Manual Versus Automated Testing. Which Is Better?

When it comes to testing a particular software, it can be done in two ways – manually and automatically. So 'Which is better – manual testing and automated testing” has always been a hot topic to be debated on, over a cup of coffee or two. Let us discuss the pros and cons of both the types of software evaluation to come to a credible conclusion. May be that will stop this continuous discussion and settle the dust of war to some extent.

Before we start the comparison, let us at first define the two types of evaluation.

Manual Testing

This type of assessment involves evaluating a particular software manually, or in other words, without the use of any automatic tool or any type of script whatsoever. During this type of software debugging, the tester plays the role of the end user and evaluates the software to ascertain as well as identify any loophole, unanticipated behaviour or presence of any bug. The entire process of manual evaluation involves certain stages viz. Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing and finally, User Acceptance Testing. Testers use various types of test plans, test cases, and/or test scenarios to evaluate the efficacy of a software before it is made live. This particular method of software appraisal also involves exploratory testing for exploring as well as identifying the errors or defects (if any).

Automated Testing

Automatic S/W debugging, also referred to as Test Automation, involves a process of S/W evaluation, wherein the tester writes down a script and uses any other S/W for evaluating a particular software. Automated evaluation is generally used for simulating certain scenarios that were performed repeatedly, quickly and at the same time, manually.

Besides regressive evaluation, automated evaluation also involves testing applications from perspective of load, performance as well as stress. Technically speaking, automatic evaluation improves accuracy, helps in more time as well as money savings, when compared to manual evaluation.

Now, let us discuss the pros and cons of manual and automated debugging.

Advantages of Manual Testing

• Manual appraisal is a fantastic option when a test case turns “twice a coding milestone'. In these cases, opting for automatic appraisals will result in unnecessary expenses.
• This type of evaluation would allow the tester to perform increased number of ad-hoc or random evaluation. This type of assessment would help in detection of more bugs as well as defects than automated debugging. The more time the tester spends in going through the features of the S/W, the greater will be the odds of identifying real user loopholes or bugs.

Disadvantages of Manual Testing

• Running S/W debugging manually can be at times, extremely time consuming
• Every time the software is modified, the tester has to go through the entire process, rerunning all the tests yet again. This after some time, can get extremely tiresome as well as mundane. This, at the end of the day also causes fatigue to creep into the back of the tester's mind, dropping the perfection level by a considerable extent.

Advantages of Automated Testing

• In case there is a need to run a series of tests repeatedly, automated debugging is the best choice.
• It helps the tester by providing the option of running automation against the codes that time and again changes. This helps to timely catch the regressions.
• This type of evaluation provides a tester the option of running automation in the mainstream scenarios for timely catching regressions.
• This mode of S/W evaluation also helps in relatively larger test matrix (different languages for different Operating System platforms). Another advantage of this type of evaluation is that they can be conducted on different machines simultaneously. Manual tests on the other hand, can be conducted sequentially.

Disadvantages of Automated Testing

• The expenses involved in automated testing is definitely more than manual debugging. Writing down test cases, configuring or writing automatic framework will invariably cost more than running manual evaluation.
• In spite of its number of benefits, one little problem with automatic testing is that it is unable to automate the visual references.

Let us discuss a few other deciding factors relating to automated and manual software testing.

• The tools that are used to determine what is to be automated. If there are any limitations in the tools, the tests are supposed to be manual.
• It is also to be decided if there is considerable ROI with automation. Again, it should be evaluated whether switching to automatic S/W evaluation will yield results that will justify the decision.

Since, majority of companies prefer automated software evaluation, let us discuss a few things about the same:

Things to Automate

Automating everything in a particular software package is virtually impossible. However, there are certain areas that can be automated to make certain transactions less cumbersome as well as faster. Generally, the areas of a package that is dealt by a large number of users (for e.g. Login Form, Registration Form) are automated, so that multiple number of users can have access to these areas simultaneously.

Besides, all the Graphic User Interface items, connections with various databases and field variations and the likes can be tested properly with the use of automated process rather than with manual process.

Time to automate

Automatic software evaluation can be conducted in the following situations:

• At the time of processing huge and critical projects
• During projects that need repetitive testing of the same areas
• When the objectives and requirements do not change that frequently and remain more or less constant.
• While accessing applications with multiple virtual users for load as well as performance appraisal
• While testing a stable software package

You can hire testers from top automation testing companies in India who can help you to test your projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide test automation services. If you would like to hire certified automation testers for your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Advantages of Conducting Automated Software Testing

The software market is ever-expanding and with that it is being targeted by new applications launched by companies. This has made the development process more complicated and complex. The work of software developers has become consistently aimed towards the fixing of functions, mistakes, errors and bugs so that user experience can be improved. They also have to ensure the smooth performance of the software in varying environments so that it becomes successful. For this, effective techniques for software testing must be deployed by the companies so that effort, time and money can be saved. The size and nature of project determines the method adopted for software testing. But all in all the easy-to-use and flexible nature makes automated software testing extremely popular.

