written in front
Automated testing has become one of the most widely adopted techniques in the software testing process, which helps to speed up the product delivery process. But in many enterprises, due to some misunderstandings, the top management is often hesitant to implement automated testing in their projects. Now you can even find testers questioning the ROI in test automation on some automated testing related forums. Is automated testing worth our effort? The answer is naturally yes. Automated testing can not only improve the reliability of the application, but also speed up the testing process, improve test coverage, and provide testers with confidence to better test product quality. However, the harsh reality is that the benefits of automated testing are not fully realized in most cases. Instead, there are many misconceptions surrounding automated testing that some businesses still insist on using manual testing.
What is automated testing
Defining automated tests is very easy, the process of running test cases again and again without manual execution is called automated testing. The difference from manual testing is that automated testing uses automated testing tools to execute test scripts.
Classification of automated testing
To know that not every stage of software testing can be automated testing, automated testing is divided into the following categories.
unit automation testing
Unit tests are usually performed by developers, and these tests are written to test the code level, looking for bugs in functions and methods. In some companies, automated unit testing is the responsibility of developers, and companies tend to hire dedicated automated testing resources to be responsible for testing. Testers write unit tests to break production code so that they can test production code in multiple ways. With unit automation testing, it is easier to verify the functionality of each component of your application. And, if the unit tests fail, it means the code being pushed to production is wrong too. There are many frameworks for unit automation testing that can help developers deliver better software. Including NUnit, Junit, Unit, js, QUnit, etc. Microsoft also provides its own unit testing framework MSTest, which can use C# for Selenium automated testing.
Interface automated testing
Interface automation testing can help testers understand the interface of the application more clearly. Now interface automation testing has become more and more popular in enterprises. In interface automation testing, the business layer of the application is verified by verifying the various interface requests and responses contained in the application. However, in interface automation testing, it is the testing that does not include the graphical user interface of the application. Through interface automation testing, the functionality, compliance and security issues of the application can be tested, and if it is a web application, the security of "request and response" will be verified together.
GUI (Graphical User Interface) Automated Testing
GUI automated testing is the most challenging part of automated testing because the application's GUI changes frequently. However, GUI testing is also the most critical part of the whole process, because GUI automation testing simulates the same actions a user would perform on a user interface with a mouse and keyboard. There are many GUI testing tools on the market, such as Selenium, Microsoft's Coded UI and so on.
In addition to the above automated tests, there are some other tests that can also be automated, such as:
- Performance testing and quality control
- Regression Testing
- Integration Testing
- UI testing and smoke testing
- Security Testing and Acceptance Testing
- Cross Browser Compatibility Testing
Misconceptions about automated testing
Since the beginning of automated testing, let us have some misconceptions about automated testing.
Misconception 1, automated testing will replace manual testing
The biggest misconception is that automated testing will completely replace manual testing, but this is not true. Automated testing can help us better improve the testing process and improve efficiency. The essence of improving efficiency is the ratio of input to output. Therefore, in test scenarios with relatively little input and output, automated testing will never replace manual labor. For example, can the game of eating chicken be automated? Can. But it may require a lot of input, and the final output may not be very good. Therefore, the advantage of using automated testing is that it can quickly test repetitive, time-consuming tests so that we can focus on the above-mentioned test scenarios and functions.
Misconception 2, Everything can be automated using automation
Many people think that it is possible to automate all test cases, but the truth is that we will never be able to automate 100% of the test cases because we will never be able to fully test the application. Moreover, in some scenarios, manual testing is more appropriate than automated testing, so 100% automated testing does not make sense. For example, the scenario of sending SMS verification code or puzzle completion verification code, or the test scenario involving strong interaction and usability.
Misunderstanding 3, the cost of automated testing is too high
Many people think that automated testing requires higher costs. The truth is, the upfront cost of automated testing can be higher, but it should be considered a long-term investment. Configuring an automated testing environment and purchasing automation tools does require some investment. However, once these are in place, there is no need to invest too much money in them. In the next test, automated testing can provide a strong return on investment. Of course, the premise of the return on investment is that the number of executions of the automated test cases we created is greater than a certain value. Therefore, before implementing automated testing, we'd better analyze Take a look at our ROI.
write at the end
Automated testing is rapidly changing the software development industry as it provides an efficient way of developing and testing. It does require less human intervention, but it can never completely replace manual testing.
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