Should I Automate This Test Case?
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Introduction #
Software testing is a process of checking whether a program fulfills requirements. It ensures and checks if there are errors, gaps, or missing conditions compared to actual conditions. Testing could be written manually by human testers that take care of all the process. However, in some cases, tests should be automated to save a lot of time and, ultimately, a lot of money.
In this article, we will be focusing more on how testers can know which test cases they should automate in their software. Let’s get right into it.
Benefits of Test Automation #
After developing software, we will need to know how the features should behave to catch defects before shipped to our software users. This is where test automation comes into play. It improves the efficiency and accuracy of the testing process. As a result, software releases are being delivered faster than they were before with manual testing.
Test automation is an easy way to ensure quality and catch bugs before reaching your users. This helps to run against the features of our code that we have written. It’s also a way to run through scenarios and see the results produced or what we expected. The computer can smoothly run this type of test with some automation scripts to show thousands of test cases in a matter of moments. This process will help us fix the issues and also avoid breaking the functionality of the software while developing new features.
There are different types of automated tests that you need to consider when testing. You can also use various tools to simplify the testing process; it just depends on your situation. What I want you to know is that not all tests should be automated. At the same time, not all of them should be written manually. That’s why you also need to know when to automate your tests.
Which Tests Should You Automate? #
Now that we know the importance and the benefits of automation, we have to identify the test cases we should automate.
Based on my experience, if you want to automate a test, they should fit at least one of the following criteria:
1. Repetitive test cases: #
When it comes to repetitive test cases that don’t change, the best option is to go with automated testing because these tests will be unchanging from one test cycle to the next. With test automation, the scripts will take care of the repetitive tasks. That’s why writing manual tests in this situation can be a bad idea and a waste of time, as you will have to repeat the same testing process several times.
2. Regression tests: #
Regression testing is a type of test that checks if recent changes in the software affect any existing features. These regression test cases are highly automatable, and the scripts can be executed unattended while performing other tasks.
The effort to run this type of testing manually becomes repetitive and takes time away from other tasks that are not automatable and provide more value.
3. Smoke tests: #
Like regression tests, this type of test case should also be automated. Smoke tests are used for getting a quick high-level assessment on the quality of a build and making a decision for more in-depth testing. These tests are considered as a confirmation for the testers to proceed with further software testing. Test automation, in this case, can help ensure that new features don’t break existing ones; there is no need for manual testing in this situation, test scripts can take care of that.
4. Complex and time-consuming tests: #
When it comes to complex tests that take a lot of time, test automation can be a good idea because manually reproducing them is a hard thing to do, especially when the tester makes a lot of mistakes. So with test automation, we can save time, money that we will pay for the tester and reduce the probability of mistakes and errors.
For example, tests that require transforming input data into output data are an excellent fit to automate. These tests are time-consuming, especially if you have a large amount of data that needs to be managed.
5. Risky tests: #
Risky tests or risk-based tests (RBT) are types of tests that are used to check the risk impact on the software, consider them as an approach to check the probability of the test failures. These test cases can affect the software and the entire business model if they fail, especially when many users use the software. That’s why automating these types of tests is a good thing to do. This helps to find the problems quickly and solve them before they are used in production.
If you faced some of these tests, you should consider automation because it will save you time, effort, and money.
Conclusion #
As you can see, automated tests have a lot more benefits compared to manual tests. However, this doesn’t mean the end of manual testing because not every test that can be automated should be automated. The most important thing is to have a well-defined purpose and objective before deciding to go with automation.
Thank you for reading this article; I hope you found it useful.