The countless advantages of automation testing have led to an increasing need for it.
A business can use technology to quickly complete time-consuming, repetitive operations thanks to automated software testing, which reduces both time and expense.
Before the user sees the functionality, timely software testing identifies and fixes the issue. Software development is not complete without software testing. By employing specific procedures, automated testing is used to its fullest potential.
A software product’s success depends on thorough testing. However, testing to uncover flaws or bugs is costly, time-consuming, frequently monotonous, and prone to human error.
Automation testing, which enables Quality Assurance teams to execute intricate, repetitive, and data-intensive tests automatically, aids teams in enhancing software quality and making the most of their constantly constrained testing resources.
Best Test Automation Strategies and Practices
1. Dedicated Automation Engineer or Team should be hired
Create a test automation team that includes at least one automation architect. The test automation architect may engage several automation engineers to work together. The volume and size of your items will determine how many automation engineers you need.
2. Selection of test cases to automate
Prioritizing which tests to automate must come first for the team. Not every test needs to be automated. Many tests are better performed by manual testing. Automating difficult tests run infrequently is a failure that is not worth the team’s time. Make a list of the browsers and hardware that will also be crucial for your specific test suite.
Automation can maximize the benefits of your automated testing efforts.
- Repetitive tests that are executed over several builds.
- Tests that could be subject to human errors.
- Tests that require numerous data sets.
- High-risk circumstances are introduced by frequently used functionality.
- Tests that cannot be carried out manually.
- Tests that are performed using various hardware or software configurations.
- Tests that take a lot of time and effort to run manually.
After identifying the sorts of tests to automate and establishing your goal, you should decide what your automated tests will do.
3. Know the application being tested
The technologies employed in your product greatly impact the tool selection. Before beginning the automation process, thoroughly understand your product.
Find out which browsers it will support if it’s a web application. Be familiar with the technology being used. If it is a desktop application, find out what language it was created in. The external controls that are employed by the application will facilitate future automation and tool selection.
4. Select the Right Automated Testing Tool
For test automation, choosing an automated testing technology is crucial. There are several automated testing solutions available, so it’s critical to pick the one that best meets your needs as a whole.
When choosing an automated testing tool, take into account the following factors:
- Do you have a test to support your technologies and platforms?
- Will you be testing web applications?
- Do you require assistance with testing mobile applications?
- Do you work with iOS or Android exclusively, or do you work with both?
- Is keyword testing required or capable of being written by your QA department?
- Will my UI changes cause my automated tests to fail?
You should select automation testing software that supports your application’s technology and keeps up with emerging innovations. The ability of the tool to function across all platforms and browsers that your customers are likely to use should be one of the primary selection factors when testing your customer-facing portal.
Another critical factor is how simple it is to use and maintain. You will need to keep track of two sources: one for the application and the other for your automation scripts.
A cross-browser cloud-based testing tool like LambdaTest allows you to execute automation tests on reliable, scalable, and secure cloud-based infrastructure. It offers quick, on-demand access to over 3000 desktop and mobile environments to test your browser’s and apps’ compatibility.
5. Assign Tasks to Different Automated Testing Teams
The ability of the QA engineers typically determines the types of tests that are created. It’s critical to determine each team member’s experience and ability level and divide your automated testing efforts accordingly. For example, creating automated test scripts demands a thorough understanding of scripting languages.
Therefore, QA engineers who are familiar with the scripting language offered by the automated testing platform are required to complete these responsibilities.
Additionally, you ought to work together on your automated testing project with the other QA engineers in your division. Team testing is more effective at identifying flaws, and the correct automated testing technology enables you to collaborate on projects with several testers.
6. Create high-quality test data
Data-driven testing benefits greatly from high-quality test data. Usually kept in an external file, the information needs to be fed into input areas during an automated test.
A quality automated testing tool knows the contents of the data files and iterates over them in the automated test. Your automated tests become more reusable and simpler to maintain when external data is used. The data files can be readily expanded with fresh data to add additional testing situations without having to change the actual automated test.
Although creating test data for your automated tests is tedious, you should put some time and effort into producing well-structured data. Writing automated tests gets much simpler when good test data is available.
7. Create automated tests that can withstand changes to the user interface
Tests that are automated using scripts or keyword searches depend on the application being tested. Especially at the beginning, the application’s user interface may vary between builds. Future revisions of the application may break your automated testing, or they may have an impact on the test results.
The issue is that automated testing tools detect and find an object using many attributes. A testing tool may occasionally use location coordinates to locate the object. The automated test will fail if it cannot locate the item when it is run, such as when the control caption or its placement has changed.
You might have to substitute new names for old ones to correctly execute the automated test before executing the test against the updated application throughout the entire project.
You can make your automated tests resistant to these UI changes and ensure that they function without updating the test itself if you give each of your controls a distinct name. As a result, the automated testing tool can no longer locate the control by using location coordinates, which are unstable and prone to failure.
8. Utilize testing methods and aim for quick feedback
It’s a prevalent misperception that only manual testers use test procedures. However, in practice, they are also easily useful for test automation.
For instance, manual testing of APIs to evaluate their functionality and performance is typical. However, we can automate API calls by writing a global variable script.
Additionally, developers need to be certain that any code modifications haven’t hampered the functionality already in place. As a result, it’s critical to seek timely feedback to address issues as soon as they arise.
9. Run frequent tests and begin testing early
Frequent testing should be done right away when creating an automated test suite. The cost to fix defects is significantly lower when you start testing early than when you start testing later.
Additionally, creating and maintaining unit tests is cheap. The majority of automated testing consists of unit testing, which performs low-level inspections on an app.
The QA staff should be able to build test scripts if you’re utilizing proprietary technologies without any training or direction.
10. Improve test coverage monitoring
Ensure your tests cover all the various components of your application. Understanding what your tests have covered and what remains to be covered is made easier with the aid of test coverage monitoring. You can change or add test cases using this information.
Conversely, you can also spot test cases that don’t offer anything and improve your tests. Monitoring test coverage can be quite beneficial, especially when testing conditional statements. You can use it to spot problems early on. Consequently, test coverage techniques aid in raising the overall standard of testing.
11. Testing on Real Devices and Various Platforms
There are two things to consider:
- The application should support different systems and browsers.
- The application should support different scenarios.
The platform and browser that the end user will use are always mysteries. You can never be sure what platform or browser the end user will use.
Additionally, focusing on one market segment is bad for businesses. Therefore, it’s crucial to test your application across a variety of browser and platform combinations.
As developers typically stick to one (or a few) browsers or platforms when creating applications, this will help you find any holes you might have overlooked. You can automate browser testing concurrently with LambdaTest’s cloud-based Selenium Grid.
Selenium Grid allows you to run test cases simultaneously in different browsers.
Conclusion
It’s crucial to keep up with technological developments if you are considering automated testing for your business. Don’t be scared to put your strategies into action. Plan carefully and give different procedures the attention they deserve.
The QA team can save time and effort by using automation testing instead of performing regression tests. If done correctly, test automation is beneficial for the whole company.
You can improve your automated testing process by using these suggested best practices and employing a plethora of features offered by LambdaTest that enable you to test more quickly, save money, and release your products on time.
