Test automation is nothing but the automatic testing capability of intricate software so developers and coders can evaluate if there are any problems and bugs in the software.
It can also be understood as the synopsis of why companies rely on skilled coders, developers and engineers to run most of the knowledge on software technology.
As per the present trend, thanks to constant change and development in digitization, our lives are improving in most areas. The way we work is additionally changed.
For instance, we access our bank online, we do shopping online, we order food online, and a lot of things. We believe software and systems.
What if these systems end up to have errors and defective. We all know that one small bug shows an enormous impact on business in terms of monetary loss and goodwill.
To deliver a top quality product, you have to test within the Software Development Process.
Some of the explanations why testing turns out to be a really integral and significant part of the sector of data technology are as follows.
- Cost-effectiveness
- Customer Satisfaction
- Security
- Product Quality
There are two sorts of testing within the world of software—automatic and manual.
Some sorts of manual testing like discovery testing and usefulness testing, are invaluable.
You’ll do other forms of testing—like regression testing and functional testing—manually, but it’s a reasonably wasteful practice for humans to go along during an equivalent thing over and over again .
It’s these repetitive tests that allow companies to check automation.
Test automation is the practice of running tests automatically, managing test data, and in also utilizing results to enhance software quality. It’s primarily a top quality assurance measure, but its activities involve the commitment of the whole software production team. From business analysts to developers and DevOps engineers, getting the foremost out of test automation takes the inclusion of everyone.
This post will offer you a high-level understanding of what test automation is all about. There are all types of tests, but not all should be automated; therefore, let’s start with general criteria for test automation.
Criteria for Automation
A test must meet some criteria so as to be automated—otherwise.
One major goal of automation is to save lots of time, effort, and money. Here are some general criteria for test automation. These are starting points, mind you. Your criteria may differ counting on your circumstances.
Repeatable
The test must be repeatable. There’s no sense in automating a test which will only be run once. A repeatable test has the subsequent two steps:
- Execute the function and measure the result.
- Clean up the info and environment.
In the start of automation, we would like to be ready to put the environment into a uniform state. In other words, if we’ve a test for attempting to feature an existing user, we’d like to form sure the user exists before performing the test. Once the test is complete, the environment should be returned to the bottom state.
Determinant
When a function is determinant, it means the result is that the same whenever it’s run with an equivalent input. an equivalent is true of tests which will be automated. for instance , say we would like to check an addition function. If I’m not wrong most of us know that 1 + 1 = 2 and 394.19 + 5.81 = 400.00. Addition may be a determinant function.
Software, on the opposite hand, may use such a high number of variable inputs that it’s difficult to possess an equivalent result over time. Some variables may even be random, which can make it difficult to work out the precise outcome. Software design can catch up on this by allowing test inputs through a test harness.
Other features of an application could also be additive; for example, creating a replacement user would increase the amount of users.
Once we add a user we all know that the amount of users should only grow by one. Isolation can prevent this type of false positive.
No opinions
You cannot automate matters of opinion. This is where usability testing, beta testing, and all really shine.
Types of Automated Tests
There are numerous sorts of tests, many of which may be automated, that we can’t really get all of them into one post. But here are enough to offer you an honest start line .
Code Analysis
There are literally many various sorts of code analysis tools, including static analysis and dynamic analysis.
A bunch of these tests search for security flaws, others check for style and form.
Other than configuring rules and keeping the tools up so far , there isn’t much test writing to try to execute with these automated tests.
Unit Tests
You can also automate a unit test suite. Unit tests are designed to check one function, or unit, of operation in isolation.
They typically run on a build server. These tests don’t depend upon databases, external APIs, or file storage.
The test has to be fast and are designed to check the code only, not the external dependencies.
Integration Tests
Integration tests are a special topic when it involves automation. Since an integration test sometimes called end-to-end tests needs to interact with external dependencies, they’re more complicated to line up. Often, it’s best to make fake external resources, especially when handling resources beyond your control.
If you, for instance , have a logistics app that depends on an internet service from a vendor, your test may fail unexpectedly if the vendor’s service is down. Does this mean your app is broken? it’d , but you ought to have enough control over the whole test environment to make each scenario explicitly. Never depend upon an external factor to work out the result of your test scenario.
Automated Acceptance Tests
There are several practices today that use automated acceptance tests (AAT), but they’re basically doing an equivalent thing.
Behavior-driven development (BDD) and automatic acceptance test-driven development (AATDD) are similar.
They both follow an equivalent practice of making the acceptance test before the feature is developed.
In the end, the automated acceptance test runs to work out if the feature delivers what’s been requested.
Therefore, it’s critical for developers, the business, and QA to write down these tests together.
They carry out regression tests within the future, and that they make sure that the feature holds up to what’s expected.
Performance Tests
Many sorts of performance tests exist, but all of them test some aspect of an application’s performance. Will it delay to extreme pressure? Are we testing the system for top heat? Is it simple reaction time under load we’re after? How about scalability?
Sometimes these tests require emulating a huge number of users. During this case, it’s important to possess an environment that’s capable of performing considering a huge number of users. Cloud resources are available to assist with this type of testing, but it’s possible to use on-premises resources aswell.
Smoke Tests
What’s a smoke test? A smoke test is to make sure that each one services and dependencies are up and running. It are often run as a part of an automatic deployment or triggered through a manual step.
General Test Automation Process
Now that we’ve seen criteria for automation and enough sorts of automated tests to possess, here’s the overall process of test automation. There are three major steps to check automation: prepare, take action, report results.
Prepare
As we’ve seen, most tests require the environment to be during a certain state before an action takes place.
A typical scenario needs some setup. Either the info will really need to be manipulated or the appliance be put into a selected state or both!
Take Action
Once the state and/or environment are within the predefined state, it’s time to require action! The driver will run the test, either through calling an application’s API or interface or by running the code directly.
Report Results
A test automation system will record and report results. These results may are available variety of various formats and should even create problem tickets or bugs during a work tracking system. the essential result, however, may be a pass or fail. Usually, there’s a green or red indicator for every test scenario to point pass or fail.
Sometimes, tests are inconclusive or don’t run some reason. This log helps them hunt the difficulties. Ideally, they’ll be ready to replay the scenario once they’ve put a fix.
The Bottom Line
Automated tests help speed things up. But not all testing are often automated. There’s definitely an investment involved. With numerous sorts of tests, it’s important that you simply get the proper mix. The test pyramid may be a simple rule of thumb to get this right.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, test automation is just the next step for teams that are getting overwhelmed by the burden of repeating equivalent manual tests that need to be automated.