There are several situations when automated testing is beneficial. In general, you should automate testing for projects with these characteristics:

• Large scope and critical specifications
• Frequent testing of the same areas
• Requirements are stable and do not change frequently
• Need for assessment of the application for load and performance with virtual users

The Test Automation Process

In order to automate testing processes, teams use software tools to write scripts. The following is an overview of the automation process:

• Identify the areas within software that need testing
• Select the appropriate automation tool
• Write test scripts
• Develop test suits
• Execute test scripts
• Create a result report
• Identify any potential bugs or performance issues

Test Automation Tools

There is a wide variety of QA testing tools that software teams can use to build and execute automated tests. The following tools in particular make the automation process for web applications easier.

• Selenium: This tool is a portable software testing framework that provides a record/playback tool that allows teams to author tests without learning a scripting language. It provides a test domain-specific language to write tests in a variety of popular coding languages. Using Selenium, tests can be run for most web browsers. Selenium is open source.
• Rational Function Tester: The Rational Software division of IBM created Rational Function Tester. This tool allows users to create tests that simulate the actions of a human tester. This tool is primarily used by quality assurance teams.
• Testing Anywhere: This software allows developers to test applications, web sites, objects, controls and more. It is produced by Automation Anywhere, Inc. and can also test GUI front-ends.
• HP LoadRunner: Hewlett-Packard designed this tool, which can be used to test applications for system behavior and performance under load. It is able to simulate a large number of users interacting with the application software at the same time. It records and analyzes performance by simulating this user activity.
• SoapUI: This tool is open-source, created for service-oriented architectures (SOA) and representational state transfers (REST). It can test web service inspection, development, simulation, functional testing, load and compliance testing, and more. It is built entirely on the Java platform.

Benefits of Test Automation

Automated testing is an ideal way of ensuring that new versions of an application don’t introduce bugs or performance issues. It allows development teams to complete projects more quickly because they can quickly verify functionality after each change.  And apart from regression testing, automation can be used to test an application for load, performance and stress. This increases test coverage, improves accuracy and can be cheaper and more efficient than manual testing.

Scenarios which require Automation

The above scenario is not the only case when you will need automation testing. There are several situations, which cannot be tested manually.

For Example,

1. Comparing two images pixel by pixel.
2. Comparing two spreadsheets containing thousands of rows and columns.
3. Testing an application under the load of 100,000 users.
4. Performance Benchmarks.

Automation Testing:

• Is the testing which is done programmatically.
• Uses the tool to control the execution of tests.
• Compares expected outcomes with the actual outcomes (Assertions).
• Can automate some repetitive but necessary tasks (E.g. Your regression test cases).
• Can automate some tasks which are difficult to do manually (E.g. Load testing scenarios).
• Scripts can run quickly and repeatedly.
• Is cost effective in the long run.

Here, Automation is explained in simple terms, but that doesn’t mean that it is always simple to do. There are challenges, risks and many other obstacles involved in it. There are numerous ways by which test automation can go wrong, but if all goes well, then the benefits of test automation are really huge.

Benefits of automation testing 

Automated testing can boost a QA team’s efficiency. Some benefits include higher accuracy as well as better reporting capabilities, coverage, resource efficiency, bug detection and reusability

When a software tester manually checks a system, he can make a mistake, especially when an application contains hundreds or more of lines of code. Automation helps the QA team avoid these application testing mistakes and executes checks in a faster timeframe than a person.

Some test automation tools have reporting capabilities that log each test script to show users the status of each test. A tester can then compare the results with other reports to assess how the software operates compared to expectations and requirements.

Continuous testing

Organizations typically include automated tests in a continuous testing strategy, which conducts code checks at every step in the software development and delivery pipeline. Continuous and automated tests help organizations reduce performance bottlenecks because the pace of work is ongoing rather than start-and-stop. For example, an organization might release software changes every few hours with automated and continuous testing, rather than every few days with a more manual and gated system.