The quality of software applications is highly critical to any organization. The diverse and complex applications (e.g. Desktop, Web, Mobile services, etc.), dispersed environments, and compliance requirements make it essential for organizations to effectively test their software applications in order to prevent the application and performance failures.

Role of Test Automation

Test Automation helps organizations minimize these risks, increase growth and meet their individual business needs. Customized test automation solutions help to improve productivity and quality while reducing overall costs of various software testing activities.

Test automation is a process of creating automated scripts for test scenarios in an organized way, test the application unattended with a greater focus on testing with a variety of test data and validating the outputs. The way it is different from manual testing is that instead of actually performing the tests, you create test automation scripts and execute the same whenever required or on a scheduled basis.

Test automation is typically used for regression testing, which is time-consuming. This helps in reducing the overall testing cycle time and lets testers focus on other tasks.

Benefits of Test Automation

1. Efficient Testing

– Test automation makes the testing process extremely efficient. Software tests are repeated often in development cycles to ensure quality. Every time source code is modified, application tests are required to be repeated. Before an application software is released, it may have to be tested on multi-browser and different hardware configurations. Manual testing is extremely time-consuming and expensive, whereas, automated tests once created can run over and over again without any additional costs. Test automation reduces the time to run recurring tests from days to hours and works as a time and money savior.

2. Consistency–

Test automation provides a consistent platform for your testing needs. Leveraging automated testing, the tedious lengthy tests that are usually avoided in manual testing can run easily unattended. Test automation significantly reduces the margin of error in the testing set-up by going through pre-recorded functionalities. It deep dives into an application and verifies its contents to ensure it is working as expected. Test automation can easily execute a number of different complex tests during every test run providing complete coverage, which is next to impossible in manual testing.

Test Automation helps organizations minimize risks, increase growth & meet their individual business needs. Explore https://t.co/gyWZynsgJ8

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3. Accuracy –

Even the most diligent test engineer tends to make mistakes during monotonous testing. Test Automation performs all the steps diligently every time they are executed, leaving no room for any mistake. Automated testing frees the test engineers from repetitive manual tests, giving them more time to create new automated software tests.

4. Unique programmability –

Test automation software can be built to exact test automation specifications and can also serve as a prime component for future testing scenarios. Test automation software developed by testing providers is created in such a way that they can handle a unique product while adhering to the latest testing and security protocols, making test automation a compelling tool for saving time, resources and providing accurate results.

5. Simulation of user environment –

One of the unique ways in which test automation positively impacts the testing procedure is with user environment simulation. GUI testing is one of the most redundant and monotonous procedures because the tester requires deploying the same procedures in mock user-driven environments to check issues in the responsiveness of the GUI. Test automation makes this process incredibly easy.

6. Outperforms Manual Testing-

It is nearly impossible for any large software and QA department to perform a controlled application test with a large number of users. Test automation makes this possible as it can simulate multiple users interacting with software, network or applications.

Test Automation is critical for big software development organizations but it is often considered expensive or difficult for smaller companies to implement. But the true fact is automated testing pays for itself by reducing regression testing time and bringing significant cost savings on a long term basis.

Want to leverage Test Automation for your organization?

TestingXperts Test Automation framework, Tx-Automate, inculcates industry best practices and features and can drastically reduce the effort to kick-start automation or improve your existing framework. Being one of the best automated testing companies, we have dedicated teams with core expertise on all industry-leading tools like Selenium, HP UFT, Coded UI, TestComplete, Ranorex, TestComplete, Appium, etc. and can support test automation with a scripting language your team is comfortable with.

To know more, drop us a line at info@testingxperts.com or contact us here

Download a detailed eBook on Test Automation here

The post 6 Remarkable benefits of Test Automation You Should know first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. What is NG-TxHyperAutomate?
2. The Need for Low-Code Test Automation
3. Key Features of NG-TxHyperAutomate
4. Business Benefits of Implementing NG-TxHyperAutomate
5. Real-World Impact: How NG-TxHyperAutomate Improved Test Coverage by 90%
6. Summary

There was a time when enterprises depended on IT professionals to create scripts to keep their processes operational. Traditional QA methods often exceeded development time, as creating a new script takes much longer. However, enterprises must develop a cost-effective test strategy to balance speed and reliability to stay competitive in today’s AI-driven tech environment. That’s where low-code/no-code automation frameworks like NG-TxHyperAutomate come into play. These frameworks offer a better way to automate test scripts with minimal to no coding skills required. Even non-technical users can leverage such a platform to speed up the testing process.

