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It is a bit fancy to say this is the ultimate guide. Still, we want to wrap up the current Test Automation landscape and share the trends. We also want to understand what went well in test automation and, most notably, the different options for you, the reader, with the last word. Remember this is a guide, and you are welcome to expand. It is impossible to shrink more than 40 years of Test Automation into one post or several posts.
I remember those days when we used to have just a couple of tools for Automation testing, Mercury and Rational, before Selenium and even before the boom of multiple Testing tools in the global market. The best testing tool or framework for your Project or your organization is the one that best fits your current needs. We will see marketing campaigns saying X number faster, Y number of integration, and other excellent features; still, we need to focus on resolving our current pain points.
“Don’t kill the innovation with bureaucratic processes, but always consider the problem you want to solve.” Enrique A Decoss.
I believe in the potential of a promising future. Still, it’s important to recognize the essential changes throughout history and better understand the direction in which new ideas are leading us. Familiarity with the Test Automation landscape can make it easier to pinpoint these subtle differences and effectively upgrade your current Automation strategy.
Let’s understand the term “Test Automation.” It is a practice in software testing that leverages automation tools or frameworks to manage the test execution instead of a human tester. It reaches actual test results with expected results summarized as assertions inside of our test scripts. As a result, automated testing is effective, and results are faster; it sounds pretty neat on paper.
In traditional software development, testing is completed at the end of a development cycle. However, in today’s software landscape, more companies are moving to a continuous delivery model. As a result, software is constantly being developed and must always be deployed continuously.
Ensuring high quality is crucial for many companies today. The speed at which teams also occur matters if something fails; it reduces the cadence of releasing new products/features. Test automation helps save time and manage testing needs, including the tests covered and optimizing testing activities to deliver faster.
Automation testing tools are game-changers; their ability to run many test cases automatically and conduct many validations makes them a critical weapon for any company. Although automation tools are here to help teams focus on other activities, such as Exploratory testing or creating efficient test cases, their purpose is not to replace humans. Instead, we need to consider them a powerful ally during our agile testing.
When we talk about manual testing tools, we refer to test case testing tools related to features like test case management, defect tracking, and reporting. These tools rely on the QA’s expertise and deliver structure and collaboration to make the testing strategy more efficient. Each tool serves diverse needs depending on the size and type of the Project; we must be clear that these tools help to provide structure to Agile project management and are probably best known as test management tools.
Here you go, some Software Testing tools to support traditional testing:
Jira: Primarily a project management and issue tracking tool, Jira also supports test case management through plugins like Zephyr, TestFLO, and Xray.
TestRail: A test case management tool allowing testers to create, organize, and track test cases and plans.
Zephyr: Another test management solution that seamlessly integrates with Jira, designed for teams practicing manual and automated testing.
qTest: More related to a test management tool designed to help agile teams manage manual and automated tests.
PractiTest: A cloud-based test management tool designed for manual and automated testing.
Bugzilla: Primarily a bug-tracking tool, it is also used for manual test case management.
We understand there are multiple tools like these in the current market; we just provided some examples. Remember, these tools are most suitable for exploratory testing, usability testing, ad hoc testing, and other activities that are hard to perform automatically.
Automated and manual testing (Traditional Testing) are two software testing strategies. While manual testing requires human intervention to execute test cases, automated testing uses software tools to run tests, compare the realized results with the anticipated outcomes, and manage the generation of results autonomously after the initial setup, devoid of human intervention.
Manual Testing Tools:
Automated Testing Tools:
In order to evaluate Automated Testing tools, we must focus on your Project’s needs, the automation tool’s features, and your team’s expertise. Given the type of automation tools available in the current market, choosing one that aligns with your testing requirements, budget constraints, technical capabilities, and long-term objectives is essential.
Selecting a suitable automated testing tool is a strategic decision that can significantly impact the quality and efficiency of your agile process. Simply evaluating the tool’s features, compatibility, ease of use, and support options and considering your Project’s short-term and long-term needs can ensure a better return on investment.
