Measuring The Success Of Test Automation - An Insight

Evaluating the success of test automation has always been a challenge and an important issue too. Objectives of test automation are always vital, as they ultimately determine the direction a team of developers is headed in. It also determines the end result of all the funding as well as the assessment of any particular project and last but not the least, the probability of success or failure in meeting the intended mission objectives. One of the mainstays of measurement of success is the AROI or Automation Return on Investment, which is at times misconstrued as the benefits or advantages of automation. Let us discuss how to evaluate the success of test automation.

Previously, a crude process of evaluation was followed. It included measurement of the percentage of test cases that were automated. However, this at times turned out to have a fair bit of loopholes, and was soon discarded and a new method was adopted.

Before we get into that, let us at first know why we need to do test automation? The main objective of test automation measurement is to improve the test efficiency so as to save time along with effort, along with a substantial amount of costs at the end of the day.

Now what are the most appropriate ways of measuring the success of automatic evaluation of software? Rather than measuring the percentage of evaluation cases to be automated, the essential metrics of automatic evaluation should put more emphasis on the savings that can be acquired from successful execution of those automatic evaluation cases in terms of time as well as efforts.

The entire process is though easier said than done. Actually, correctly calculating the time along with effort saved through execution of automatic evaluation is an extremely complicated process. For accurate calculation, it is imperative to know the amount of time as well as the efforts it takes for execution of each and every manual test case. Besides, once those figures are available, it becomes necessary to map the data to the actual scripts of the automatic evaluations that are being executed, followed by a holistic calculation of all the parameters of the evaluations.

In order to reach a concrete conclusion through this entire process, what is needed is a sizable amount of time, effort as well as a seamless collaboration with the team that executes manual tests.

However, one might not forget that there is always the presence of a certain amount of tests that are not yielding the desired results in spite of being automated. Hence, in order to bring this percentage into consideration it is imperative to change things into Value Metrics of Test Automation.

This new process of evaluation has been pretty effective, albeit the strenuous effort that is needed to collate all the required information. However, the test management tool used needs to be appropriate and should be such that it will readily support capturing the relevant information, aggregating the same and returning the desired metrics alongside the trend. For this, MS Excel is a wonderful tool that comes in handy.

However, just as a footnote perhaps it will not be inappropriate to mention here that in order to get maximum ROI for automatic evaluation, the following parameters need to be maintained:

The scope of the Automation will have to be determined in details before getting off with the project.

The appropriate automation tool needs to be selected on the basis of the fact whether it is appropriate for the assessment. Do not select tools on the basis of its popularity.

The framework needs to be appropriate. The standards for scripting will have to be maintained in a proper way. The scripts, comments as well as the code indentation to need to be uniform, and finally, exceptions should be handled adequately.

Selection of the right automatic evaluation tool, assessment process as well as a testing team is extremely important factors when it comes to a successful evaluation. Moreover, when it comes to successfully evaluate the achievement of these tests, maintenance of these parameters properly also makes the evaluation easier as well as quicker.

You can hire testers from top certified automation testing company in India who can help you accomplish testing within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Test Automation- The holy grail of testing

While developing a software, testing is an important part. Testing is often done manually which involves a person who sits in front of a computer to execute test steps carefully. A better alternative to this is automation testing which involves using automation tools for execution of testing. Some software enters test data into System Under Test and compares the actual as well as expected results and then detailed test reports are generated. Resources and money have to be invested in Test Automation but it is all worth it due to the benefits that is reaped from this.

Test automation is generally used in software during any or all of the following scenarios:

• Critical and large projects
• Projects requiring frequent testing out of same areas
• If the requirements do not change too frequently
• Time is available
• The software is stable during manual testing
• The application has to be accessed for performance as well as load with several virtual users.

During the cycles of development, software tests are often repeated so that quality can be ensured. With the modification of source codes, software tests have to be repeated on all hardware configurations and operating systems supporting it. It is time consuming as well as costly to repeat the tests manually. The advantage of automated testing is that once they are created numerous tests can be run as many times as you want without any additional costs. On top of that, compared to manual test they are quite faster as they reduce the running time to just hours from days.

Accuracy is greatly improved with this testing. In case of manual testing, even if the tester is very conscientious and precise, he is bound to make some mistake or the other when carrying out the process as it can be monotonous and cumbersome. The same steps are performed by automated tests every time and detailed results are also recorded. The area of coverage can be increased by using this type of testing. The scope and depth of tests are increased and in fact you do not have to avoid lengthy tests which can be run on multiple computers despite having different configurations.

Web application tests for hundreds of users is quite an impossible task even if the software departments are large; this scenario however, is not applicable for automated testing which simulate thousands at one go. When you adapt this method you have to form a test suite which after due course of time becomes out of date due to the change of working of existing features or introduction of some new functionality. When the out of date tests are run they will automatically fail which makes it necessary to fix test scripts which ensures that the scripts are always modern and up to date with special attention given to the maintenance of software quality.

Despite the change of interface, the software's different versions can reuse the tests, which makes it quite cost effective. A very important reason for adopting this testing method is that it is extremely reliable in results which ensures consistency as well as efficiency. A lot of time is saved from the point of view of both developer as well as tester which can be utilized for concentrating on other projects which may be more rewarding as well as challenging.

Although products of software development groups are always tested, there are always some defect or the other in the delivered software. Before the release of the product test engineers work hard to detect them but they always manage to linger and reappear. This factor is eliminated by test automation. However, the role of testers cannot be eliminated completely as not every feature can be tested like that; in some cases this testing is not suitable for all projects.

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