Benefits

Saving time- The testing process is actually sped up resulting in the shortening of the lifecycle of testing along with saving a lot of time. Scripts can be easily run in the night which gives you night shift and day shift. Moreover, you will be able to run scripts on multiple platforms as well as multiple machines at the same time. But the major advantage is the running of the scripts that is a hundred times faster when compared to manual tester. So no more deploying teams of professionals for testing and investing of more resources as well as time. This helps you to save both resources and time. In fact you can target many user interfaces simply by reusing the scripts.

More effective utilization of manpower- This evaluation helps you apply your time along with skills elsewhere. Automation allows for the execution of most regression as well as functional testing unattended. If compared with manual testing, manually just new feature validation can be carried out but automated evaluation may be used for regression as well. Other areas like security as well as performance can be showered with more attention if you can relegate the testing responsibilities.

Repeated testing easily conducted- Some specific tests have to be administered repeatedly sometimes, so that all bases can be covered. Since generally the projects have complex nature repeated testing manually results in a lot of effort to be put in there. In fact bugs along with glitches are hard to find in case of manual evaluation but in this once the tests are configured according to some parameters, the tests can be administered over and over again.

Cross-platform applications tested quickly- For applications to be successful each must be compatible with the major devices as well as operating systems. So cross-platform applications are developed by major companies these days. So a web application developed should run on web browser like Opera, Chrome, Firefox as well as Internet Explorer. To make sure all the functionality and features of it are supported by major operating systems along with web browsers the testing team must put in lots of efforts as well as time. However, automation of testing process ensures that the performance evaluation can be done easily.

Increasing coverage- With this kind of evaluation the coverage scope increases drastically. Same tests can be done on multiple configurations. With more configurations you can reap more benefits. Each and every feature of your application is covered by regression suites, even those which may have been tough to manually accomplish according to the size of your application. The identical automation code can be reused with just some minor modifications.

Precision along with accuracy- After a few rounds of manual evaluation, the entire process tends to get boring and attention span starts to wane, leading to mistakes. Using tools will lead to the same tests being performed perfectly as well as results being checked every time.

Utilization of tools cannot act as substitutes for testers themselves; rather they help the testers perform the job better. In fact, sometimes there can be no substitute for manual evaluation. But having a strategy for test automation outlines the parts which are perfect for manual evaluation and which are suited for automation. This helps you enjoy the benefits of both the worlds. You can hire testers from top automation testing companies in India who can help you build mobile apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We have a large team of certified automation testers. If you are looking forward to outsource automation testing services, please get in touch with us. We will be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Multi-Component testing - Ideal for Mobile Automation Test Strategy

A mobile phone is not just a medium for communication anymore- it has made a huge transition from that to become a personal gadget that has multipurpose uses. With technological advancements in smartphones and tablets, mobiles apps have become quite complex. When evaluating mobile apps that are data-centric, multiple challenges arise which have to be addressed by the test engineers; the challenges include increasing diversity of device technologies, features and platforms. Major non-functional and functional intricacies associated with app behavior can be tackled with mobile testing automation.

The main challenges of testing mobile applications center around device input method, screen resolution, network limitations and operating systems. To tackle these challenges organizations should plan the strategy for testing very carefully and an effort should be made for choosing just the most important devices and minimize amount of handsets to be tested. During the testing real handsets should be used which are then connected to actual operators accessed through the web. Using automation tools also helps as you can write testing scripts for execution for countless times or on many devices.

For mobiles, testings may be of various types like behavioral, environmental, complete ecosystem and performance testing.

With environmental testing it may be a good idea to use real devices instead of emulators as they might not be able to replicate real devices. To understand changes in application behavior switching networks is a good thing that will help you identify performance bottlenecks. You should also install auto application over the air in the testing suite which will verify the upgrade as well as successful installation on target platforms. When the automation is being executed, events like receiving SMS, emails or calls and battery low indicators should be simulated or handled by the process.

For behavioral testing orientation evaluation should be included in the automation strategy; this is due to the fact that screen orientation feature is now supported by most devices. The strategy in this case must always include “no network” scenario simulation on devices. Great automation systems should simulate different location attributes automatically. The tool for behavioral evaluation should be able to differentiate between user events which are done by end-users and system events which are the result of codes written by application developers in the application.

In case of performance testing, a good practice is collecting battery, memory as well as CPU analytics continuously during the testing phase. The information collected becomes useful for addressing and identifying of problem areas if any. Application responsiveness is another important requirement as users are not left wondering if the UI gives prompt response to inputs. The performance of UI navigation should be up to the mark and effective with fast transitions. Use performance analytics tools for checking of memory usage and performance of mobile applications easily. You will get information related to CPU cycles, memory usage, etc with help from these tools.

