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The Best Solutions for Test Automation
With the ever increasing need for more and more complex software systems and applications to speed up the way business is conducted integrating into the expectations of b2b and b2c customers alike, it becomes extremely important for companies to ensure the correct functionality of these tools in order to maintain not only a smooth operation of the systems and applications internally and externally.
The purpose of this article is to explain in simple terms a brief explanation of the need for software testing and to explore some of the benefits a company can derived by choosing the appropriate approach towards software testing; whether it be through simple manual testing, the utilization of test automation tools to build and manager testing for individual cases or projects, or a comprehensive automation of entire test process throughout many cases and projects. Which solution is best for your company depends on a number of factors such as development cycles, time-restraints, scale and scope, resources, and the willingness to suffer software quality losses and the associated loss of reputation.
Let us consider a real world example for a second. In the world of financial institutions, accountability is everything. Customers expect fast and accurate information about their savings and investments on a constant basis. So when financial institutions want to integrate new technologies and platforms, such as a mobile app for scheduling bill payments, they must first put the application through rigorous rounds of testing to ensure it; A.) does what it is supposed to do, B.) that is continues to work as other systems are updated, and C.) is safe for the consumer to use. Imagine if they put out some software that worked fine for a week then transferred your life savings to some bill collector you had scheduled. This is going to create a huge backlash from customers and in the new world of social media and offensive marketing practices this could destroy the reputation of a trustworthy financial institution. But with the simple implementation of good testing practices, a company can avoid this unfortunate senerio and take pride in the applications they develop.
There are three main approaches to testing practices to be aware of when making the decision as to which solution will be the most cost effective for your bottom-line. The most basic form of software testing is to build a single, manually setup, test case to test your application. This might be an employee clicking through every link and submitting to every form or whatnot and maybe utilizing a record/playback tool to repeat the process later. The problem with this method becomes obvious when changes are made down the line to the software. The test then needs to be completely manually re-recorded/tested by an employee and again will only last for so long. This, in combination with inevitable human error, makes this a less than ideal choice for most software development projects.
The next alternative would be to implement a set of test automation tools to completely automate the maintenance of the regression test cases. There is a wealth of tools available to help companies build up, customize, and maintain their library of test cases. Many of these tools also include features such as test versioning, reporting and analysis, and many reusable components.
