Extend your runway with QA Automation

Henry Ford has been credited with introducing automation into the automobile industry. Many critics thought then that it spelt the death knell for human resources employed. But, his main goal for automation was not to destroy the labor market but to create something simple, reliable and affordable.

This simple idea brought, in its wake, better financial revenues and also served a greater number of people. With this simple idea of automation, especially when product testing is involved; the IT world has broken both the time and finance barriers, so to speak.

Quality Assurance Automation is, but, putting this 20th Century idea into work, so that core business work can be carried on without disruptions. Automation testing does not mean that the good old fashioned manual testing in general will die out!

Automation is but a complement to manual testing, given that humans write the scripts.

So how does QA Automation work to help save Time & Money? These are the two biggest factors that any IT company looks for to generate effective ROI (Return On Investment).

Clear goal: As long as the goal of test automation is to reduce the risk and cost of software failure, QA automation helps save time and money. The aim is to increase test coverage to save time during iterative cycles of testing. This will result in greater ROI.
Use the Right Tool: By employing the right tool for automation, the results speak for themselves. Use of the misplaced tool for testing could turn to be a nightmare. The automation maintenance be exponential and will hurt the budget.
Quality & Defect-Free (sic) product: Since automation can help accommodate multiple target operating systems and also be employed to simulate many use cases, running automated tests simultaneously can thus help with the test schedule. Thus, running automated tests iteratively will ensure higher quality of product.

It is true that the tools employed in automation testing can be expensive to start with, but their value and productivity builds with time. Using the same tool and scripts that run multiple times, over multiple check points, will help save both Time & Money.

So what are the right tools for automation testing? The testing market has many testing tools available.

Take the case of a screwdriver, you have many types available, but it all depends on the purpose needed and the technical expertise prevalent to handle them knowing how/when it needs to be deployed!

Open source tools like Selenium, WebDriver, Appium or other proprietary solutions, can bring great benefits to the QA testing team. It has been well established that Selenium integrates well with other popular tools such as Selenium-Grid, Headless browser etc. Tools like Selenium, if deployed with technical expertise can be real beneficial and add to the ROI.

Automated testing is a powerful tool if deployed in the right circumstances by the right team. Certain considerations need to be weighed against elements such as the length of the project, cost of manual testing, and maturity of the testing tools and the scripts the team has available. BTW, our teams at Agile Soft Systems have these skills.

QA automation can bring rapid time-to-value and an ability to quickly respond to changing business conditions. Automation brings manageability, scalability, and resilience, as well as significant cost savings, without a doubt.

Before one embarks head-on into automation, do remember Michael Bolton’s words, “I’m opposed to the notion of using automation as a substitute for thinking”. So let the experts at Agile Soft Systems help make that decision for you!