Showing posts with label hire automation test engineers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hire automation test engineers. Show all posts

Sunday, 11 May 2014

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.

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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.

We provide outsource automated testing services. If you would like to hire automation testers from us or would just like to speak to one of our expert software testers, please reach out to us at Mindfire Solutions.

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Best practices in API Automation Testing

Before we get into the depth of the best API automation testing practices, let us start with – what API automation actually is. An API or Application Programming Interface can be defined as a collection or set of functions as well as procedures known as API calls, that are executable by various software applications. Now, coming to API automation testing, it is the mechanism in which a test support application that links API and systematically exercises the functionality thereof, is created for simulating the end user application of the API.

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Now, let us discuss the best tried as well as tested practices of API automation testing. The practice generally should involve the following steps in a chronological manner.

Planning the test

Before starting off with the testing as well as writing test codes, one should at first spend a certain amount of time, chalking out strategies about the ways that need to be adapted during testing and more importantly, about the things that needs to be evaluated.

Now, depending upon the complexity of the tests, the process of planning should vary. A thorough design documentation needs to be done as this will make the process of testing much easier along with less time consuming.

Organizing the entire thing

This is the second step of the assessment. You need to organize the evaluation in a proper way so much so that it will have a positive impact on the productivity, efficacy, as well as maintenance of the tests. It helps in the betterment of the software performance. For example, all the tests that are to be conducted for a particular API should be under a single file. Then again, the file in question should be named after the API that is subjected to evaluation. What happens because of this is that it makes easier for the other users to locate all the test cases, and spend the up-front expenditure for ensuring that the foundation is firm as well as clean. While some procedures need to be tested in pairs and groups, there are certain procedures that need to be tested in singles.

Each and every case needs to be self-contained as well as isolated from the dependencies as much as possible, It helps the developers when it comes to copying individual cases into a definite stand-alone application or in the individual unit-test framework of a user.

Setting the Priorities

As and when the test cases are developed, against the popular practice of going straight away to an invalid test, it is important to set priorities. It makes easier for the testers to put more emphasis on the mainline cases at first, before opting for any other issue.

In fact, one should ascertain the test cases that need to be conducted at first. This purely depends upon the instinct of the tester. It is the tester who will have to ascertain which cases that will have to be tested first. Prioritizing the tests will only make the process simpler.

Development

Depending upon the mode of evaluation, it might turn out beneficial for the tester to store the state information in variables that can easily be accessed. If the test breaks when stressed, it is imperative that a proper investigation is done on the machine along with all the variables involved in the tests. During development, it is better to keep all the previous state information handy, particularly if the test case in question deals mainly with arbitrary data.

Configuration

Another very common as well as useful practice of API testing is changing the run-time behavior. As the testing starts, logging out of the system along with the assessment parameters is an imperative. The exact configuration as well parameters can be recreated from a log file. If each and every evaluation case performs its own configuration setup and initialization, it is imperative to evaluate the real life scenarios.

Validation

Validation of the test's behavior is another important practice, though at times, testers tend to ignore it and this leads to false positives and negatives or presence of non-actionable bugs even after testing is completed. When evaluating the test cases, one should assume that it will fail initially and then the real challenge is to prove that it works or does not work in a proper way. If you are planning to hire service of automation testing companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!

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

Wednesday, 25 December 2013

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.

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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.

Sunday, 8 December 2013

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.

We provide automation web testing services. If you would like to hire automation testers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.