Related Articles
5 Advantages of Automated Testing Over Manual Testing
Software testing is the process of identifying flaws in any software application in light of the client’s requirements. Software testing aims to make the program error-free, raise the program’s quality, and satisfy the user. Automation testing is a valuable tool for ensuring the quality of software products. It offers numerous benefits over manual testing
Manual testing involves human observation to comprehend the user interface, organizational structure, and behavior of any product. Automated testing can perform tests faster, more accurately, and with greater coverage than manual testing. It can execute repetitive tests continuously, freeing up testers to focus on more complex and creative testing tasks. Automated testing can also simulate different user scenarios and input variations, making it possible to test a wider range of use cases.
What is manual testing?
Manual testing refers to the process of executing tests sequentially without the use of automated testing scripts, where QA engineers evaluate the software’s functionality according to the specified requirements. The results are also manually recorded without any automation tools.
Various types of manual testing, including
- Black Box Testing– It involves evaluating the software’s functionality without considering its internal code structure
- Clear Box Testing– utilizes programming skills to design test cases and is typically conducted at the unit level.
- Component Testing– ensures that all source code modules and individual units are functioning correctly
- End-to-End Testing-evaluates a system’s compliance with specific requirements and is performed on fully integrated applications.
- Integration Testing– involves testing interfaces between two application units
- Pre-Production Testing– It is usually conducted with end-users to ensure the final product’s functionality.
What is automation testing?
Automated testing is a commonly used term in the IT industry, and if you’re familiar with software testing, you likely understand its fundamental concept. In essence, automated testing refers to the mechanization of repetitive testing tasks, resulting in a development process that is faster, less expensive, and more efficient. To perform automated testing, testers create test scripts that execute the tests.
Automation testing is a software testing technique that uses automated tools to perform test cases on software applications. It involves the use of specialized software tools to control the execution of tests and compare actual results with expected results. Some of the uses of automation testing include:
- Regression Testing:Automation testing is useful in performing repetitive tests such as regression testing. This type of testing is essential to ensure that changes to the software do not introduce new bugs or break existing functionality.
- Functional Testing: This verifies that the software application meets the requirements and specifications of the business.
- Load Testing: It involves testing the software application under high loads to determine its ability to handle concurrent users and data processing.
- Performance Testing: This measures the speed, scalability, and stability of the software application under various conditions.
- GUI Testing:GUI testing verifies that the graphical user interface of the software application is working correctly.
- Integration Testing: This helps to verify that different modules of the software application work together correctly.
- API Testing:API testing verifies that the application programming interface of the software application is working correctly.
Overall, automation testing helps improve the quality and efficiency of software testing, reduces testing time and cost, and provides more reliable and consistent test results.
The primary distinction between automated and manual testing is who performs the tests, with humans following step-by-step instructions in the latter case while the former utilizes automation frameworks and other software tools.
It’s worth noting that manual and automated testing can serve different purposes and be helpful in various scenarios.
Benefits of Automated Testing over Manual testing
1. Automated Testing Saves Time and Money
It is essential to run software tests every time source code is modified. Software releases may be tested on all supported operating systems and hardware configurations. Costs and time are involved in manually repeating these tests.
Tests that are automated can be run repeatedly at no additional cost, and they are much faster than manual tests. By automating software testing, repetitive tests can be run in hours rather than days.
2. Automated software testing can significantly enhance test coverage
It enhances the quality of software. Lengthy tests that may be neglected during manual testing can be performed unattended using automation. Furthermore, they can be executed on multiple computers with diverse configurations. Automated testing is capable of examining internal application aspects such as memory contents, data tables, file contents, and internal program states to ascertain if the product is functioning as intended. Test automation enables executing numerous intricate test cases during every test run, providing coverage that would be unfeasible with manual testing.
3. Testing can enhance accuracy in software development
Testing plays a crucial role in improving software quality by identifying and eliminating defects before the product is released to the market. However, manual testing can be a tedious and error-prone process, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks. Even the most diligent manual testers are susceptible to making mistakes when performing monotonous tests repeatedly.
