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While building an application, testing should not be an afterthought and must be central to the development process for a successful app launch. From seamless UI to functionality, security, data privacy, your app has to be rigorously checked to ensure that it performs under all possible user conditions. Over the years, test automation has played a major role in ensuring the quality of apps that we are so used to nowadays. From automating monotonous and redundant tasks to performance and load testing, the capabilities of today’s testing software are a major tool in the arsenal of application developers.
Significance of Automated Testing
When it comes to software testing, the pace of innovation has been breathtaking. With the increasing complexity of today’s software applications and the large number of platforms they cater to, the kind of scrutiny that applications need is almost impossible to achieve through manual testing. Developers need a way to find even minor bugs at a pace and efficiency that does not delay app launch. Software automation services are a way to maximize the efficiency of the process, reduce costs and increase the speed of testing. With automated testing, the testing process can begin parallel to development and vastly improve time to market.
Automated vs. Manual Testing: Know the Difference
In the ongoing COVID scenario, where most of the workforce is working from home, it is increasingly difficult to carry out software testing manually. Here’s where software QA automation services have stepped in to ease out the process and bridge the gaps.
In the table below, we look at Automated Testing vs. Manual Testing across a range of parameters.
| Parameter | Automated Testing | Manual Testing |
| Time taken | It is significantly faster than a manual approach. | Time-consuming and there are a number of variables including tester efficiency, talent, man-hours. |
| Investment | There is an initial investment in acquiring testing tools, cheaper in the long run. | Depends on the kind of resources hired, not scalable as the team size expands with the complexity of the application being tested. |
| Reliability | Performed by script and code, hence exceptionally reliable and no human error. | Prone to human error as resources experience fatigue. Not accurate as automated testing. |
| Cost-Effectiveness | Better for high volume regression or complex applications. | Better for low volume regression or simpler applications. |
| Performance Testing | Can conduct tests such as Load Tests, Stress Tests. | Cannot conduct performance testing manually. |
Benefits of Automated Testing
Efficiency: When it comes to pure number of bugs found, automation testing far exceeds the capability of human testers. It also reduces the efforts needed for running and analyzing outputs by up to 90%.
Faster Time To Market: Automation testing is faster and more efficient as there is no fatigue from the tester and no human error. It reduces regression testing cycle time by up to 80%. Automation helps you release your products faster and more frequently.
Better Documentation: Test automation services and tools accelerate document testing processes and there is better versioning in automated testing.
Performance Testing: It helps improve productivity and is highly accurate for even complex products, performance tests such as load tests, spike tests can only be done using automation tools.
Test Coverage: The testing coverage is better in automated testing as it is comprehensive and checks every module of the application repeatedly.
Better Resource Utilization: If the QA team has access to automation tools it allows the QA team to focus on specific functional testing as automating testing takes away the redundant tasks.
Multi-Platform Testing: With software testing automation, you can run tests across different Operating Systems, devices, and browsers to ensure smooth operation for all end users.
How Automated Testing Can Help Improve Business ROI?
Prevent Reputational Damage: When it comes to your application’s reputation, even a small bug in the functionality can seriously affect the prospects of your business. Negative reviews on Play Store and Appstore can affect the number of downloads that your app receives, can drive up customer acquisition costs, and more. Hence, it’s better to opt for software automation services that reduce the chances of a buggy product.
Reduces Time To Market: A major unaccounted cost when it comes to software development is the length of the development cycle. The longer the delay between finding bugs in a software version and deploying fixes, the longer it takes for the app to see the light of day. Test automation can help reduce the time taken for this feedback loop and speed up product development lifecycles. Another major factor to consider is if the delay to market has proved to be an advantage for a competitor to launch an app and acquire market share faster. In such cases, the costs of a delay can run you out of business.
Reliable Regression: Regression testing is performed to ensure that the application as a whole performs perfectly when any new feature or code is added. Manually doing these checks can be extremely time-taking and low ROI as the chances of finding major issues are minimal. There is also a chance for human error due to coder fatigue. Software testing tools allow for reliable regression testing each time without manual effort and at a lower cost.
Earlier Bug Detection: Automated testing can be done parallelly with development. This ensures that your dev team is able to document and resolve bugs earlier in the development cycle. This means that teams can work in a more Agile fashion. They do not have to wait until a build or version is completed until testing happens.
Why Opt for Automation?
Whenever you are launching a customer-facing app in today’s market, it is essential that there are no user glitches. This is because reviews can be scathing for a buggy product. In today’s era of versioning and feature releases at high speed, automation is the only way you can stay on schedule. Test automation services can accelerate the development cycle, decrease testing costs, reduce expensive rework, and ensure accurate documentation.
