Automation Testing

As we are moving towards rapid development cycles and quicker deliveries to market, driven through agile methodology, performing manual testing seems time-consuming, repetitive, and prone to human errors. But transitioning from manual to automation is the need of the hour. At first, the idea of starting automation testing from scratch may seem intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Starting From Scratch

The decision to implement automation testing from scratch should be based on the current issues you face while testing your application and not merely because your team or you were fascinated by the word automation. Taking the right decision at the right time is more important for better quality achievement and ROI.

Ready to begin? Some keynotes to help you Get Started With Automation Testing.

Benefits of Automation Testing

Truth be told, you can’t catch every bug! So you deploy a quick fix post your migration to production, and then regression testing comes into play. But it is very time-consuming. In such scenarios, you will find yourself stuck in a vicious cycle where your deployment window will continue to grow narrow. How do we cope with such scenarios? The answer would be automation testing.

Let’s look at the major Benefits Of Automation Testing for a successful release.

Guide to Automation Testing

It’s not enough to determine when to automate and when not to. For a good automation strategy, It is equally important to determine the guidelines, reporting, processes, and workflows involved in the test execution environment. Your test automation framework matters too.

In today’s world, testing can not be efficient without automation. You need automation to avoid repetitive work, ensuring that the time from development to deployment is reduced with good quality. In order to achieve these, you need good, quality automation tests, not just automation tests.

Writing Your First Script

You need tests that are reliable, robust, easy to code, debug, scale, and can run in parallel in a distributed environment. Selenium is an open-source testing tool that serves the need for cost-effective automation testing. To begin with, quickly start automating a GUI flow using Selenium & Python.

Learn how to write your First Automation Script in under 20 minutes!

Automation Test Prioritization

Automating each and every test suite might not be feasible in some situations. Economic and technological constraints do not allow each and every test suite to be automated. Hence, your team needs to filter out the cases, which should be automated.

Learn how to decide What Should Be Automated when you can’t test everything.

Test Automation Pyramid

Mike Cohn’s concept of ‘Agile Test Automation Pyramid’ can be instrumental in building a sound strategy for implementing automated software testing. ‘Agile test automation pyramid’ is one of the ideal mechanisms to signify the difference between traditional software testing and testing for ‘iterative development.’

Learn how agile teams use the Test Automation Pyramid.

Automation Testing Life Cycle

When it comes to automation testing, many believe that it is just a part of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), but to achieve the best results with automation testing, one must follow the complete cycle of automation testing, known as Automation Testing Life Cycle.

Automation testing is an inclusive term that can mean many different things. It's easy to assume that all automated testing types are the same, but this isn't the case. Automation testing means using software to replace or replicate a human action or behavior. This practice can be applied across all stages of software development: design, development, and deployment.

Automated Browser Testing

Cross browser testing is vital for ensuring that the best experience is provided to the users. However, there are various challenges associated with cross browser testing, especially if you plan to set up a local infrastructure to execute the tests. Automated browser testing is a potential solution to the problem mentioned above.

Learn how to get started with Automated Browser Testing.

Automated Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing is the testing stage performed after the product has undergone thorough unit testing and service integration testing. In its essence, it is also the final integration testing, the testing stage where you integrate the whole solution to its final ready-to-ship stage.

Check out our blog on Automating Acceptance Tests for mobile apps.

Automated Screenshot Testing

Suppose you are running an automation test. How can you be sure that the webpage you have opened is the right one? How can you be sure that there was no error in the layout of the webpage? The solution, take automated screenshots of pages in the middle of screenshots as proof that your page is working fine.

This blog dives into taking Automated Screenshots Using Selenium.

Automated Usability Testing

Usability testing is the testing of a website or an application for its usability. One might consider Usability as an ‘ease of use’ of any website or product, but it’s not limited to just that. As per ISO, one might think of usability as “The extent to which you can use a product to achieve goals effectively, efficiently, and with proper satisfaction in a certain context of the use of a product.”

Learn more about Usability Testing and why you need it.

Automated End-To-End Testing

The technical definition of end-to-end testing is – a type of testing to ensure that the behavioral flow of an application works as expected by performing complete, thorough testing, from the beginning to end of the product-user interaction to realize any dependency or flaw in the workflow of the application.

This blog entails everything that you need to know about End-To-End Testing.

Automated Regression Testing

Once you develop and add a feature, you need to perform testing on all new and old features. With every new build, there is a need to make sure that the new addition or improvement in the code hasn’t compromised the functionality of existing features.

Learn how to build a Regression Testing Strategy for Agile teams.

Automated Shift-Left Testing

With the evolution of different software models, e.g., Agile model, Incremental model, Spiral model, etc., people realized the importance of software testing. There were a significant number of risks involved by keeping ‘testing as a one-off’ activity since it had a lot of implications on the project deadlines and the cost.

