J Introduction of Automation Testing J

What is Automation Testing???

Automating the human activities in order to validate the application functionalities within less time (when compared to manual testing approach) is known as Automation Testing.

Application is validated with the help of either third party automation tools or scripting and programming languages.

Example of third party automation tools -> Quick Test Professional (QTP),  Selenium, Rational Robot, Win Runner , etc…

Why should we opt for automation testing???

      Fast in execution.

      More reliable.

      More consistent.

      Test script is repeatable so we can validate the functionalities with multiple set of data.

      And script is reusable for different similar type of applications and on different versions.

Are there any drawbacks of opting for automation testing???

Yes, Of course. L For every technology we have drawbacks, similarly for opting this method also have drawbacks (disadvantages).

      Automation tools are expensive.

      Skilled automation test engineers are required.

      Some parts of the functionalities are not possible to automate.

      Automation tools support only some kinds of environments. (Example: QTP supports only windows operating systems).

So it is very clear that we cannot opt for automation in all the scenarios. Then, in what cases we should choose this automation testing.

Scenarios which can be preferred to automation testing…J

The scenarios which are more repeatable and complex to validate the functionalities manually is suitable for automation testing.

Example: When we perform retesting and regression testing, we can opt for automation testing.

                If the scenarios are not repeatable and easy to perform manually then we will be continuing with manual testing.

Example: User Interface testing, usability test scenarios, one time testing activities, adhoc testing, etc…