7 Benefits of Automation Testing to Businesses
The world is in a constant state of evolution that is mostly attributed to the improvements in technology. The development of the internet and its commercialization led to a significant increase in the importance of computing devices. There are many benefits of automation testing to business. In this article we have discussed 7 points.
Computing devices have evolved from chunky computers stored in cooled rooms to cellphones and laptops. All these computing devices need software. Software refers to the programs that run on these said devices. Software consists of coded instructions that guide or instruct a computing device on how to perform a task.
The software also acts as the intermediary between the user and the device. The significance of software is seen in the establishment of a multi-billion dollar industry that is focused on the development of software for various functions.
The software development process entails many steps. The steps cover the planning to the delivery of the final product. The average time required for a software development project is 4 to 9 months. During this period, the testing stage takes about 3 to 6 weeks. This signifies the importance of testing.
This led to the development of automation tools to automate the then manual software testing. So, what is automation testing?
Automation testing entails using specialized software and tools for software testing. The tools control the running and execution of software in development. After the software has run, the testing tools compare the results. They compare the results gotten from the test with the expected results.
The many advantages portrayed by the use of automation testing emphasize its importance. Developers who are not conversant with automation testing should look into guides on automated testing for beginners. Learning automated testing will help improve their efficiency in the software development process. It will also ensure they reap all other benefits of automated testing.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits that businesses get from using test automation.
- Reduced Software Testing Costs
When coming up with the budget for a software development project, software testing takes up about 15% to 25% of the total project cost. These are figures derived after considering various test factors. The factors are:
- The various testing levels required for the software
- The testing methods in use.
However, most companies are not aware that using automated software testing methods will need less budget allocation. Paul Grossman carried out a study where he assessed automated software Testing versus manual software testing.
In his research, he discovered that adopting automated software testing methods lowered the hourly cost of testing software from $78 to $17.54.
These reduced testing costs help businesses save significant amounts of money. They save money while still enjoying the various other benefits of automated testing.
- Timely Testing Feedback
New automated software testing frameworks are fast. The frameworks have inbuilt methods for accelerating the software testing process. Using a framework like Selenium will make the computing device work faster. This means that the results of the tests will be available sooner.
When using manual testing, long delays in finding bugs can cause a company to lose money. Repetitive software tests, such as regression and integration testing, benefit from the use of modern automated testing frameworks with test acceleration methods.
Getting timely test feedback grants developers ample time to work on the bugs. More ample time can also grant developers time to improve the software or product. For developers using the agile development method, fast feedback is important. Rapid feedback is vital to them because they are expected to develop and push the code quickly.
The automation of the software testing process allows developers to get quick and accurate feedback.
- Higher Test Accuracy
As the saying goes, humans are to err. In manual testing, human errors can arise due to exhaustion and boredom from executing repetitive tasks.
The use of automated software testing methods eliminates the risk of human error during software testing. This is because, unlike humans, automated software testing tools will run the scripts or sample data correctly in each iteration.
- Early Error Detection
The integration of automated software testing tools in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) helps developers to detect bugs during coding. The tools in IDEs examine lines of code immediately after they are written by the developer.
Early inline detection of bugs helps avoid a common problem encountered by developers. The problem is encountered during software compiling. During compiling without automated testing, the IDE displays many errors. These errors often overwhelm a developer.
The integration of automated software testing in IDEs adheres to the Shift Left Testing method which has many advantages.
- Wide Testing Depth and Coverage
Manual software testing is restricted to testing for accuracy. Manual testing checks the accuracy of data processing methods. Automated software testing offers more testing metrics for the software. Such metrics are:
- System speed
- Software usability
- Software design efficiency
- System performance stability over time
Automated testing also helps to overcome common cases of reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is often needed after making code changes. The code changes cause a ripple effect and introduce new software bugs. Automated testing achieves this by checking the whole software code whenever any changes are made. This helps to save time spent on reverse engineering.
- Simultaneous Cross-Platform Testing
In the past, when developing different versions of software to run on various platforms, the versions had to be independently tested. This was a time-consuming and resource-intensive procedure.
With automated testing, the different versions are tested simultaneously. Cross-platform testing covers:
- Website Optimization for Mobile Phones
- Windows Software
- Android Applications
- iOS Applications
Automated mobile application testing is not widely adopted. It is advisable to take a course on automated mobile testing to gain knowledge.
Simultaneous cross-platform testing helps to reduce the time taken to deploy the software. It also lowers the production cost for the software versions.
- Good Product Quality
All advantages that come with the use of automated testing add up to ensure the development of a good product. Clients have a positive opinion of a company when it makes an excellent product in its first trial and does not need to make product modifications because of faults.
Clients who have a positive opinion of your business will refer more clients to you, increasing your company’s success.
Conclusion
It is vital to note that the benefits of automated testing are heavily dependent on the tester’s abilities. It is therefore advisable that the software tester takes a detailed automation testing course.
Good knowledge of the available tools for automation testing is also an added benefit for developers doing automated testing.
