In order to make a desirable decision for our company, let us first briefly shed light on what automated software testing is and how it differs from manual. Within software testing, test automation is practically the use of special test software that controls the execution of the tests programmed into it and compares the actual results with the expected results. That is, in automated software testing, perform well-defined test steps with pre-written, computer-executable program code in which we perform exactly the same steps as in manual testing, or processes that allow us to support our testing activities more effectively. We cannot completely replace the work of a manual tester with automation, but we can perform and evaluate the often repeated tests with the test program, which saves significant time and energy.
Thus, during automated software testing, we perform tests that do not require manual tester intervention. With test automation, our goal is to get fast and accurate results and to support software testing with solutions that would be difficult or impossible to perform manually.
It is advisable to introduce an automation tool in those companies where tests have to be performed on a large amount of data, because unlike humans, the machine works 24 hours a day, without stopping. Automated tests can be used successfully in areas where regression tests are precisely defined and where many similar steps need to be performed but with variable data. Because the computer tolerates monotonous work well, works at a steady pace and has a low margin of error, it is excellent for these tests.
Manual testing is no longer sufficient for companies/groups of companies operating complex IT systems at a higher level of maturity. Typically, there is a need for automated testing in organizations that coordinate complex activities and therefore require stronger IT and software support. In their case, due to the constantly changing software environment and changes in application functionality, the almost constant software development, the existence of automated tests within the software testing process becomes indispensable. Large companies, multinational groups of companies and the public sector usually need new or modified applications and functions to meet the ever-expanding and renewing needs of the organization. All this means that more and more tests need to be performed on the software. The increasing number of tests would easily be limited manually, so it is recommended to make sure that applications run smoothly with automated tests.
The last few years have transformed the duration of the software development lifecycle - just think of the forced changes of the year 2020 from one moment to the next. In the rapidly changing economic environment, business needs are constantly changing, for which companies need to find a solution as soon as possible. As a result, the time required to design and implement software and applications adapted to new needs is relatively short time, and at the same time the duration of testing is reduced. However, the more features we provide to our application, the more complex a software is, or the larger it needs to be embedded in an existing IT system, the more testing we need to perform on it, as we need to make sure that our software is not damaged at other points. With automated testing, we can avoid any tests being left out of execution due to tight deadlines. Moreover, by automating the proper execution of appropriate tests, we can reduce testing time and thus speed up implementation.
Automated tests give testers more time to test new functionalities during the development period. In addition, there are test cases that are almost impossible to perform with human labor. This is not to say that it is not possible to perform these tests, it would only take a lot of time to complete them. For example, during a database migration, a large amount of data is moved from one database to another, and testing is done to make sure that the data has been properly transferred from the source database to the target database. It is easy to see that in large quantities, it is almost impossible to perform data verification manually based on value. However, database migration and similar tasks can be performed very accurately and quickly with automated tests.
Managers need to be aware that not everything can be automated. It is worth keeping in mind that automated testing should appear in corporate processes in a way that can provide as much as possible to testers. However, if our testing processes require several steps for the same but different data sets, performing automated tests is the best possible solution, as the machine does not make a mistake, and automated testing proves to be a more cost-effective solution than manual testing in the long run.
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