With a goal of making the QA process faster and more reliable, enterprises are turning to AI-driven test automation to achieve better time to market without compromising on quality.

What is NG-TxHyperAutomate?

NG-TxHyperAutomate is an in-house low-code automation framework by Tx ACoE (Automation Center of Excellence) that assists QA teams in accelerating the test automation process. It easily integrates with tools like UiPath Test Suite, Katalon, and Tricentis Tosca, as well as CI/CD pipelines and test management systems like JIRA. The accelerator supports automation across web, mobile, desktop, and API platforms, enabling QA teams to reduce manual efforts and improve regression test coverage.

NG-TxHyperAutomate accelerates software QA processes, achieving faster time to market and maintaining quality standards. By integrating with existing tools and supporting a continuous testing approach, teams can adapt to changing user expectations and evolving business requirements.

The Need for Low-Code Test Automation

As digital transformation accelerators in the AI-driven ecosystem, enterprises must launch high-quality software more frequently and faster. Traditional test automation (like using tools and scripts, requiring coding knowledge) often requires deep technical expertise and time-consuming scripting. It slows down testing cycles and limits the chances of scalability. Low-code/no-code automation frameworks address these obstacles by enabling non-technical users to create test cases and making automation more accessible across teams.

NG-TxHyperAutomate in this space helps simplify and speed up the QA team’s automation processes. It generate automated scripts from manual test cases and offers reusable libraries and built-in support for localization. This helps reduce testing time and ensure flexibility, scalability, and alignment with changing business needs.

Key Features of NG-TxHyperAutomate

Low-Code/No-Code Automation: Enables faster test creation without deep coding knowledge.

Automate Test Generation: Automatically converts manual test cases into automation scripts.

Cross-Platform Coverage: One unified platform supports Web, Desktop, API, and Mobile automation.

CI/CD and Tool Integration: Seamlessly integrates with tools like UiPath Test Suite, Katalon, Tricentis Tosca, and systems like JIRA.

Globalization & Localization Support: Built-in capabilities to test software for multiple languages, regions, and cultures.

Continuous Testing Enablement: Facilitates ongoing validation throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Reusable Assets & Libraries: Upscale automation efficiency with prebuilt components.

Flexible Data Handling: Allows data to be processed directly from the SQL Server.

Adaptable to Evolving Requirements: Ensures tests align with shifting customer expectations and business needs.

Complex Scenario Handling with Robots: Uses robotic automation for intricate test workflows.

Business Benefits of Implementing NG-TxHyperAutomate

Accelerated Time-to-Market:

By automating test case generation and execution rapidly through low-code/no-code workflows, teams can release software faster and more frequently without degrading quality.

Decreased Testing Costs:

Less manual effort, fewer resources required, and prebuilt automation libraries reduce overall testing and QA-related costs.

Improved Test Coverage and Reliability:

With up to 96% regression coverage and built-in test generation, businesses gain confidence in their releases and minimize post-deployment issues.

Scalable Automation Across Platforms:

A single framework supports Web, Mobile, API, and Desktop testing, enabling consistent automation practices across diverse application ecosystems.

Better Integration with Agile and DevOps:

Integration with CI/CD pipelines, test management tools, and defect tracking systems supports agile development cycles and continuous delivery goals.

Optimized Flexibility and Adaptability:

The system easily accommodates new features, evolving requirements, and third-party integrations, making it ideal for dynamic, enterprise-grade environments.

Lower Maintenance Costs:

Automated maintenance and reusable components help keep test suites up to date with minimal effort as applications evolve.

Risk Mitigation via Early Bug Detection:

Continuous testing throughout the development lifecycle enables earlier defect detection, reducing costly downstream fixes.

