What is Test Automation?

 Test automation is the use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions. Commonly, test automation involves automating a manual process already in place that uses a formalized testing process.

 Testing tools can help automate tasks such as product installation, test data creation, GUI interaction, problem detection, defect logging, etc.

 Test Automation requires appropriate planning i.e. which tests we have to automate and which we have to perform manually. Also, test automation is implemented where the functionality is stable in the application over volatile ones.

 Benefits of Test Automation: 

1. Fast: Time duration of the testing process will reduce drastically since testing is a repetitive activity throughout the development cycle.
2. Reliable: Accuracy of the testing will be high in automation testing than manual testing.
3. Repeatable: can test how the software reacts under repeated execution of the same operations.
4. Comprehensive: Effectiveness of the application will be improved and can rerun the scripts across multiple platforms simultaneously.
5. Reusable: creates scripts for reusable tests that can be run each time the site or application changes
6. Cost Effective: Total cost of performing manual testing is exorbitant in comparison to automated testing. By executing automation scripts the rate of error will be less than manual testing and it can execute the tests much faster.
7. Improves Quality: By repeatedly executing the automated scripts, more defects can be found and further improvement of the quality of end product can be done .With Automation we can run more tests in less time with fewer resources. 

Type of Test Automation Approach:

There are two general approaches to test automation:

• Graphical user interface testing: A testing framework generates user interface events and observes the changes that result in the user interface, to validate that the observable behavior of the program is correct.
  Many test automation tools provide record and playback features that allow users to record interactively user actions and replay it back any number of times, comparing actual results to those expected. The advantage of this approach is that it requires little or no software development..

• Code-driven testing: The public (usually) interface to classes, modules, or libraries are tested with a variety of input arguments to validate that the results that are returned are correct. Code-driven testing allows the code to conduct unit tests to determine whether various sections of the code are acting as expected under various circumstances. Test cases describe tests that need to be run on the program to verify that the program runs as expected.

 Integration of Test Automation Tool and Test Management Tool:

 In the test management tool, we have an entry of automated Testcases so we can integrate it with the test automation tool. Automated Testcases will be automatically executed and their result will be compared with the expected result in the test management tool.

Also, the actual result and status will get updated automatically in the test management tool. By using Test Automation tool, we can send the acknowledgment mail with the automated Testcases status to the QA persons.

 References:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Uncategorized Automation benefits, QMetry, Quality, Test Automation, Test Management Tools, Testing