Overview of automation testing

August 21, 2015

Software testing is an activity very important role in the projects of software to ensure product quality and the activities that are vital. Today, with the strong development of information technology trends worldwide, the effective promotion of IT application in all aspects of economic life – politics – society is becoming more focused and urgent.

In Vietnam, this concept is not new but has not yet completely familiar. So this article will share some concepts and knowledge in this field:

What is automation testing?
Why do you need automation testing?
Compare automation testing & Manual testing?
Advantages and disadvantages of automation testing
When do we should and should not apply automation testing to project?
The steps for automation testing
Some test automation tools

Content:

1. What is automation testing?
Automated software testing is a process in which software tools execute pre-scripted tests on a software application before it is released into production.

2. Why do you need automation testing?
Automated software testing is the best way to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and coverage of your software testing for multiple reasons:
– Time – speed up the delivery schedule: the test window is reduced and tester can concentrate more on exploratory testing and test cases that can not be automated
– Reduce effort and time performing testing process
– Improved reliability.
– Reduce human boredom
– Advanced your skills to the test programming staff

3. Compare automation testing & Manual testing?

	Manual testing	Automation testing
Time	With 1 test cases group –> Spent a lot of time to execute test but it have not to execute repetitive	With 1 scripts group –> No need spent a lot of time to execute test but it have to execute repetitive many times
Agile	Execute test by man → can find new bugs & can resolve issues	Execute test by script → can not find new bugs. Fit with regression test
Reliable	Depend on factor of man → test result can not exactly	Tools are reliable in complex calculations and tasks → result is consistent & exactly
Reusable	If using manual test to test a function repeat many times → spent a lot of time & it is difficult to execute exactly	Can execute test repeat with any time by script reusable. But if write test script that using it a few → spent a lot of time & resource
Comprehensive	when execute test required human supervision	we can execute test batches without human interaction
Maintainability	Update test case easy and fast	Update script spend more time and cost

4. Advantages and disadvantages of automation testing

– Advantages of Automation testing:

Fast: Automated Tools run tests significantly faster than human users
Repeatable: we can repeat same operations for required number of times
Programmable: we can use flow control statements for applying logic
Better Quality Software: Because you can run more tests in less time with fewer resources
Cost Reduction: when performing checks large number of test case or repeated test case many time
Can simulate situations

– Disadvantages of automation testing:

It is expensive if test script that using it a few or in initial investment
Costs for maintenance scripts
We cannot automate all areas
It has some limitations (It cannot test every thing)
Difficult maintainability
Technology vs. people issues
Requiring testers should have the skills to create test automation scripts

5. When do we should and should not apply automation testing to project?

– Regression Testing: Upgrade the software, check the feature was run well and revised features
– The test cases need to do several times, often do regression testing, a number of big test case be implemented in a short time
– Testing need to perform in many different environments
– The project is stable, the technical characteristics are defined in advance, the screen test, the function does not change in the future
– When you want to execute performance tests or load test, test automation is almost the only option

6. The steps for automation testing:

Step	Description
Create a test script	This stage testing tools used to record the operation to check the software and automatically generates test scripts
Edit the test script	Edit to suit requirements
Run the test script	Running the test script to test software has launched as the desired results or not?
Result evaluation	Evaluate the results after running the test script

7. Some test automation tools
– HP Quick Test Pro
– HP Load Runner
– HP QC
– IBM Robot
– IBM Rational Functional Tester
– SilkTest
– TestComplete(AutomatedQA)
– QAWizard(Seapine)
– QEngine(AdventNet)
– Selenium
– QuickTest Professional, WinRunner, Rational Robot, JTest

Summary: The above is some of sharing of theoretical test automation help users better overview of the field. Although I was just a beginner to learn about it but hope that through this article will help us have more knowledge more about test automation

* References from multiple pages

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