One important aspect that we want to share is that the right tools provide value to your Project and will be used by the right people. In the next section, we must provide the key features to evaluate automated testing tools effectively.
Test automation is still a considerable challenge in many companies. Test scripts are carried out within the regular workflows; the developers and SDETs receive feedback during the build process. However, these tests only cover a limited number of test scenarios, leaving 20-30% of functional test scenarios out of the process. Moreover, like any individual process, traditional testing is prone to errors, which can lead to more significant issues.
We mentioned the critical features regarding the Automation Testing tool, but introducing a new Testing Tool or Framework always presents challenges. We must perform a rigorous analysis before moving forward with any implementations. Proof of concept is always a good idea, and we should try to get supporters in all teams.
Company Culture barrier. We don’t mention this challenge much. Do you feel you’ve done everything possible to drive innovation, but it’s not working? We need to deal with Company subcultures, lack of vision, fear of change, and lack of support from Managers. My advice is to try to solve one problem at a time.
In the 90s, we had one Testing strategy for all circumstances, sometimes adapting depending on the company. Regarding testing tools, we used spreadsheets, HPQC, rational, and in-house test management tools.
For the lucky ones digging automating test cases, we had SQA, Mercury, and Segue dominating the automation landscape ( 25+ years ago), and Selenium appeared in 2004. Still, it required some years for some companies to adopt it (For those interested in history, SQA was acquired by Rational Software, and later on, IBM acquired Rational. HP acquired Mercury Interactive. Segue branded its toolset under the Silk banner, and the company was acquired by Borland, which was, in turn, acquired by MicroFocus).
Many early adopters attempted to apply automation to unstable applications under development. As a result, they spent more time developing and maintaining automated test scripts than testing software.
Let’s explore the other Test Automation testing tools of the past few years. Remember that the main feature of test automation during those days was to run many test cases automatically and conduct many validations, making it a critical weapon for any QA Engineer.
Selenium
“The story begins in 2004 at ThoughtWorks in Chicago, with Jason Huggins building the Core mode as “JavaScriptTestRunner” to test an internal Time and Expenses application (Python, Plone). Automatic testing of any application is core to ThoughtWorks style, given the Agile leanings of this consultancy. He has help from Paul Gross and Jie Tina Wang. For them, this was a day job.” — Extracted from www.selenium.dev/history/.
Huggins began showing “the test tool” to several co-workers. Many were amazed by its fast and intuitive visual feedback and its potential as a reusable open-source “testing framework” for other web applications. Selenium started as a tool, just like many existing frameworks. In terms of the accurate definition, Selenium was mainly a framework for automating web applications for testing purposes, but it was not limited to just that. It was compelled by Selenium Webdriver, Selenium IDE, and Selenium Grid; it is one of the most popular for web automation.
Selenium WebDriver—the heart of Selenium—uses browser automation APIs provided by browser vendors to control the browser and run tests. It is as if a real user is operating the browser. Since WebDriver does not require its API to be compiled with application code, it is not invasive. Hence, you are testing the same application that you push live.
Selenium IDE – IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. It’s an easy-to-use extension and is generally the most efficient way to build test cases faster. In addition, it records the users’ actions in the browser for you, using existing Selenium commands, with parameters defined by the context of that component. Thus, it is a time-saver and a perfect way of learning Selenium script syntax.
Selenium Grid – The parallelism of automation allows you to test in different machines across diverse platforms. Able to run tests in parallel on numerous machines and manage diverse browser versions and browser configurations centrally.
We explored the past, but what about Selenium now? We have a new release, Selenium 4, which includes many new features and improvements; let me say this: a new, fresh look was necessary.
