Today, Test Automation is being considered as the most effective way to enhance coverage, efficiency and effectiveness of any software application. It is redefining the way the engineers perform testing operations.
Having said that, the toughest task for any project is to decide whether Test Automation is required or not. This altogether lays down the grounds for Automation to be considered as an alternate skill set by and large. The IT market is brimming with automation tools, but not every tool suits your project prerequisites. One may need to closely examine the project specifics to choose the most appropriate tool.
However, to analyze and zero-in to one tool that best fits a specific need is a big challenge. While working on a specific project, a team at Saviant faced challenges with their existing test automation tool and had to find the one that best suited their needs. In order to do so, they formulated a strategic approach to choose the right automation tool.
Step 1: Understand your project requirements thoroughly Maintaining the quality of an application by delivering a bug-free product is crucial for the success of any project. There is no such tool that is good or bad but the ROI of any tool relies on the need, i.
Step 2: Consider your existing test automation tool as a benchmark Our team considered Selenium Test Automation Tool as a benchmark to evaluate and determine the best automation tool for their project. The advantages and drawbacks of Selenium Web Driver framework need to be understood before evaluating other tools. Selenium is a free, open source tool available to test web applications and websites. It provides record-playback tool to produce and record playback test scripts.
Testing teams leverage Selenium if they are comfortable with coding techniques and they test web applications through the UI. Browser compatibility is the other challenge with this tool. Step 3: Identify the key criteria suitable for a project There are many key points one should consider before deciding the best-fit automation tool for a project. Here is the list of few key criteria that was used to evaluate the best tool in our case. Step 4: Leverage Pugh Matrix Technique for Analysis Using few of the above key criteria as vital parameters, our team leveraged Pugh Matrix technique to choose the best tool for mid-scale web, desktop and mobile test automation.
For the first parameter, i. Similarly, the team has rated all the other criteria to arrive to a conclusion. This grid has been devised on the basis of research and experience gained by working on the tools. Ranorex is an intense and efficient tool for automation of web, desktop and mobile application.
The tool uses screen scraping technology which is independent of the Application Under Test AUT running on the screen. Apart from the technical plus points, Ranorex offers good customer support through online forums and via email.
With expertise gained through minor trainings or self-learning, even a manual tester can build framework leveraging this tool. Each tool is a good player on its own ground. This analysis is not on account of the tool being unfit but rather in light of the fact that Selenium Web Driver needs more skillful resources for coding. This surpasses the cost of any other tool in terms of Pricing and ease of complexity of maintenance.
However, Selenium Web Driver is the most effective tool for extensive scale web applications. Ghost Inspector is best suited for small user interface automation, whereas Test Studio is good for desktop and Web application testing. B The tool can generate the test result in the desired format. C The tester can select which test cases to execute with given set of test data.
D The tool can execute the test case automatically. E The tool can judge and perform test output validation and mark test cases pass or fail. To ensure the test tool is beneficial for business, the Test Manager have to balance the following factors:. Example: After spending considerable time to investigate testing tools, the project team found the perfect testing tool for the project Guru99 Bank website. The evaluation results concluded that this tool could.
However, after discussing with the software vendor, you found that the cost of this tool is too high compare to the value and benefit that it can bring to the teamwork. Even with hours spent reading software manual and vendor information, you may still need to try the tool in your actual working environment before buying the license. You should have the meeting with the project team, consultants to get the deeper knowledge of the tool.
Your decision may adversely impact the project, the testing process, and the business goals; you should spend a good time to think hard about it. This is an unbiased guide to help you elicit the best tool as per your needs. In this guide, I will provide you 5 most important but often ignored parameters while selecting your test management tool.
But before I begin, let me iterate-. Do not compare Apple and Oranges. If on a budget, open-source is a good option. Although commercial tools are expensive, they offer great support and are easy to use with lots of training material provided.
The next thing you should calculate is the costing for your license. For that you need to estimate the duration for test completion and what method you opt for testing, this will help you to figure out what model would fit in your budget like whether you want to pay as per registered user, concurrent user, or persistent user.
Usually, persistent or one-time costs are higher because of its capital expense. For certain software, you need run time license. Not all vendors support run time licenses, so you need to consider the run time license expense also if you are thinking to install into different machines.
Once, you have distilled your choices based on budget, here are 5 very important parameters to compare your test management tools-. Since manual testing occupies most of the testing time one way to deal with this challenge is to step up automation. ChoIt wosing the correct Test Management Tool can hugely assist in improving these parameters. The test management tool should include detailed information reports related to the testing process.
For example, in test case failure, it is always helpful to know at which step the test failed instead of knowing the test case failed as a whole. Whatever minor changes applied during the testing, the test management tool should inform about the changes to the corresponding team members. For easy follow up and quick action it should also keep an audit trail of changes, including full versioning of test cases.
Also, the test management tool should save results of test as a session and must have the ability to compare the test run results. The other features that are expected from a standard test management tools are documenting test strategy, planning test execution, creation of defects, linking stories, etc. A video upload feature and API support would be an icing on the cake.
Software Releases are complex with multiple activities like tracking of build version, coordination of team and transparency of releases all happening at the same time. Also, it should be capable of managing all project artifacts into one environment. The test management tool must provide a single view of requirements for all stakeholders. Collaboration with stakeholders guarantees that the right requirements are captured.
The tool should be able to trace the links between other development assets and requirements. For distributed teams, it should provide a single shared repository to collaborate and share requirements, evaluate linked defects and understand their relationship to tests. To monitor the test activities, test engineers highly depend on the reports generated by test management tool.
That way, you know what selection criteria you'll need when creating an automation testing tools list. Here are some of the reasons why QA teams include test automation tools within their QA practices:. As you compile an automation testing tools list of requirements, we recommend that you consider these six areas closely:.
Choose a tool that supports the type of automated testing you need, including functional testing, unit testing and load testing. Ensure that the tool provides broad testing support, as your needs may change in the future. Add-ons may be available to expand the versatility of a given tool, but these come at an additional cost. Ideally, a tool supports all or most of the applications and platforms used in your organization. Many tools may only handle. NET or Java applications, so make sure as you research your options that your test automation tool is compatible with all necessary platforms.
Anticipate possible platform changes within your company in the future, such as using different compilers to build your products. Just as your QA team tests for OS compatibility—even if users tend to use a different operating system—your test automation tool should support a variety of different OS configurations in case consumer preferences ever change.
OS compatibility for older versions helps guarantee reverse compatibility for your product. Because ease of use is important, your tool should offer several different ways to complete the same task. If scripting is the only option for creating an automated test, inexperienced team members can find the automated testing process difficult.
The right tool allows all QA team members to run the tests quickly and efficiently, regardless of their automation expertise or technical skill. The right tool simplifies maintenance by generating modular test cases. As a result, these can be easily amended and reused so that automated testing management is a breeze. The tool should also provide detailed failure logs so any script error can be easily identified and fixed.
Easy maintenance moves you one step closer to sustainable, successful automation. Is the tool truly worth the cost? Consider the product price as well as the costs that may pop up in the future, such as compatibility add-ons, upgrades and support fees.
The tool should do everything you need it to do without being a slow drain on your testing budget.
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