Automation testing is the application of tools and technology to testing software with the goal of reducing testing efforts, delivering capability faster and more affordably. It helps in building better quality software with less effort. Automation Testing is one of the best methods to ensure that the newer app version does not hinder the existing functionality of the app or create a new bug. Automation Testing ensures that you can market your product in a lesser time with less risk of human error.
1) It reduces human error when operating the same operations each time.
2) Automating the testing is significantly more durable than manual testing, as it does not consume more time like manual testing.
3) We can reuse the same test scripts for different versions of the application if needed.
4) Gives immediate feedback to developer’s detection defects early in turn saving cost.
Benefits of Automation Testing
1) Automated Testing Saves Time and Money
Software tests must be repeated often during development cycles to ensure quality. Every time source code is modified software tests should be repeated. For each release of the software it may be tested on all supported operating systems and hardware configurations. Manually repeating these tests is costly and time consuming. Once created, automated tests can be run over and over again at no additional cost and they are much faster than manual tests. Automated software testing can reduce the time to run repetitive tests from days to hours. A time savings that translates directly into cost savings.
2) Reduced Regression Testing Cost
Automated testing is more cost-effective than manual. Manual testing doesn’t allow you to run repetitive tests. In fact, the cost of testing your application manually rises as time goes. By contrast, automated testing is cheaper in the long-term perspective, because once you’ve created your test scripts, you can reuse them 24/7 without any additional cost. True, the initial adoption of automaton may be somewhat expensive, but it will pay off quickly.
3) Higher Test Coverage
Manual testing puts limits on how many tests you can verify. Automation allows you to spend time writing new tests and adding them to your automated test suite. This increases the test coverage for your product, so more features are properly tested resulting in a higher quality application.
Also, automated testing allows developers to write more in-depth tests that test complex use cases. Lengthy tests that are often avoided during manual testing can be run unattended.
4) Better Insights
Automated testing provides better insights than manual testing when some tests fail. Automated software testing not only gives insights into the application but also shows you the memory contents, data tables, file contents, and other internal program states. This helps developers determine what’s gone wrong.
5) Automated Testing Provides More Features
Test automation helps you to automate tests to determine the stability of your build. Often, smoke testing is used to validate stability. However, smoke testing is slow and requires manual input from the testing engineer such as setting up databases with test data.
6) Eliminate Human Error
Manual testing opens the opportunity for humans to make mistakes. Especially for complex scenarios, it makes sense to use test automation to avoid mistakes. You can still make mistakes, even with test automation. However, the rate of mistakes is significantly lower when using test automation for your test suite.
7) Improves Accuracy
Even the most conscientious tester will make mistakes during monotonous manual testing. Automated tests perform the same steps precisely every time they are executed and never forget to record detailed results. Testers freed from repetitive manual tests have more time to create new automated software tests and deal with complex features.
List of Top 10 Best Automation Testing Tools in 2021
1. Selenium:- It is the #1 automation testing tool for all web application testing tools. Selenium can be executed in multiple browsers and Operating systems. It is compatible with several programming languages and automation testing frameworks.
2. Appium :- Appium is one of the open-source automated testing tools primarily intended for mobile applications. It backs automation of native, hybrid, and mobile web applications built for iOS and Android.
3. TestComplete :- Powerful and easy-to-use functional test automation tool from SmartBear.
3. Cucumber :- Cucumber is an open-source tool that is designed over the concept of BDD (Behavior-driven development). It is used to perform automated acceptance testing by running the examples that best describe the behaviour of the application. It gets you a single up-to-date living document that is having both specification and test documentation.
4. Katalon Studio :- It is an automation testing tool that supports both web and mobile app development environments.
5. TestProject :- TestProject is a free end-to-end test automation platform for web, mobile, and API testing.
6. Cypress :- Cypress is a free and open source automation tool, MIT-licensed and written in JavaScript. Cypress provides you a visual interface to indicate what all tests and which all commands are running, passed, or failed.
7. IBM RFT:- This tool is primarily intended for automated functional testing & regression testing.It also allows you to perform data-driven and GUI testing. The automated testing in RFT is based upon script assure technology which highly improves the efficiency of testing and provides easy script maintenance.
8. HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT) :- Unified Functional Testing (UFT) tool given by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is one of the best automation testing software for functional testing. It was previously known as QuickTest Professional (QTP). It brings developers & testers coming together under one umbrella and provides high-quality automation testing solutions. It makes functional testing less complex and cost friendly.
9. Ranorex:- Ranorex Studio, an all-in-one tool for desktop, web, and mobile application testing. It is easy for beginners with a codeless click-and-go interface, but powerful for automation experts with a full IDE.
10. Kobiton :- Kobiton is a mobile testing platform that accelerates delivery and testing of mobile apps by offering manual and automated testing on real devices, in the cloud or on-premise.
About the Author
Ranjan Kumar Singh is an Automation Test Engineer having 5+ years of experience in the Information Technology and Services Industry. Over the years, he had worked on multiple Automation tools in different Domains. He is a keen observer on the latest developments and future of testing automation.