What is test automation: A guide

Users have become used to software updates being released constantly. As a software organization, it isn’t easy to ship features at the pace users demand while also ensuring quality is as high as possible, and that’s where test automation comes in handy.

With the help of test automation, organizations can detect and fix problems earlier, in a cheaper and more efficient way, making sure users only get software of the highest quality possible.

But what is test automation really, in practice? Why is it important? How should you implement it? These and other questions will be answered in this guide.

What is test automation?

Test automation is the process of organizing, tracking, and managing the variety of different tests used to validate software. It’s essential to ensuring that development teams maintain a high standard of quality at all points along the software pipeline. It also allows teams to focus more time and effort on creating effective test cases rather than organizing and tracking the details of testing.

Test automation solutions must be able to:

1. Facilitate communication between stakeholders to keep track of where new code is being used
2. Track which environments have deployed new code, when each piece needs testing, and how those requirements integrate back into the moving process of continuously delivering software
3. Determine the extent of existing testing coverage and what other kinds of tests might be needed to expand that coverage
4. Automatically trigger code testing at each stage of development
5. Generate test cases and track the progress of each test case from start to completion
6. Manage both manual and automated testing
7. Ensure that rapidly evolving applications don’t result in overwhelming false positives and burdensome test maintenance

Test automation is the process of organizing, tracking, and managing the variety of different tests used to validate software.

Is test automation the same as automated testing?

The terms “test automation” and “automated testing” are often used interchangeably, but they actually mean fairly different things.

Automated testing is the act of conducting specific tests using automation, rather than conducting them manually. Automated testing can speed the testing process by removing the need for human intervention. Automated testing tools also tend to be more accurate, as manual testing can be monotonous and is therefore more prone to human error.

Automated testing falls into two categories: functional testing which evaluates the business functionality of a software solution, and non-functional testing which tests other requirements of the software such as security, speed, and ability to access databases.

Types of Tests Suitable for Automation

There are a broad range of automated tests that are integral to the SDLC.

1. Unit testing examines individual components of an application before the software is compiled.
2. Smoke tests ensure the essential features of the software work well enough that the application can continue to be tested without “catching fire.”
3. Integration tests determine whether all the modules of the application are integrated and functioning.
4. API tests validate the business layer of software by examining the request – response combinations for APIs on which the software is built.
5. UI tests target the functionality and elements of the user interface.
6. Regression testing is conducted with each new iteration of the software to ensure that existing modules are not adversely affected by new modules.
7. Security tests screen applications for vulnerabilities and weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers.
8. Performance tests evaluate responsiveness, speed, and stability of the application under different levels of stress.

Integrating test automation in CI/CD pipelines

In traditional software development environments, testing is performed at the end of the development cycle. However, as companies move toward an Agile or continuous delivery model for software, software is constantly in development and must always be ready for deployment. In this scenario, leaving testing until the end of the process is no longer viable.

Continuous testing happens throughout the software delivery pipeline rather than in one fell swoop at the end of the cycle. By executing automated tests throughout the process, development teams can obtain feedback on the business risks associated with each release as quickly as possible.

Continuous testing may encompass the complete range of manual and automated testing. Ultimately, continuous testing focuses on business risk and provides insight into whether software can be released.

That’s why it’s crucial to integrate test automation with your pipelines. However, the way you implement this should vary according to the type of tests.

It’s crucial to integrate test automation with your pipelines.

For instance, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to make your pipeline run tests that are very slow every time someone pushes to main or merges a pull request. The execution of these steps should be as fast as possible, which means they should mostly run unit tests and maybe integration tests, as long as they’re not super slow.

For tests that run at a snail’s pace, you might consider removing them from the main pipeline that runs after each commit or merge to main, and adding them to a different pipeline that runs on a schedule (for instance, nightly.) The important thing is that tests are run as often as needed for their feedback to be usable and actionable.

The benefits of test automation

The benefits of test automation include:

1. Faster releases. Test automation enables testing processes to keep up with the accelerated pace of Agile and DevOps.
2. Lower testing costs. Automating the management of testing reduces the cost and time required of development and testing staff.
3. Improved software quality. By enabling and supporting continuous testing, test automation ensures that teams are producing higher-quality software with each new release and helps maintain the highest quality standards throughout the software development pipeline.

Best Practices for Test Automation

Hopefully, by this point, you’re convinced of the importance of test automation. Better yet, you want to start doing it at your team or organization as soon as possible. That’s great news!

In order for you to implement test automation successfully, let’s cover some of the main test automation best practices you’d better be aware of. This list is far from being exhaustive, but it’s a good start:

1. Start with a risk-based approach. You can’t cover all of your application right away, so identify the areas that are at the most risk of introducing bugs—either because they contain complex code, they suffer a lot of change, or they implement a critical user workflow, or any combination of those—and start there.
2. Implement continuous integration. We’ve touched on this before, but it’s worth mentioning it again: make sure you integrate test automation with your CI/CD pipelines.
3. Adopt different kinds of tests in the right proportion. When implementing your test automation strategy, you’ll face the challenge of which types of testing to adopt and in which quantity. Remember that creating tests adds costs to your process, so you must ensure you’re doing it in a way that can get you the best possible return on investment. For a good strategy, consider the test automation pyramid.
4. Make sure adding tests is a required step in your definition of done. That way, your team can ensure new tests are continuously added to your suite when creating new features.
5. Make fixing broken tests a top priority. If tests are broken, your top priority should be to get them to green again. Review the production code and fix it if needed. Do the same for the testing code.

Enterprise teams using Tosca can achieve unprecedented 90%+ test automation rates.

Test automation solutions from Tricentis

Tricentis Tosca is a market-leading, model-based test automation solution that allows teams to develop resilient automated tests without coding. With the industry’s most innovative functional testing technologies, Tricentis Tosca overcomes the barriers of conventional testing tools.

Enterprise teams using Tosca can achieve unprecedented 90%+ test automation rates, enabling their organizations to deliver the fast and continuous feedback required for Agile and DevOps testing. Tosca delivers clear insight into business risk while reducing regression testing time to minutes and maximizing reuse and maintainability.

Key features of Tricentis Tosca include:

• Next-generation technology that “sees” like a human does, enabling it to easily automate testing for applications that were previously difficult or impossible to automate
• Codeless, resilient automated tests that separate the technical information of an application with the automation model, allowing automation rates of 90% or more
• A risk-based approach to testing that reduces risk in software releases while cutting the overall number of tests in the automation suite
• The ability to automatically create and provision on-demand stateful data for even the most complex scenarios