Software quality assurance is one of the most important processes in the software industry and any company developing an application or an end-to-end system knows its importance. It is quite common for many companies to outsource the QA part of the software cycle. However, not all software performance testing services are created equal.
Today, automated testing services are all the rage in the industry and for good reason. Manual testing still has its place in certain scenarios. However, it is no exaggeration to say that the days of doing software quality testing manually using a big team of quality testers is certainly on its way out.
Automation testing or test automation software is used to create automated tests for the software that is being created. This type of testing is used in regression testing since it is very time consuming. It is also ideal for user environment simulation. In this blog post, we will talk about the benefits of QA automation testing services, the tools involved in it and the scenarios where automated testing is ideal.
Before we go any further, it is important to demolish one of the key myths surrounding the technology. Automation testing will reduce the need for manual testers, but you will still need quality assurance experts to carry out the tests and analyze the results. Processes such as Agile, Lean and DevOps are going to be major trends in the testing industry. This means that quality assurance is not just the job of the software tester but the entire software development team. Critical thinking and quick problem solving ability will now be essential when it comes to QA tasks.
These are the types of software tests that can be automated.
1. Unit testing
2. Regression testing
3. Black box testing
4. Integration testing
5. Keyword testing
6. Data driven testing
7. Smoke testing
Software QA consulting services that are a part of automation testing
1. API and micro services testing
2. Desktop application testing
3. Load and performance testing
4. Native (iOS and Android) mobile app testing services
5. Websites, web apps, and mobile web applications testing
6. IoT devices, apps and related hardware testing
There are many automation tools in the market and you should know how to choose the right one. Most of the best tools in the market are open source which translates into overall cost savings for you. Here is a list of the main testing tools that our QA team recommends for most projects.
Open source QA testing tools
• Selenium WebDriver – Automating web application testing
• Appium – Testing native apps and mobile-web apps
• SpecFlow – Writing behavior driven development test automation
• JMeter – Load testing of web/mobile/API
• SoapUI – API testing tool for SOAP and REST APIs
• Instruments – Utility that comes with Xcode to check the memory utilization of an iOS app
• Android Monitor – Utility that comes with Android Studio to check the memory utilization of an Android app
Proprietary QA testing tools
• HPE Unified Functional Testing – Used for automating functional test of web and mobile apps
• Load Runner – Used for load testing of web apps
• SoapUI Pro – Commercial version of SoapUI
• JIRA – Used in bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management functions
Automation testing helps the QA team to automate routine tasks and execute test cases multiple times at a scale that is not possible on a human level. For example, automated testing can help you test a mobile app’s functionality on multiple devices without manually testing each feature repeatedly on different devices. This results in faster release of the app in the market.
Benefits of automation testing
1. Automated testing saves time by eliminating the need to write extensive test scripts.
2. The test scripts that need to be written using the automation tools can also be reused
3. It can also be used alongside manual testing procedures to crosscheck your test results.
4. Bugs can be detected during the development phase itself, which leads to shorter product development lifecycles.
5. The tests can be run 24/7 without the need for manual input thus ensuring thorough quality checks.
6. You can execute your tests scripts on the entire network or multiple devices simultaneously.
7. The reports that are generated are extensive and give the software tester details such as scripts executed, scheduled, bugs found and fixed, etc.
8. Automated testing also includes testing of web applications on all the browsers.
9. The biggest benefit is the reduced need of software testers, which directly translates into cost savings for you.
10. Automated testing is perfect for user environment simulation because GUI testing is very time consuming and consists of repetitive actions for the software tester. With automation tools the tester can run the script and make the test fast and accurate.
Most companies have already realized the benefits of automated testing and are implementing it in their software product development cycle. If you want to make sure that your software product has a bug-free release and delivers a great UX to your customers, talk to us to know more about our functional testing services and other QA related services.