Here’s how Shift-Left Testing can help your product quality.

Automated Continuous Testing

To cope with RAD(Rapid Application Development), we have witnessed numerous new approaches such as CI/CD, DevOps, and Shift left testing to build, develop and optimize software delivery. Even so, trying to maintain both quality and speed is a real challenge, and testing methodologies can either aid or downshift this whole acceleration process.

Learn how to implement Continuous Testing in DevOps like a pro.

Automated Functional Testing

Functional testing is executed to ensure that the web application’s performance is in accordance with the functional requirements or its specifications. You test all the functions in a web application to ensure that the requirements are satisfied by the web application.

Check out our blog to learn what is Functional Testing and how it helps.

Codeless Automation Testing

In the current agile development cycle, where the development and release cycle involves releasing a set of features and extending those sets in iterated releases, testing has become even more complicated. And that’s where codeless testing comes into place.

Learn how Codeless Automation Testing is the future.

Automation Testing on Cloud

Cloud testing is primarily used for simulating testing environments over the cloud. In this cloud testing tutorial, we take a deep-dive into the fundamentals and types of cloud testing. The various types of cloud testing processes allow you to test software and hardware without the usual constraints of a limited budget, geographical issues, multiple test cases, costs running high per test, etc.

Find everything you need to know about Cloud Testing.

Automated Parallel Testing

Parallel testing in Selenium is a process where you run the same tests simultaneously in different environments. The primary purpose of executing tests in parallel is to reduce the overall time and efforts of automated browser testing while ensuring a quality product by using a Selenium Grid.

Python Testing Frameworks

Python is the fastest-growing programming language in 2020, as per the Developer Survey by StackOverflow. In the overall ranking, Python ranks the 3rd most loved language. One of the several reasons for the popularity of Python is the extensive support of test automation frameworks.

Check out the list of top Python Testing Frameworks.

Java Testing Frameworks

Java unit testing frameworks provide programmers with a standardized, sophisticated, and extensible means to build a web application or any other software. It comprises a massive collection of packages that supply pre-written code.

Check out the list of the top 10 Java Testing Frameworks.

PHP Testing Frameworks

Web testing, in particular, has a plethora of frameworks, and selecting a framework that suits your needs depends on your language of choice. Amongst all server-side programming languages, 80% of websites use PHP, and the right framework can make the job easier.

Check out this blog if you need help in choosing the best PHP Testing Frameworks.

JavaScript Testing Frameworks

With the increasing demand for automation testing, JavaScript testing frameworks have emerged for fulfilling different purposes. Some are fit for unit testing, while others are made for E2E(End-to-End) testing. It is no wonder that automation testers have become pretty fond of these JavaScript testing frameworks throughout the globe.

This blog highlights the top JavaScript Testing Frameworks to make testing easier.

C# Testing Frameworks

With the ever-increasing number of languages and frameworks, it’s quite easy to get lost and confused in this huge sea of all these frameworks. Popular languages like C# provide us with many frameworks, and it’s quite essential to know which particular framework would be best suited for our needs.

Explore the top Selenium Test Automation Frameworks in C# and find your perfect match.

Unit Testing Frameworks

In every software development life cycle (SDLC), unit testing is considered the first testing level, which is performed before integration testing. To automate unit testing, developers need a reliable and secure testing framework to test all components of the web app with ease.

Product teams are hesitant to release a product hastily. Usually, when the process is manual, exhaustive testing is a part of the SDLC. Depending on the testing team’s size, the process can take a few days to many weeks. That’s where Selenium comes in.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is one of the most renowned open-source test automation frameworks. Selenium allows test automation of web-apps or websites across different browsers & operating systems. Using the Selenium framework, testers can deliver test cycles faster by automating repeated test cases.

Check out our Selenium Tutorial to learn more about it.

Challenges in Selenium Automation

Selenium is open source and the core component of the selenium framework in Selenium WebDriver. Though Selenium makes a website or web-app testing simple, there are a fair number of challenges in Selenium automation that developers face while using the framework.

Have a look at some of the most common challenges faced in Selenium Automation.

Maintaining Your Selenium Test Automation

Most people assume that the computer is going to accomplish all the testing for them! They also end up thinking that they can automate the entire product. We’re not saying they can’t, but with complete automation comes to the responsibility of its maintenance.

This blog talks about the perfect approach to maintain your Selenium Test Automation.

Using Build Automation Tools

Being an automation tester, we do realize that in a release cycle, time is always of the essence.! Selenium test automation helps to save us a considerable amount of time in our test cycles. However, it is pivotal to note the way through which you are executing your Selenium testing scripts.

Let us understand why every automation tester needs a build management tool for Selenium Testing.

Best Practices For Selenium Test Automation

In recent years, you’d hardly see an organization that had not transitioned to Selenium test automation. After all, with quick feedback on new features, who’d want to miss out on automated browser testing. Even then, a few testers complain of the automation tests being unstable and unreliable. Are they following the best practices?

