How Test Automation Platforms Can Benefit Software Developers
As a seasoned software developer, you must be already familiar with the software development life cycle (SDLC). Its fifth step, the testing phase, is very crucial for a successful program.
The testing phase comes right after the development and before the deployment phase. This means you can’t deploy software before passing it through the testing phase.
The advancement in the software development world is getting smarter each day. Also, the testing phase is also shifting towards complete automation.
Test Automation Tool
If you have software, you must have a set of instructions or a manual to test its performance. Most often, these tasks are repeated time and again, and the person doing them can become bored or careless. This is where automation comes in.
Instead of doing those tasks manually and repeatedly, you can opt for a test automation platform. Simply define the tasks involved and the test automation tool will perform these tasks without any human intervention.
Why You Need a Test Automation Platform
No doubt, manual testing methodologies are still giving optimum results. Yet, they have a few limitations, such as:
- It consumes a lot of time
- There’s always a chance of errors
- It can be expensive in the long run
That’s why you should use a test automation platform to streamline the testing phase and ultimately speed up deployment.
There are many ways in which test automation platforms benefit software developers. And, we are going to discuss them in detail in this post.
1. Cut-Off Testing Time
Efficiency is one of the significant aspects of test automation platforms, which is missing in manual automation. Instead of fixed time slots, your software testing process runs in the background 24/7.
Quick and timely reports and analyses speed up the other SDLC stages and you can focus on the other deliverables.
Your software testing team can quickly identify bugs and make necessary tweaks to the code.
2. Reduced Testing Cost
As you know, large-scale software requires months for its development. This adds up to the development cost. However, test automation tools can solve this problem.
How? Testing tools need predefined instructions related to different stages of software development. Unlike manual testing where you test software on different standards separately, it can be implemented at any stage.
As a result, there is much less work to do for the software engineers during the later stages of SDLC.
Moreover, while a software engineer is a must-have, you won’t be needing too many technical people around to monitor the process. As a matter of fact, a test automation tool can work without any supervision.
That said, some test automation tools might look costly at the beginning. Given their seamless accuracy and reporting efficiency compared to humans, they’re more affordable in the long run.
3. Enhanced Testing Coverage
One of the limitations in manual software testing is the limited testing scope. By using the automated software testing tools, you can test the whole software in one run.
Moreover, you can test all the use cases, pieces of code, UI/UX design, compatibility, and security of software.
The test automation platforms enable you to write new tests and them in the testing queue. That way, you don’t need to manually cover each component of the software.
4. Faster Cross-Platform Testing
Before the software deployment stage, you must run the cross-platform testing, which may require fixing in design and orientation.
The manual software testing tools allow you to perform cross-platform tests. But you have to schedule the tests for each platform one by one. That’s why this kind of cross-platform software testing takes time.
In contrast, test automation platforms can multitask. They can check your software across multiple platforms in one go. You can even run tests on different devices, browsers, and operating systems. Needless to say, you’ll get accurate and quick reports.
Later, you can implement changes according to each platform based on the report’s findings.
5. More Accurate Reporting
In software engineering, one of the most difficult tasks is to look for bugs in someone else’s code. One change can bring chaos to the whole software.
Some coders follow the practice of leaving comments with each set of code. Yet, you still have to read each line of code before initiating a new session.
But when you use the test automation tools, you get the history of the code. That means you will know what other software engineers have done. Also, you will know about the development and testing tools those engineers used.
So, you’ll get a detailed and comprehensive report to reach your decision quickly.
6. Quick Bug Fixing
You already know that test automation platforms save time. This benefit helps you in the quick delivery of the software deliverables.
By using software automation testing tools, you can fix all the bugs in the code. Also, you can make necessary changes before the software launch day.
If you perform manual software testing, chances are you will miss the deadline. Most companies follow the software development timeline. Thus, if you want to deliver bug-free software, go for test automation platforms. This will save your reputation too.
7. Faster Development in Agile
Today, the majority of software developers follow the agile software development lifecycle. This means using the test automation platforms to speed up the development process.
The automated testing tool sends the bug reports to the testing team. Then, the testing team can perform alpha testing. This process goes parallel with software development.
8. Reliable Testing
There are different reasons to believe in the reliability of test automation tools. Some of these include:
Frequency: These tools offer flexibility to execute a specific test a number of times to validate the results.
Analytics: These tools are trained and tested against specific datasets, hence can identify a bug really quickly. Moreover, the specific instructions and commands fed into their memory remain there, so the error detection will be as accurate as it can get.
Transparency: You can track code changes in source files, new implementations, and comments and make an informed decision.
Flexibility: You can modify your testing tool according to the latest software requirements. An upgrade in software takes less time and investment compared to training the employees.
All these properties make an automation testing tool (and its results) more reliable than manual testing.
9. Quick Feedback
The test automation platforms give instant feedback. So, you will receive it during the development stage. This way, you can make changes to the code right away; there’s no need to go back to the requirement analysis stage.
Besides, the quick feedback system is useful when your software is already launched. If you want to detect a bug, manual testing would not be an appropriate option.
10. CI/CD & DevOps
The CI/CD pipelines and DevOps become difficult to deploy without automated testing.
In CI/CD, each software developer commits their contribution to the source code. For that, you have to have a test automation platform. Through that platform, you can test each developer’s commitment to the source code.
Final Thoughts
So, how can test automation platforms benefit software developers? Not to mention the limitations of the manual testing process, these platforms are preferred because of the following reasons:
- Efficiency and reliability
- Ability to test software without continuous supervision
- Affordability in the long run
- Prevention of software testing bottlenecks
- Cross-functionality of the software team
Such tools offer higher accuracy in error detection and help in addressing them too. With a test automation tool, you’re able to remove bugs in a small amount of time. Plus, your testing team will be more active and responsive.
As a result, you’re able to deliver the software within the deadline.
