To build high-quality software, you should prioritize software testing in the software development process. Software testing ensures that all defects and bugs are taken care of during development.
It also ensures that your software works as it should. There are two major types; test automation and manual testing.
In automation testing, the tester uses automation tools to develop test scripts which they use to automate the testing. In contrast, manual testing is done step by step by the quality assurance analyst and engineer.
Save Time and Money with Automation Testing
Manual testing could be tedious because the quality assurance engineer and analyst have to perform every task from test case creation to test execution. You can use manual testing for tasks that are difficult to automate, such as tests where the features are still a work in progress, one-off tests, or tests where the correct outcome changes frequently.
However, it is time-consuming and tedious. It is better to employ automated testing for repetitive tasks.
Every time you make changes to the program code, you must test it in different operating systems, configurations, and user journeys to ensure it works effectively and is bug-free. Doing this every time you modify your code could be tedious and expensive.
By using test automation, you can perform software testing seamlessly without any additional costs. The proper knowledge of what test automation is will give the opportunity to follow industry standards for product compatibility and reliability before releasing the product for public use.
Here are some ways that automation testing can help you to save time and money in your development process.
Early Bug Detection
It is estimated that discovering and fixing a software bug or failure takes around 13 hours of the developer’s time. The downtime due to software failures costs companies about $61 billion annually. This value involves revenue lost when your product fails, the revenue you lose when clients move to your competitors and the cost of finding and fixing the bug.
A bug can cause you to lose your customer base. The faster you fix them, the better.
Automation testing allows your development team to test your software and check for bugs at every turn of the development phase. As the developer writes the code, the testing framework can check for bugs so the engineers can discover and fix them immediately. This way, you can save time and minimize expenses.
Increased Test Coverage
As the product grows, it will get new features added to the existing functionality to improve the user experience and compete favorably with other applications on the market. With each update, it is essential to perform tests to ensure that it works well and there are no bugs in the added features.
You must ensure that the new changes do not mess up the existing functionality through regression testing. Automation testing makes it easy to check the ever-increasing amount of code on the software. It will help you to ensure that the new and existing features are bug-free before public release.
Faster Delivery
Test automation is a significant part of continuous delivery and continuous integration (CD/CI). CI/CD is a term used to describe delivering new software updates to customers as quickly as possible.
Employing test automation can reduce the time you spend on testing as the project grows. You will be able to achieve frequent releases, faster changes, shorter software development times, and faster delivery to the public.
Reduced Cost of Testing Hours
Automation testing can be performed round the clock, twenty hours a day and seven days a week. Unlike manual testing, where the QA engineer only works during the set working hours in manual testing, the test specialist can write the test scripts and leave them running for the rest of the day.
According to a white paper, “Automated Testing ROI: Fact or Fiction?” test automation increases the speed of testing by five folds. You will be able to complete more tests in less time and, subsequently, pay less for testing hours.
Improved Accuracy and Efficiency
Imagine you have to run a specific task over and over. At a point, you may get tired and become prone to errors. Test automation tools can run the test scripts hundreds of times without getting bored or distracted.
You will be able to get effective test results because the efficiency doesn’t reduce over time. It will also give your quality assurance engineers and analysts more time to engage in rewarding tasks.
Seamless Reporting
While automated testing tools can make your software testing faster, they can make it even easier by providing comprehensive reports containing the test results in a single run. The report provides a real-time image of the application’s stability so the QA analyst can find the root cause of a bug. The report can also provide insights into the performance of the system.
