What Should You Do Before Automating Your Testing Process to Succeed?

Automated testing is one of the most efficient ways to create a high-quality application within the resources and tools available. Automated testing can help you save valuable time and in creating an automate error-proof testing procedure. But it isn’t that simple to automate your testing process and get results fast. There are a lot more factors involved that need more effort and understanding. There are a lot of things that may wrong while automating a test and you must know the things that will work out well for your process. To prevent any such problems in your testing procedures, here are a few prerequisites to consider before automating the tests for your application.

Choose Which Tests to Automate

First and foremost, decide on the tests which you are going to automate. It is practically not possible to automate all of the tests and those tests that are most important and that contributes towards the performance of the application can be chosen for automation.

Once you have chosen the tests, don’t just start with automation. Large, complex applications can be divided into smaller parts and you can perform multiple tests on it. Your chances of testing the functionality of the application will be more pronounced when testing with multiple cases. Unstable tests may cause the total automation procedure to fail or wouldn’t deliver consistent results. Only if the results are proper can it be properly analyzed and the results of the tests can be put to use. Therefore, make sure that there aren’t any discrepancies in the tests that you have chosen.

Create Proper Test Cases

After deciding on the tests, create test cases that are not based on a single test as a whole but based on the tests that are split into smaller units. The test cases decide the proper functioning of the test and therefore make sure to design it properly. Focus on the major goal of the testing and the objectives of the application and align your test cases with respect to it. While automating the tests, if you aren’t considering all the scenarios, then it could harm your application in the future.

Test cases are created for various needs. Some test cases will be used repetitively, some will contain multiple data sets and some will be already created test cases that require modification. Make sure to cover all types of test cases and partition it according to the tests. Don’t hasten your automation testing before making a clear audit of your created test cases in comparison to the testing goals.

Test Early In the Developmental Stage

If possible, as you are developing the application, you can test it parallel and intermittently throughout the testing process. Errors, when identified in the initial stages of the development, will be less expensive to resolve when compared to the errors that are identified after the whole completion of the application development. You can start automating the testing from the first step of the development process itself. Just make sure that your application is stable enough to undergo the automatic testing procedures.

Select the Right Automation Tool

There are a lot of testing tools in the market but selecting the right one according to your application is necessary. Consider all your requirements for the application when selecting the automation tool. There are a few points to keep in mind:

• Identify all the requirements for your automated tools first.
• Consider all the tools and vendors and shortlist the ones that match your requirements.
• Make a clear note of your budget and choose the vendors that come under your budget. Create a clear estimate by taking into account the cost-benefit analysis.
• Test the flexibility and scalability of all your test vendors.
• Understand all the features of the shortlisted tools and choose a few that has all the right features needed for your application. Evaluate the quality of the tool and if possible, have a trial and consider if it is suitable.

Decide On How to Test For a Running Application

If the application is already released, then you will have to decide how you will be testing the application. There might be many users who will be engaging with the application. Decide on the way by which you will proceed with testing the application and how it may affect the current users.

For Automated UI Testing

If you are thinking about automating the UI, be careful if it is changing frequently. It may cost you more with script maintenance and hence a basic UI testing will be sufficient.

Automated testing can be very effective and time-saving if it is executed properly in an Automated Testing Company. For complete and proper testing, it is important to make everything for the test is kept ready to help in running it smoothly and get actionable results from it.

A Video on Agile in Practice: Automated Testing by AgileAcademyAus