Top Tips to Ensure Successful Software Test Automation

Software test automation is an integral part of any software development proves because it ensures that end product fulfills its purpose. However, there remain a lot of concerns about how test automation should be carried out in the best-possible manner. Any discussion on creating the desired test automation scenarios and tips should begin with throwing light on the general importance of software test automation in the very first place.
The Significance of Software Test Automation in Testing
A software product/application is often identified with certain bugs that need to be fixed. However, when it is fixed, there has to be some ways in which one should ensure that the previous bugs have not brought about new ones. Now, it is not practically feasible to manually test all the module functionality every time there is an addition of a new functionality. It is here that test automation comes to play. The process is extremely effective in terms of company cost, resources and turnaround time.
So, the importance of software test automation is pretty much established. Let us now look into the challenges involved in the same so that we can be aware of how to improve the process overcoming the possible obstacles.
Challenges Involved in Software Test Automation
Lack of Resources — The foremost challenge of software test automation is that it requires skilled resources that have through understanding, knowledge and expertise in executing the process with ease. If you are a business entrepreneur, you need to hire a dedicated team of automation testers or go for automation testing services offered by reputed organizations out there. The bottom line is that it is better not to think about conducting software test automation in the absence of skilled resources.
UI Automation can be Very Costly — Test automation for User Interface is challenging and often involves high costs. If the UI is changing extensively in particular, the costs associated with script maintenance will rise up without limit. In such cases, sticking to basic UI automation would be the ideal solution.
100% Automation is a Distant Dream — Not all areas of testing can be 100% automated. However, with performance testing, regression testing and load testing, there are chances of reaching 100% automation. On the other hand, manual testing is more preferred in areas like user interface, documentation, installation, compatibility and recovery.
While there are several risks and challenges, there are ways of mitigating them too. Here is a list of tips to ensure successful software test automation that pays off in the long run.
Software Test Automation Tips to Remember
While checking the load capacity of your application, make sure automating your load testing work for creating virtual users. While you are in the process of testing a web application, there might hundreds of other users interacting simultaneously with the application. Automated load testing ensures that the testing is done hassle-free the virtual users are created with ease.
Automate your testing work when you have a lot of frequently functional changes but when your GUI is also frozen at the same time. This becomes helpful in instances when you are testing an application with a frequently changing code. The number of testing reworks significantly reduces when there is automation going on in the background.