As the name suggests, automation testing means to automate a process and involves less human intervention. For large and fast development operations and to make sure that the testing team does not lag behind, it becomes imperative to implement Automation Testing.

Automation & DevOps

There are two wheels in any software development organization: Development and Operations. They both go hand in hand, and for the smooth running of both processes, it’s necessary that they run in complete sync and coordination.

Read on to know how automation is a Backbone To DevOps.

Automation & Agile

There have been continuous advancements in Software development technologies. When talking about software development methods, one can simply not ignore the role testing plays in software development. Therefore, to maintain pace with the latest software development technologies, testing needs to be done faster than development.

Check out why Automation Testing is important in Agile Development.

Automation & Machine Learning

Machine Learning in test automation can help save the manual labor of writing test cases. Furthermore, test cases are brittle that when something goes wrong, a framework is most likely to either drop the testing at that point or skip some steps, resulting in a wrong / failed result. That’s where ML comes to the rescue.

Learn how Machine Learning is useful for automation testing.

Automation & CI/CD

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery(CI/CD) are the processes where your development team involves frequent code changes that are pushed in the main branch while ensuring that it does not impact any changes made by developers working parallelly. Its aim is to reduce the chance of defects and conflicts during the integration of the complete project.

Read on to know more about the process of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.

Automation & QAOps

QAOps aims to improve the software delivery process, making it faster and stable without compromising your website or web application quality. QAOps solves the most common disputes that persist between the testing team and Quality Assurance teams.

We all know that test automation can work wonders for our business. It can reduce cost, save time and effort, get quicker feedback, etc., thereby directly contributing to increased productivity and maximization of profits. But to get good results from automation testing, you need to avoid mistakes as they can result in wastage of automation efforts.

Why Test Automation Fails?

No matter what type of product you have, it will evolve with time. New features will be added in an incremental phase; some features might also require changes in the User Interface (UI). To make your test automation strategy successful, you have to avoid some common pitfalls & failures.

Learn more about the Common Problems with Automation Testing that you need to avoid./p>

Common Challenges Faced During Automation

Considering the huge number of competitors for every product, widespread adoption of Agile development demands automation everywhere in the IT world – to reach the pinnacle stage. Before deploying automation into their organization, you must also address the common challenges.

Methods must be devised and implemented to make the software testing life cycle more efficient along fast-paced.

Test Management Strategy

Speed is the one thing that is prioritized by customers worldwide. An effective test management strategy must be followed to fast-track testing flawlessly, resulting in timely delivery of the product.

This blog discusses why it is necessary to have a Test Management Strategy in your current project.

Setting Goals For Your Test Department

One of the initial challenges faced by a QA lead or a manager in any department, from product planning to development & testing, revolves around figuring the team’s right composition. The composition would depend on multiple factors like the overall budget, tentative timelines, planned dates to go live, etc.

Check out our blog on how professional QA Leads set goals for a test department.

Doing More Than Just Testing

There are other ways through which you can add more value to your product’s SDLC, ways other than performing functional testing. As a tester, these practices could help your team accelerate faster with a rigid CI/CD pipeline of your web application.

Can a project ever be successful if you keep all your hopes on a single entity? Of course not! Similarly, the development or testing team alone is not enough to help a company soar. When speaking of agile automation, there is no them or we. It’s an entire team working towards making the product as flawless as possible.

Tips for Newbie Automation Testers

Simply speaking, if you are starting your career in test automation, then you have got a lot to learn before you automate end-to-end testing of your web application. Don’t worry though, the learning you gain is worth the trouble.

Check out our infographic for the top tips to consider as a Newbie Automation Tester.

Writing Better Automation Code

As you start on with automation, you may come across various approaches, techniques, frameworks, and tools you may incorporate in your automation code. Sometimes such versatility leads to greater complexity in code than providing better flexibility or better means of resolving issues.

This blog highlights the silver lines one should acquire to write Better Automation Code.

Writing Effective Test Cases

So you have been writing test cases for quite some time but still looking for ways to optimize your testing effort. After all, test cases are the basis of your research on any software product, and you need the most effective ones for streamlining automation.

Let us jot down the lessons for Writing Top-Notch Effective Test Cases.

Speed Up Your Test Cycles

Evaluating a system and its components to check whether they satisfy the end-user requirements or not is as important as developing the system itself. However, the challenge is, in today’s fast-paced agile development environment, the process must be completed in a small-time period as possible.

Check out our blog for the top ways to Speed Up Your Testing Cycles.

Best Practices For Efficient Test Automation

‘One size fits all’ approach does not apply to test automation. Though there are no thumb rules for the design and development of scalable automation tests, there are certain principles that you must follow when writing tests using the Selenium framework.