Appium
Appium was another example of solidity; if you are not familiar with the story, Dan Cuellar’s geniality about fixing the challenge of running the UIAutomation framework working on his Project was the precursor of the Appium open source project. Thanks to Jason Huggins for pressing Dan to release and contribute to the initial stages of the Project, Appium began to grow and mature immensely. In May 2014, Appium 1.0 was released, which stood as a milestone in Appium’s development. Appium became the most popular open-source, cross-platform mobile automation framework.
Appium was denominated as cross-platform; it allowed you to write tests against multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) using the same API. In addition, it enabled code reuse between iOS, Android, and Windows test suites ( in those years, we had Windows mobile devices). Appium incorporated vendor-provided frameworks such as XCUITest, UIAutomation, UIAutomator, and WinAppDriver in one single API similar to Selenium WebDriver; it is easy for us to use the “automation libraries” and manage our tests any way we like.
Cucumber
For those not aware of BDD, let me share with you a phrase I prefer referring to BDD: “User Stories in Simple Sentences keeping our tests focalized.” It is not my intention to oversimplify it, but if you cannot explain the concept in simple words, we may need to remove complexity.
BDD is a software development process that includes technical and business people collaborating, exploring, and discovering. Related to Cucumber, Aslak Hellesøy was the leading mind behind this open-source Project; Hellesøy had experience working with the Rspec project but wanted a BDD framework for everyone, including non-technical stakeholders.
Now, we understand a bit of BDD, but what is Cucumber? Cucumber is a cross-platform that reads executable specifications in plain text, validating that the software does what those specifications say. The specifications consist of numerous examples or scenarios. Then, Cucumber verifies that the software works with the specification and generates a test report indicating the status of every scenario. Cucumber uses Gherkin rules to follow these validations that make simple text structures (Given, When, Then) for Cucumber to know the scenarios.
As automation engineers, we need to know Cucumber better; we can always translate our test scripts into BDD using Gherkin and Cucumber.
Last, let me share the Javascript Testing tools/frameworks revolution we saw a few years ago. You know tools/frameworks like Cypress, Playwright, and WebdriverIO. Let me summarize those in one image below, and let me say this: it all started with Protractor and AngularJS.
Evolution of Test Automation
We understand AI and Machine Learning are the hottest topics at this moment. Still, ML and AI have been around for many years, so what changed? First, the increase in cheap computation has driven the plenty of data we are collecting and the capability of machine learning methods. Lastly, AI and ML have matured in identity, techniques, and tools.
We previously explored previous test frameworks and automation testing tools. So, you probably are asking, “Can I incorporate ML into my test automation ecosystem using an open-source framework?” The short answer is yes, but considering different factors, such as hiring data engineers and data scientists to help with design and implementation, it could be lengthy and costly.
When we talk about automated testing tools, we have several types intended to address specific project testing needs, such as functional and non-functional testing. Selecting the correct tool depends on the team’s needs or the application type (e.g., web, mobile, desktop).
API Testing Tools
Currently, the API Testing tools ensure that the APIs in our Project operate as intended, checking various aspects, such as data integrity, response times, and behavior under different conditions. They help verify that the APIs can handle different types of data and requests while maintaining security and reliability. The current API testing tools assist in identifying potential issues, such as performance bottlenecks or security vulnerabilities, allowing for necessary adjustments to be made before deployment.
Load and Performance Testing Tools
Load and performance testing tools thoroughly assess a system’s performance under different load levels, including regular and peak usage. Load & Performance tools determine how the system handles stress, stability, and responsiveness, providing valuable insights into its behavior and performance under different conditions. it helps to identify potential bottlenecks, performance issues, and areas for improvement, ultimately contributing to the overall reliability and efficiency of the system.
Mobile Testing Tools
Mobile testing tools automate mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms. They simulate user interactions on mobile devices to ensure the apps function as expected. These tools help developers and QA professionals streamline their testing processes, reducing testing time and costs and providing high-quality mobile applications that meet user expectations.
