26 December, 2013

Increase Efficiency and Productivity of Mobile Apps with Test Automation

An enterprise can avail several advantages by automating its software testing process. Along with reducing the development and test cycle, a comprehensive test automation strategy can further get higher ROI, along with increasing efficiency and productivity. Each organization also has option to choose from loads of testing tools and frameworks according to specific needs of individual projects. But the test automation strategy of an enterprise must consider some key points to optimize efficiency and productivity with test automation.

6 Ways to Effectuate Your Test Automation Strategy

certified automation testers
1) Decide the Test Cases to Automate: Each enterprise has option to automat all as well as selected test cases. Therefore, the test automation strategy must identify what test cases to be automated. It is always a good idea to decide the test cases to automate based on the repetition of the test. If a test case needs to run frequently or perform the same action by using a huge volume of data, it must be automated. On the other hand, the test cases that run only a few times may not be considered for automation.

2) Test Early and Frequently: Unlike manual testing methods, automation testing can be carried out without investing any additional time and effort. Further, the test cases can be reused and used repeatedly to evaluate the application in detail. But each organization must start testing the software as early as possible, in addition to testing frequently to identify all bugs, errors and flaws in the application. The automated unit testing will further make it easier to build automated test suite without any hassle.

3) Pick Customized Test Automation Tools: An organization can further optimize its test automation plan by choosing the most effective tools and frameworks. As it has option to choose from a large number of test automation tools, the enterprise must evaluate the pros and cons of each tool according to the requirements of the project. At the same time, the company must opt for innovative testing tools that enable users to test a software application across multiple operating systems and web browsers.

4) Consider Changes in UI Design: Often test scripts are written by keeping in mind the features and functionalities of the application. So the accuracy of test results will be impacted if the test scripts do not identify the changes in the user interface of the application. The test scripts further needs to be updated regularly to work seamlessly with the current as well as future versions of the application. As the test tools identify and locate a specific object based on a set of properties, the test scripts must be effective in defining the properties exactly.

5) Divide the Testing Efforts: Similar to software development, testing is also teamwork. So the test cases will be written and run by specific testing professional. While planning test automation, you must identify the skill, expertise and experience of each testing professional. The understanding will make it easier to assign tests according to the QA engineer’s skills and experience. It is also important to choose the professionals who have adequate scripting knowledge to write the automated test scripts. The combination of efficient tools and expert QA engineers will deliver more accurate test results.

6) Evaluate Quality of Test Results: The quality of test results is essential to take several important decisions. The accuracy of test results will also have a huge impact on the data-driven applications. Often the data used for testing are stored externally, and accessed from database tables, Excel sheets, XML files and similar data sources. The test cases can be made more reusable and easy-to-maintain by storing the data that will be entered into input fields in external files. Further, the scope of the test case can also be extended without changing the test scripts. At the same time, the testing professionals must put some amount of time and effort to present the test data in a structured way.

The strategy also needs to concentrate on cross-platform automated testing methods to enhance test coverage. Further, an organization can adopt test driven development approach to shorten product launch cycles, while saving time, efforts and resources.

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

If you are looking to outsource automated testing and are considering options to hire certified automation testers, please reach out to us. We will be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

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