Recently, I have received many private messages from friends asking questions, and the most frequently asked question is "Is learning automated testing so important?".
My answer is yes - very important.
I believe that many students have questions like this, for example: "It seems that automation is not used in daily work?", "It seems that manual work is OK", "Why do we need to learn automation?" and so on...
In fact, this is not the case. The following will discuss the necessity of learning automated testing from multiple dimensions.
What is automated testing
First of all, automated testing is a software testing method and a testing method compared to manual testing. Among them, testers use 测试工具or 编程语言编写脚本to perform tests. Automate the testing process by simulating user behavior, executing test cases, checking system behavior, and generating test reports.
Manual testing is to improve software quality, while automated testing is to improve software quality while improving testing efficiency (better, faster, more time-saving, faster and more economical, cost reduction and efficiency improvement). The ultimate goal of both is the same , all serve software quality.
Compared with manual testing, automated testing can quickly execute a large number of test cases and maintain consistency when executing test cases repeatedly. In addition, automated testing can also help testers quickly discover and solve code defects, improving software quality and reliability.
Common automated testing tools include Selenium, Appium, Robot Framework, JUnit, TestNG, etc. These tools can be used for various types of software testing such as web applications, mobile applications, desktop applications, etc.
A must for a salary increase
The most important thing about learning automated testing is the temptation of a salary increase (do you work not for salary, but for love?), or in other words, if you don't know automated testing, it is difficult to find a testing position in the current market. As the industry becomes more and more involved, the requirements for testing positions are also increasing. Words such as automation and performance will appear in job recruitment requirements, so it is also an indispensable tool for our job-hopping interviews, promotions and salary increases.
Although some companies use automated testing, the actual proportion of automation is very small, and some even do not use it at all. However, automation will definitely be asked during interviews, which is the so-called "interviews build rockets, and work tightens screws."
Career Development
From the perspective of career development, testing is nothing more than two routes, the technical route and the management route. The technical route is generally functional testing, automated testing, test development, and test architects, and the management route is generally test engineers, test team leaders, and test managers. , Test Director.
If you have been testing for many years, mastering automated testing skills is essential. For junior testing, although more attention is paid to mastering basic testing skills, being able to program and automate will be a good bonus, especially since it is more difficult to find a job this year than in previous years. Therefore, being able to automate testing is also its core competitiveness.
Some people say, if I want to take the management route, do I not need to learn automated testing? Although management positions are more about controlling the overall project and require strong communication, organization and coordination skills, it does not mean that they do not understand technology. It is difficult to imagine how a manager who does not understand technology can let his subordinates Convinced, when an automation project or test platform project needs to be developed, how to assign tasks to subordinates in a reasonable and scientific way? In my opinion, even if you have decided to take the management route, you should not abandon technology prematurely. You should have sufficient technical accumulation. After all, testing is a technical position, and in the Internet industry, everyone strongly promotes technology. It can be said that technology is In an industry where the industry is king, it may be difficult for a manager who doesn’t understand technology to convince the public.
Improve work efficiency
Solve pain points at work to improve work efficiency.
What are pain points?
Pain points refer to problems, challenges, or difficulties encountered in the work process that may affect the efficiency, quality, or satisfaction of the work. These pain points may be caused by the nature of the job itself, the work environment, interpersonal relationships, management and other factors.
For test engineers, pain points may be:
- Time pressure: Test engineers may need to complete testing tasks within a specified time. However, due to changes and delays that often occur in software development, test engineers may need to complete a large amount of testing work within a limited time.
- Resource limitations: Test engineers may need to use various tools and software to perform testing tasks, but due to resource constraints, such as limited hardware, software licensing, or testing environments, test engineers may need to constantly find solutions to meet testing needs.
- Repetition and monotony: Test engineers may need to execute a large number of repeated test cases, which can cause test engineers to feel monotonous and boring, thus affecting the quality of testing. In addition, since test tasks usually need to be performed in multiple environments, test engineers may need to execute the same test cases in various test scenarios, which may increase the test engineer's workload and time.
So, what pain points can automated testing solve?
For example:
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Construct test data
Some businesses need to prepare pre-conditions before testing, and the pre-operation process is long, and manual operations on the page are time-consuming and laborious. At this time, you can use automated scripts to initialize the data (such as adjusting interface creation data, interface response time Generally, it is at the second level, or even at the millisecond level, which can complete data initialization faster than page operations); if a certain requirement requires a large amount of data for testing, you can use the automation tool Jmeter or Python/Java script to create data in a loop; if you want To create some fake data that looks real, you can also use the Faker library
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Interface automated testing
Combined with the company's business, implement an automated interface testing framework covering most interfaces of the company's system. Run it before going online so that testers can find problems immediately and submit them to developers for repair and resolution, reducing the online bug rate.
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UI automated testing
For some functions that are verified on the front end and cannot be returned through the interface, and are the main functions, UI automation can be implemented.
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Extreme testing operations
On the front-end page, if you need to test a quick click on a button, which is difficult to achieve manually, you can use UI automation to implement it; on the back-end interface, if you need to test repeated calls and send requests with the same parameters, you can use concurrency tools such as Jmeter.
In short, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. You must learn to plan ahead. If you want to go further in the testing position, then mastering automated testing is a must. Regarding how to advance from manual testing to automated testing, the following is This resource should help you a lot!
The above content should be the most comprehensive and complete preparation warehouse for software testing friends. In order to better organize each module, I also referred to many high-quality blog posts and projects on the Internet, trying not to miss any knowledge point. , many friends relied on these contents to review and got offers from major manufacturers such as BATJ. This warehouse has also helped many software testing learners, and I hope it can help you too.
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