Support for Global Expansion:

Built-in localization and globalization testing ensure products are validated for multiple languages and regions, supporting international growth.

Real-World Impact: How NG-TxHyperAutomate Improved Test Coverage by 90%

A major quick-service restaurant chain leveraged NG-TxHyperAutomate to modernize its POS systems globally. Facing bottlenecks due to prolonged manual testing cycles and complex localization needs, the client implemented NG-TxHyperAutomate using UiPath Test Suite alongside additional Tx accelerators. This integration enabled low-code automation, significantly improving deployment efficiency. It helped the client achieve a 150% increase in POS rollout speed, 93% regression test automation, and a 90% boost in overall test coverage, delivering over $1.2 million in QA cost savings.

Summary

Traditional QA approaches struggle to meet the demands of modern software delivery, where speed, scale, and adaptability are critical. NG-TxHyperAutomate addresses this gap with its low-code automation framework that simplifies complex testing processes while enhancing accuracy and coverage. Its ability to support multiple platforms, adapt to localization needs, and integrate into CI/CD pipelines makes it a strategic enabler for quality at speed.

Partnering with Tx for NG-TxHyperAutomate will help you scale automation across platforms, adapt quickly to changing business needs, and optimize your DevOps workflows. Contact our experts now to learn more about how our accelerators can help you optimize your QA processes.

The post Unlock Seamless Test Automation and Drive Quality with NG-TxHyperAutomate first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents 1. Banking App Testing Challenges
2. Security is Critical
3. Complex Data
4. Omni-Channel Banking
5. Performance Failures
6. Integration with Programs
7. Usability testing
8. Real-time Activities
9. Internet Connections and Browsers
10. Time to Market
11. Devices
12. Security
13. Mobile Environmental Factors
14. Privacy
15. Conclusion

The banking domain has become multifarious with ever-changing and cutting-edge technology. With complex functionalities tangled into the banking applications, it is considered to be the most advanced and complicated enterprise solution. The day-to-day transactions made via banking applications call for high scalability, reliability, and precision in terms of data. Therefore, it is imperative to test banking applications under various set-ups. An adept test strategy for banking applications should comprise of Mobile, Cloud, Internet, and various other features linked to a banking application.

What are the characteristics of a banking app?
– Banking applications should be able to integrate with several other applications such as billing apps, credit cards, trading accounts, etc. – The apps should be able to navigate fast and help to process secured transactions – When a number of users use the application, it should be able to support all users with flawless performance – The app should be able to handle any complicate workflows – The storage capacity of the banking apps should be more – The app must be user-friendly and support the users on all devices and across their platforms – The app should have a high auditing capability to troubleshoot the customer issues – There should be a fool-proof disaster management recovery to protect users from unfair practices – The app should support service sectors such as for loans, retail, etc. and provide the scope to perform payments through multiple gateways

As a various number of banking transactions happen each day, these applications need to deliver a high performance that meets customer needs. Besides this, the banking sector needs robust reporting in order to monitor and record transaction and user interactions instantly. To ensure that the banking applications are performing efficiently well, testing is essential. However, there are numerous challenges from the testing point of view that need to be addressed. In this article, we have highlighted key challenges that are faced while testing any banking application.

Banking App Testing Challenges

Security is Critical

Banking applications are overloaded with private customer information and data. Therefore, it is essential to ensure security at all levels in an online application. However, security testing becomes quite challenging, especially when there is a variation in the network and operating system across various devices. A banking application must be compatible with all versions, operating systems, and devices etc. Security testing of banking applications is a must, and should adhere to all applicable security standards.

The bank should ensure that all access validation codes and one-time passwords work properly. To ensure that the software doesn’t have any defects or faults, a QA team needs to validate both positive as well as negative sides of the system, reporting it before any unauthorized access occurs.

Complex Data

One of the major challenges that become difficult to address while testing a banking application is the complexity of the data. Banking applications contain all sorts of private information, data, passwords, and assets of the customers stored in their back-end. It is imperative to ensure that the back-end databases are not affected by any malware and that the data within is protected.

