When should automation tests be implemented?

The answer to the above question can be sought only after careful consideration of several factors that affect the testing. With automated testing tools on a rise in the market, several advanced test automation features are being introduced to make automated testing easy, affordable and offer more coverage.

As testers have begun to rely on the automated testing tool(s) to help them deliver defect free product(s), we have put across a series of questions to help you choose the best type of selenium training testing according to your needs and resources

If you need to run the test cases a lot number of times in a test cycle, automation testing is what you should be looking at. It can provide you a great return on your investment. Repeatability is not a time consuming activity when you consider automation.

How many test cases are you looking at testing?

Another factor to consider is the number of test cases that you have under the specific test suite. It is generally not a good investment to automate the testing of merely ten test cases, no matter how often they are going to be tested. However, if the number of test cases is high, and if these will be run more than once then automation testing can provide you with better results. The number of test cases should justify the cost of the automation tools.

Is it a high priority feature?

Well, some features have higher chances of failing than the others. Such high priority feature is better to be tested with an automation testing tool since with manual testing; there are chances that the test case or the feature might be missed during the testing cycle. The tests will be run every time in the same fashion with automated testing, thus eliminating any chances of human-induced errors.

Do you need to run the test cases in a predetermined order?

Some features have to be tested before the others. There are instances when a

pre determined order has to be followed while testing the test cases. Achieving this can be cumbersome and time consuming in manual testing since the testers are either required to remember the order, or refer to an external source to know the order. But with automated testing, the scripts can be timed and ordered to execute as per our needs.

Does the test case need to be updated constantly?

If the test case will be frequently updated, then automating it may have to be given a second thought because changing the automated script of the test case is time consuming and defeats the purpose of automating it. However with keyword driven or data driven framework, maintaining and changing of scripts is easier. So while automating such functionalities, choose a framework that eases maintainability. Also, most automated testing framework support re usability ensuring that there is no need to constantly rewrite test cases to test the same functionalities.

Are you planning on simultaneous running of test cases?

When your testing demands that you run the same set of test cases simultaneously on more than one machine, then you need to use automation testing. With manual testing, you cannot type the same test cases to run exactly at the same time on several machines. However, with automation testing, you can schedule the scripts so that the test cases are executed exactly at the same time on more than one system.

Do you need to test single functionality with multiple data sets?

Is there a need to run the same test case with multiple data? Then data-driven automation testing framework must be used to minimize effort and time spent in each test case. The data is fed from an external source (e.g. Excel) to each test case, thus ensuring that larger data coverage for a single test case is possible. When you opt for manual testing in this scenario, not only will your test team grow bored of testing the same functionality, but chances of missing one or two data sets is possible for more selenium testing course online.