Introduction
As we all know, Automation is taking the software development industry by storm, especially when it comes to the testing department. There are various stages applied in the software testing process where automation is used in the advanced phase where web applications are tested as it allows software testers to execute multiple tests simultaneously on a single machine.
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There are various types of automation testing tools, frameworks, and scripts that are used to perform test cases by reciting predefined actions and are run without the need for any human intervention.
But, is it really worthwhile to use automation for testing your web application? If yes, then you must be wondering about the various types of automation testing.
In this article, we’re going to discuss the types of automation testing and what are the benefits of it. But before we move further, let us first know what exactly is Automation testing. So without any delay, let’s get started!
What is Automation testing?
Automation testing is the method of testing a web application by applying various strategies with specific automation testing software tools which seek to perform a test case suite and check if the software that they’ve designed reacts exactly the way it is supposed to.
Basically, test automation refers to the automation of executing a test case and then comparing the outcomes with the desired outcomes. To be more precise, let’s take an example. As you all know, manual testing is performed by humans where they need to write each test case separately and execute them carefully where when it comes to automation testing, no human intervention is required because here there are automation tools to run the test cases.
For years, software developers have automated their unit testing which separately checks each unit of the software such as it checks whether a given function is performing correctly or not. After that, automated testing frameworks came into the picture which allow the entire application to be tested automatically rather than testing each part of the software which can be time-consuming. These automated testing frameworks allow a test script to communicate with your user interface, imitating the user’s actions.
In short, we can say that automation testing makes sure that you can easily optimize your software productivity without neglecting important bugs. Also, it is popular when a developer wants to automate repetitive tasks that are not able to be executed by manual testing. Apart from this, it also supports both functional and non-functional testing.
Types of Automated Testing
1. Unit testing
Unit testing is the first and simplest way of testing where the smallest piece of code available in a system is separately tested and makes sure that it works as it needs to. Unit tests are developed and run by software programmers to check each application’s functionality which can be easily automated whenever new code is altered to your master branch. This type of testing takes place during the development phase before taking the software to testers.
If you want a good and error-free application, then make sure to perform unit testing as it helps you to identify bugs at an initial stage of the development lifecycle and allows developers to understand each functionality in the application. Despite all this, it also enhances the overall productivity of your development team.
2. Integration testing
In integration testing, software modules are integrated logically and tested in groups. It checks whether modules of your application are working or it needs to be altered. These can be also tested automatically. Also, make sure that you’re testing both expected and unexpected inputs because a user can enter anything they want. Here, all the software units are collected and tested as a group to guarantee smooth-running performance.
3. Acceptance testing
As we all know, businesses build an application for some or another reason. Every software has a purpose so you must know the purpose of your software, who its target audience is, and what it aims to serve to ensure that all the business requirements are achieved by determining whether the software is all set to deliver or not. Acceptance testing is a QA process that identifies to what degree software meets the end user’s approval.
4. Smoke testing
Smoke testing is a non-exhaustive software analysis that checks the most important functions of the system but does not delve into finer details. This type of testing is performed after the software is developed and before it is released as it is fully integrated into the final software. This means, if there are any major failures in the system during this stage, it will send the application back to the development phase where developers need to modify and resolve the negative outcomes of the smoke testing. Also, if there are any failed features in the software while performing smoke testing, then the software tester cannot go to the next stage until it is entirely fixed so they need to resolve the issue first to appear in the next stage.
5. Functional testing
Functional testing is the type of testing that analyzes all the software functions and checks whether each feature included in the application works as expected or not. This testing involves testing the application’s security, user interface, APIs, and overall software functionality.
6. Regression testing
This type of testing is performed to test the existing software to ensure that a change in the code does not break any existing functionality of the system. We all know that the code needs to be updated depending on the evolution of technologies because it is important to modify, add, and remove something from the software even if it is working fine.
In most cases, this type of testing takes place when we need to verify the recent code modifications as it should not affect the existing features of the application. In short, it checks the code which is already mentioned in the system at the same level of performance as they were performing before adding any new changes or features.
7. Performance testing
Performance testing is a type of non-functional testing technique that defines the stability, responsiveness, and speed of the software under a given workload. This testing type checks whether the system has the ability to perform at a high level and still stay responsive and maintain speed while dealing with more than one user at a time. While performing performance testing, if any hurdles are identified then it needs to be eliminated to optimize the application’s ability to perform at a higher level and deliver the best outcomes to the users.
8. End-to-end testing
End-to-end testing is a testing process that is widely used in the software development lifecycle to test an application’s functionality and performance under product-like circumstances. Their goal is to simulate what a real user scenario looks like from beginning to finish. Just remember that end-to-end tests are not cheap to run as it is hard to maintain so we suggest you have a few end-to-end tests.
Benefits of Automated Testing
- Higher production rates and increased productivity.
- It helps software testers to relieve from writing repeating test cases and provides more time to come up with better test case scenarios.
- It doesn’t require many instances of human errors and still generates desired outcomes every time.
- Automated testing allows you to reuse the test scripts which saves a lot of time and effort for the software testers.
- As it is based on data-driven testing, testers can evaluate all functionality of the software involving numerous data sets.
- Minimize the effort of manual coding.
- It allows you to reuse functions and actions included in testing.
- It stores all the test scripts in a single repository.
- If you’re performing automated testing, the business cost will be automatically reduced and it will also provide better utilization of human resources.
- Maximum test coverage
- It offers better quality products.
Final Thoughts
In closing, we would like to say that it is important to test your software before it is released and delivered to the end user. So make sure to perform all types of testing before your software is released to make it error-free and stand out from the rest.
So that’s it for the post. We hope you find this post helpful. It would be really great for us if you share this post on Facebook or Twitter to reach more audiences. If you still have any queries running in your head, please don’t hesitate to mention them in the comment section given below and we will get back to you soon.
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