Three Step Process to Automate Software Testing

Large software organizations have long been patronizing software testing. However, small and medium (SMBs) sized companies find manual testing time consuming and expensive.  For such companies, automation can prove to be the right alternative.
Given below is a three step process to automate your software testing requirements:

STEP ONE
Any software which requires functional tests, if supported by automation testing, must follow a Q&A process.  To explain, if a user has ten acceptance test cases, assuming all these can be automated, the following questions need to be answered:

1. Are these test cases within the scope of future releases?
2. Are they a part of the regression suite?
3. Will this particular functionality be used in a majority of flows?
4. Are these tests of high complexity?
5. Are they critical?

Thumb rule is to not automate all scenarios, fields on pages etc. unless specified by the client.

STEP TWO

1. Understand the application architecture
2. Synchronization process between third party vendors (if applicable)
3. Database design
4. UI design frameworks (e.g. JQuery, Knockout, Wicket, Vaadin, HTML5, etc.)

Before finalizing the automation process, these factors also need to be considered:

1. Customer expectations
2. Costs involved (Closed loop or Open Loop)
3. What is the type of application (AUT)?
4. Application’s complexity
5. System configuration support (OS, browser, 32/64-Bit etc.)
6. Ease-of-use for maintenance
7. Forecast on break-event point (ROI)

STEP THREE
Finally, the framework should have the following parameters:

1. It should provide feasibility to users as per project requirements and also enable all (including non-technical personnel) to participate by writing and maintaining test scripts.
2. The test design approach (E2E, Module wise etc.)
3. The integration process with third party tools (need based)
4. The framework’s flexibility in script enhancements.

Automation ensures that testing can be undertaken by any company at any time. While automation has its advantages, it is not 100 percent foolproof and manual intervention is recommended at least at the final stages of product release.