On the other hand, automated tests are highly accurate and reliable, as they can execute the same set of steps precisely every time they are run without the risk of human error. Furthermore, automated tests can record detailed results consistently without overlooking any details, providing valuable insights into the software’s behavior and performance.
4. Developers and testers benefit from automated testing
Shared automated tests are a powerful tool that developers can use to improve the quality and reliability of their code. By creating a suite of tests that cover the most critical aspects of an application, developers can quickly identify issues and bugs in their code before they become larger problems.
When developers make changes to the source code, automated tests can be configured to run automatically, either on a local machine or in a continuous integration (CI) environment. If any of the tests fail, the system will immediately notify the developer or the team responsible for the code. This feature helps to identify issues quickly, allowing the developer to address them before the code is merged into the main branch or sent to QA for further testing.
Utilizing shared automated tests not only helps developers find issues quickly, but it also provides them with more confidence in their work. They can be sure that their code is working as intended and has passed a battery of tests before it is deployed to production. This, in turn, can save developers time in the long run, as they can avoid having to spend time manually testing their code or fixing bugs that could have been caught earlier in the development process.
In summary, shared automated tests are a valuable tool that developers can use to improve the quality and reliability of their code. By automating the testing process and catching issues early, developers can save time and feel more confident in their work.
5. What Manual Testing Cannot Do, Automation Can
When it comes to testing web applications, it’s essential to verify how the system behaves under different loads and stress levels. However, simulating a controlled web application test with thousands of users is a complex and challenging task, even for the most prominent software and quality assurance (QA) departments.
In the past, the traditional approach to testing web applications involved manual testing by QA teams, which was both time-consuming and error-prone. However, with the advancement of technology, it’s now possible to automate testing processes and simulate large numbers of virtual users to test the performance and scalability of web applications.
Using specialized tools, it’s possible to simulate tens, hundreds, or even thousands of virtual users accessing the web application simultaneously. By doing so, it’s possible to replicate real-world usage scenarios and identify potential issues that may arise under high loads.
When should I use manual testing versus automated testing?
The decision of whether to use manual testing or automation testing depends on several factors. While automation testing has its advantages, there are some scenarios where manual testing may be more suitable, such as:
- Exploratory testing, ad hoc testing and user interface testing require human intuition, creativity, and subjective evaluation, making them unsuitable for automation testing.
- When flexibility is required. Manual testing allows for more flexibility in testing procedures, making it easier for testers to adapt to changing requirements and new information.
- Short-term projects. If a project has a short timeline, it may be more cost-effective to perform manual testing instead of investing in automation testing tools and scripts.
- Usability testing. Automated testing cannot fully evaluate the usability of a product, as it requires human feedback and perception.
LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that provides infrastructure and tools for testing web applications across multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices. It can be used for both manual and automated testing.
LambdaTest offers several features that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of automated testing. It provides cross-browser testing capabilities, allowing testing of web applications on multiple browsers and versions. The platform also supports device testing, enabling comprehensive testing of applications’ responsiveness and user experience across different screen sizes.
Additionally, LambdaTest allows parallel testing of multiple automated tests, reducing testing time. The platform is also integrable with popular test automation frameworks such as Selenium, Appium, Jest, and Cucumber.
Conclusion
Manual testing involves a human tester executing test cases and verifying the behavior of the application or system being tested. This process is typically slower and more labor-intensive than automated testing, but it offers some advantages that automated testing cannot provide.
Automated testing, on the other hand, involves the use of software tools to run tests automatically and compare the actual results with the expected results. This approach can be much faster and more efficient than manual testing, especially when dealing with large, complex systems or applications. Automated testing is also more reliable than manual testing, since it eliminates the potential for human error.
However, there are certain types of testing that may be better suited to manual testing than automated testing. Ultimately, the choice between manual testing and automated testing will depend on a variety of factors, including the nature of the system or application being tested, the goals of the testing process, and the resources available for testing.
In some cases, a combination of both manual and automated testing may be the best approach, allowing testers to take advantage of the strengths of each method and ensure comprehensive testing coverage.
