify them.
Automated test tool evaluation criteria
1. Learning costsAutomated testing is more technical than manual testing. In many automation tools, especially open source software, testers must have an adequate level of programming knowledge to write and execute test scripts. For QA teams with limited technical background, this technical barrier is the most challenging to adopt test automation. Practice has proved that testing tools that do not need to perform coding are the solution to solve this bottleneck.
In many cases, test automation is unaffordable. However, as long as the budget is thoroughly calculated, it can provide a significant return on investment for the team and the business in the long run. Depending on your budget, it’s easier to choose the right software, open source, or commercial tools.
3, functionality,Although the requirements vary from team to team, there are some key factors to consider when choosing the right automation tool. These include: supported platform programming language CI/CD integration features report features
Script maintenance and reusable script maintenance are important factors that increase the total cost of test automation, and the ideal automation tool should have features that reduce this amount of work. On the other hand, the reusability of scripts saves teams a lot of time working on similar test cases.
5. Integration abilityThe selected automation tools must be able to integrate into CI/CD pipelines and external platforms to ensure continuity of testing. Strong and comprehensive integration enables better test management and team collaboration.
6. Technical supportAnother key point to note is tool support. For commercial tools, users should be provided with timely customer support on all technical issues. Check their official documentation and website to see what support methods are available. Open source software can rely on the user community when it runs into problems.
Key recommendations for test automation tools
Eolinker
Eolinker is an open source Web services test application for simple Object Access Protocol and presentation state transfer. Its capabilities include Web service inspection, invocation, development, emulation, functional testing, and compliance testing. Use address: www.eolinker.com
JMeter
As part of the Apache Software Foundation, JMeter is an open source Java Web testing platform. Because of its stimulus mechanism, JMeter is primarily used for functional and performance testing, making large-scale testing possible. Address: jmeter.apache.org
conclusion
The process of evaluating and selecting automated tools can be challenging but rewarding. With the right tools, you’ll be able to leverage test automation capabilities and get the best results with the least amount of resources.