UI Cross-Browser Testing Tools
UI Cross-browser testing tools help us to ensure that their web applications function consistently across different browsers, devices, and operating systems. Cross-browser compatibility testing won’t be needed if all browser vendors follow open web standards uniformly. But we live in a world where browsers compete for market share. The primary purpose of Quality Assurance is to deliver an end-user experience that’s consistently delightful across many browsers and devices.
Security Testing Tools
Security testing tools determine applications’ possible vulnerabilities, risks, and security breaches. These tools help ensure the application’s security threats, evaluate the security posture of systems, identify vulnerabilities, assess risks, and provide robust security measures within applications.
Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Tools
BDD tools facilitate writing tests in a more natural language or other human-readable formats, enabling collaboration between developers, QAs, and non-technical stakeholders. These tools allow test cases to be written as specifications of expected behavior based on business needs.
Visual Testing Tools
Visual testing tools check an application’s visual appearance to ensure that the UI elements are correctly displayed across different devices, browsers, and screen resolutions. They help us avoid visual errors that can cause potential loss of confidence in our applications.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Tools
While robotic process automation (RPA) tools are mainly employed for streamlining business processes, RPA tools can also be effectively utilized for test automation. It is particularly beneficial when testing processes encompass repetitive human actions, as RPA tools can accurately mimic these actions to ensure thorough and efficient testing.
While robotic process automation (RPA) tools are mainly employed for streamlining business processes, they can also be effectively utilized for test automation. It is particularly beneficial when testing processes encompass repetitive human actions, as RPA tools can accurately mimic these actions to ensure thorough and efficient testing.
One of my favorite quotes about beginning to ask questions like why we do things is in the book Star with Why by Simon Sinek: comprehending your WHY is not the only form to be successful. Still, it is the only way to maintain lasting success and have a more extraordinary blend of innovation and flexibility. If we want to successfully introduce a new Tool or change an existing one in our company, we need to be clear about the problem we want to solve or the key results we want to achieve.
Credits: Forbes 2022 State of Test Automation Report
Here, we can find some challenges from some companies trying to select the right Automation Testing tool:
Cost. Cost is one of the most significant concerns when switching to a new tool. You will need to factor in the price of licensing the new tool, training your team to use it (if we go for open-source, training cost is crucial), and any necessary hardware upgrades.
Time-consuming (Parallel Execution). Our Testing tool currently leads to many time-consuming and heavy test scripts, which cost extra cloud computing and lack comprehensive coverage. A new testing tool can reduce the time and effort required and allow testers to focus on more complex and critical testing activities.
Learning curve. A new tool can have a steep learning curve, and it may take time for your team to use it. It can result in a temporary drop in productivity, which could affect your overall testing timelines. Also, if a new programming language is required, it could increase the adoption time in your company.
Ecosystem Integration. Depending on the complexity of your testing environment, integrating the new tool with your existing systems may be challenging. You must ensure that the tool works seamlessly with your other testing tools and your development and deployment workflows.
Compatibility. Another potential issue is compatibility with your applications and platforms. The new tool may only support some of the technologies and platforms that you currently use, which could limit its effectiveness.
High Maintenance Costs. Like any tool, your new test automation tool will require ongoing maintenance and support. Therefore, you must ensure you have the necessary resources to maintain and update the tool over time.
Test automation is still demanding. Coded tests are executed within the usual workflows, and developers/SDETs/QAs receive feedback within the build process. However, these tests only cover a limited number of test scenarios. Consider all these factors when you or your team selects the correct automation testing tool for your Project.
Automation Testing is undeniable; the companies. If you plan to use any software Testing tool, please consider this guide; these factors will help organizations understand where they are in the process and how automation tool adoption can increase productivity and collaboration across teams.
Testing tools/Frameworks are more intelligent and autonomous than before. Therefore, integrating these tools into existing CI/CD pipelines will attract more practitioners, not only QAs but also to adopt the technology to decrease test automation maintenance and reliability costs.
Modern testing tools are handy and enable faster testing results on software solutions. The return on investment could be more rapid, making the initial cost minor.
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