How Test Case Automation Fast-tracks Test Life Cycle Automation

A recent Gartner report states that the demand for Enterprise Mobile Apps is estimated to surpass existing Development Capacity Five to One. Likewise, by the end of 2017, market demand for Mobile Application development service will rise almost 5 times faster than the organization’s in-house IT team’s capacity to develop and deliver them. It further forecasts that the soaring sale of mobile devices will shoot up the demand for applications in the enterprise.

This further reinforces the significance of testing and getting your application / software up to the mark for the ever-greedy and ever-demanding marketplace. Whether it is an enterprise or an individual, everyone is hungry for more features and a more secure interface. Every application and business idea is an opportunity to consider.

Consequently, it is imperative for businesses to accelerate and automate the testing mechanism and ensure flawless product / application. The sheer purpose is to make it effective in terms of costs, time, and efforts. With rising demand and opportunities in the market, applications have to be developed within shrinking timelines and at the same time it is necessary to optimize the existing manpower.

In order to answer this ever challenging situation, experts are today advising and progressing towards Automated Testing.

Automation drives growth and it follows manual testing. While there could be couple of Manual testing rounds done, Test automation entails the use of specific software to the check the execution of tests and compare the actual outcome alongside the predicted outcomes. The key and compelling aspect about Test automation is that it mechanises recurring but mandatory tasks by implementing standardized testing processes / tools.

Test automation is critical for continuous delivery and continuous testing. It further plays a pivotal role in establishing a reliable and robust testing architecture. At the same time it focusses on constantly enhancing quality with minimal efforts and shorted schedule.

So, as the Young Turks say, why work hard, when you can ‘Work Smart’?

Test Automation is increasingly getting popular, as it reduces the development schedule and consistently provides each software build. So, the underlying objective of this methodology is to connect the user and the testing team way ahead in the design and development cycle and further enhance the end software / application. Additionally, it ensures that the user’s requirements and specifications are considered to address the remotely possible risks in the development cycle.

What are the typical steps for Automation of Test Life Cycle Methodology (ATLM)?

1. Automation feasibility analysis
2. Test Plan/Design
3. Environment Setup
4. Test Script Generation/Automation test case Generation
5. Test script execution
6. Test result generation & Analysis

The ATLM methodology necessitates an organized approach that puts across a process to strategize and initiate testing. Consequently, with this, the test team can escape those commonly committed test program errors such as:

• Executing an automated test tool without a testing strategy or process, which makes it impossible to measure and evaluate the impact of testing.
• Implementing a test design without considering any standard processes, resulting in test scripts that cannot be repeated and could further enable improvisation of the build.
• Implementing the wrong tool or develop an exhaustive test tool.
• Striving 100% automation of test requirements, when tools developed in-house are not able to support automation of all tests.
• Allocating inadequate time for setting up the test tool and introducing the same in the learning curve.
• Involving the test engineer at a later stage in the application-development lifecycle results in unformed approach towards automating the process and the application ends up being incompletely tested. This compromises on the quality.

With constant iterations / enhancements to the software applications, specifically Desktop / Mobile applications, automated software testing brings in accuracy and consistency to the software with each build. Moreover, the methodology helps develop and manage test data and test environment to further include problem reports. The fundamental motive is to reduce the time cycle and enable faster turnaround time for commercial viability.

Is your organization considering a robust and well-defined Automation Testing strategy? Cigniti’s team of experts have collaborated with small and big enterprises globally to enable them with a Test framework, which has resulted in faster time-to-market without compromising on the quality.