Ideal or complete test ecological system should contain clearly defined result and test protocol. Protocols for failure should be defined by scripts or tools along with related proofs, reasons and other related information. Another important as well as recommended practice is device management so that your devices can be managed as well as categorized according to varying parameters. Test case management should also be provided which will store, execute, organize as well as view the test cases along with the results reports. It should also report crucial app statistics for evaluation of overall stability of the application.

With mobile testing becoming even more complex with each passing day, you need to be extremely careful while adopting the perfect automation for evaluation. Ideally test automation for mobile may be a conglomeration of various types of testings if you want to be ahead in matter of mobile testing strategies. The test may be complex but implementing various components will ensure that the end result is worth it. You can hire certified automation testers from top automation testing companies who have proven expertise of handling mobile automation testing projects.

We provide automated web testing services. If you would like to get your application tested by our certified automation testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

10 Topmost Reasons Why You Should Use Selenium

So far as the software industry is concerned, after any product arrives at the manual testing stage, almost all the organizations consider automated testing to cut down on the cost that manual testing involves. For any project, companies are rapidly inclining towards open source automated testing tools rather than investing in commercial testing tools which come at a high price. With no investment for licensing, open source testing instruments come with significant features that enable the convenient automation of testing of web portals and software applications. Selenium is by far one of the most popular automated testing tools for websites. With the passage of time, Selenium is becoming more and more popular and it is the most preferred choice of organizations and automation testers for automated testing of web applications, applicable for the functionality as well as the GUI.

There are a number of reasons why organizations prefer to use Selenium for automated testing. Here we will discuss the top 10 reasons. But before that, let us have an overview of the available test packages and modes of Selenium.

Test Packages of Selenium

Selenium comprises a package of diverse test components mainly consisting of four main tools. Each of the tools has a definite role to play in supporting the development of automated testing pertaining to a web application.

• Selenium IDE: This is in fact an add-on feature for Mozilla Firefox. This is generally used for playback, record, debugging and edit of selenium scripts.

• Selenium RC: This is alternatively known as Selenium Remote Control and is utilized to run tests across various systems and browsers.

• Selenium Grid: It is capable of running diverse cases of Selenium RC at the same time. Selenium Grid facilitates distribution of tests across different browsers and machines so that parallel execution of the tests can be carried out.

• Selenium Webdriver: This is the latest version of Selenium which comprises a number of Selenium APIs.
  

Modes of Selenium

For execution of test suites and test cases, Selenium comes with the following three modes.

• Record-Playback mode: Within this mode, Selenium IDE can only be used for recording test scenarios with regards to test cases pertaining to Firefox. This offers a brilliant way to start off with writing tests as well as grouping the same together in order to build the test suite. It is possible to export the tests that are recorded to several programming languages; hence they can be tweaked and put within the testing framework. These test suites and test cases can then be replayed in order to check the validations and verifications or transported to Selenium Grid or RG for more tweaking.

• Selenium Remote Control Mode: Here, Selenium starts off manifold browsers one after the other, following which it runs the test cases that have been recorded and saved in the preferred language. This promotes the enhancement of the test cases with the help of programming and looping techniques with the aim to cover all the necessary checks and test scenarios.

• Test Runner Mode: This mode involves the recording and replaying of test cases as HTML tables. It constitutes just another method for execution of Selenium RC and Selenium IDE test cases. Here, the test result reports are checked in cases they have not been already formatted.
  

10 Reasons Why Selenium is Great to Use

• Taking the other automation tools into consideration, Selenium has the capability to operate on almost every OS.

• Selenium is an open source testing tool and hence it serves for cost-effective automation testing.

• Selenium supports multiple languages such as Python, Pearl, Ruby, PHP, .NET (C#) and Java. You are required to be comfortable in just a single language in order to operate Selenium.

• One highly beneficial feature of Selenium is that the language used for building the program is independent of the language that the web application or website is using. This implies that the test script can be developed in any of the languages that Selenium supports.

• This testing tool supports a range of browsers like Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE 6, 7, 8 and Mozilla Firefox.

• Selenium has a very dynamic developer community that is backed by Google.

• So far as Selenium is concerned, we have a number of robust methods for location of elements such as CSS, Xpath, DOM, and so on.

• With Selenium, it is convenient to implement frameworks that revolve around Object oriented programming like Keyword Driven, Data driven and Hybrid.

• Selenium provides support for integration of open source frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, NUnit and so on.

• With the use of Selenium, it is possible to execute simultaneous tests leveraging various browsers on various machines. This is turn cuts down the time for test execution when a large project is in progress.

With its useful features, Selenium automation testing serves as a key tool for browser compatibility testing as well as system functional testing. It is indeed strong when compared to the available tools for automation testing and is very simple and flexible.

We provide selenium web application testing services. If you would like to discuss with an expert selenium tester from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.