A bank certainly needs to have an automation tool to check database connectivity and logical functions continuously. It is beneficial if this is done over a virtual private network (i.e. a VPN) in order to ensure safety across its private data.

Omni-Channel Banking

Omni-channel banking or the branchless banking is the modern concept where the financial markets are functioning without a need of any branch. And, this is a great challenge to the teams for understanding its end-to-end functionality and efficiency in mobile applications.

Performance Failures

Performance levels consist of infrastructure, connectivity, and back-end integration. The transactions happening through the application should be administered at regular interims. Moreover, load and stress tests should frequently be performed to ensure multiple support for transactions at the same time.

Integration with Programs

Banking apps should have the ability to integrate with the programs that are used by users. Also, the applications should be capable to handle every complex workflow without any hurdles and troubles. While integrating with any third-party websites, there is much scope to get bugs and issues, hence the QA teams have to be cautious to deal with issues related to bugs and incompatibility.

Usability testing

Banking apps are being accessed by wide number of people but not every person is having with the technical skills to perform banking tasks with ease. The banking should be user-friendly so that everyone can easily access it, if not these can lead disinterest among the people who are unable to use it with ease. Hence, the app has to be tested across different groups of customers.

Real-time Activities

Banking applications need to provide real-time updates on the transactions to the customers as well as the back-end. It is important that the functionality of the application is continuously managed and identified by the testing teams. If there are any network connectivity issues that can hamper the real-time updates of the transactions, the teams should ensure proper testing of the application for any response delay.

Internet Connections and Browsers

User may login the app by using various devices, different browsers and from different internet connections. If the app fails to respond in any of the scenario then this can create a negative impact. Hence, to avoid such situations, teams have to check the performance of the app across all internet connections and browsers.

Time to Market

The addition of new features is a way to attract more customers, but with reduced time to market, there is a pressure that causes testing teams to cut short the testing cycles.

Devices

The present market is having a multitude of devices. If any of the devices is not considered, then this may be a big drawback and can create complexities. Hence, while testing the applications, it is necessary to consider every device across networks and platforms.

Security

Security is an important challenge for the banking sector. When planning for security testing, it is essential to consider all security standards in accordance with mobile devices, networks, operating systems, and platforms.

Mobile Environmental Factors

There are several mobile environmental factors that can affect the behaviour of the mobile bank application. The app can get affected by the background applications, memory card, camera usage, GPS, switching of the network, the state of the battery, etc. The integration of the mobile app with all these features may be a big challenge if the testing team fails to consider all these possible scenarios. Hence, it is important for the teams to consider every environmental factor while testing.

Privacy

Privacy is a challenging issue in mobile apps. Mobile devices are much personalized as they consist user’s data and identity. These are the important constraints which have to be considered and require the need for security. If the privacy factor fails, then this can create risk for the user data when there is an integration with other third party websites. Hence, while practicing security testing it is important for the teams to consider every factor so that the user-data is secured.

Conclusion

Testing banking application can be an intricate process, but if there is an experienced testing partner involved, the testing challenges can be readily eradicated. TestingXperts, with its efficient testing strategies and the right blend of testers and processes, is helping its banking and financial clients to achieve successful and vulnerability-free applications.

The post 12 Challenges Faced While Testing an Banking Application first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. 1. What is Automated Testing?
   2. Why is Automation Testing Important?
   3. Different Types of Automation Testing
   4. How to build an Effective Automation Testing Strategy?
   5. Major Automation Testing Trends
   6. Conclusion
   7. How can TestingXperts (Tx) help Your Business in the United Kingdom?

Within today’s rapidly shifting commercial e­nvironment, keeping ahe­ad of rivals necessitates releasing top-quality software promptly to customers. To accomplish this, software te­sting plays a critical role. Businesse­s in the United Kingdom utilize se­veral software testing me­thods for ensuring quality. Functional, regression, and smoke­ testing check that feature­s work as intended. Non-functional testing ve­rifies performance unde­r different conditions. With accele­rated software delivery through DevOps and agile frameworks, te­st automation has become a premie­r strategy. It allows quicker, steadie­r releases by automating the validation of fe­atures and functionality. