Automation testing is a regression testing technique to automate predefined testing tasks with the assistance of various test automation tools and testing scripts. The process of test automation involves writing test scripts to execute the test cases which otherwise are done manually. Test automation is the key to continuous testing. It has marked benefits in terms of accuracy, dependability, enhanced test coverage, time and effort saving. But, the road to automation has certain challenges that need to be addressed before any organization decides to automate its testing process. Webomates has identified certain key metrics in test automation. You can read about it on our blog “To automate or not to automate“.
In this article, we will talk about a few challenges faced while adopting an automation strategy for the testing process.
High initial setup cost
The initial phase of setting up test automation is expensive. It involves careful analysis, design, and development of a framework. Additionally, there are licensing, development and operational costs. There are certain costs attached in acquiring the right resources with the necessary skills to facilitate test automation. It is a challenge to get the top management to see the long term benefits of test automation vis-à-vis the initial setup cost. They should be convinced of the importance of test automation in terms of time-to-market, test Coverage, accuracy, improved regression, performance, functionality, etc.
Lack of Scripting Expertise
QA team should be well equipped with the necessary technical skills to design and maintain test framework with the relevant test scripts and should be proficient enough to resolve issues if any. This implies that, in addition to the current testing related skill set, they should be well versed in programming languages and have a good know-how of the testing tool being used. It is a time-intensive exercise to acquire the right skill set or train the existing team. This sometimes leads to opting for manual testing over automation to save resources.
Direct dive into automation without stabilizing first
In their zeal to automate the tests, the testing teams end up taking short cuts by building and executing the tests without proper planning. As a result, some tests may fail leading to distrust for test automation. Ideally, the tests should be carefully planned, written and stabilized before rolling out for the final automation process.
Test Case Maintenance is a Herculean task
Maintaining a repository of the automated test case is a huge task, especially for large scale projects. Every time there is a change in functionality, the related test cases need to be updated in order to accommodate those changes. Any change in the test environment or third party tools also calls for appropriate changes in test cases to reflect any environmental or configuration impact. Identifying the affected test cases, modifying and verifying them again is a complex and error-prone process.
Test Data Management problems
Test data management is a big challenge when it comes to automated testing. Test script execution expects test data to be in a certain state. There could be instances when there are multiple scripts, representing different test scenarios, accessing the same data at the same time. Data’s atomicity might be affected and there could be issues due to modification of the data by any of the scripts, which may lead to test failure of another script. Thus, it is important to have appropriate test data strategies in place to prevent such issues.
Conclusion
Automation is a great regression technique if all the above challenges can be managed.
Webomates provides services and AI tool that uses the available test cases and generate the Automation script using its AI modeler engine. This tool also reduces the human effort of writing or maintaining the Automation suite by more than 50%.
CIO Applications, a leading technology magazine recognized Webomates as a Top 10 Automation Testing Providers 2019.
If you are interested in learning about our tools and how webomates is revolutionizing the IT industry in a speedy regression, then please click here and schedule a demo, or reach out to us at info@webomates.com. You can also avail a free trial by clicking here.
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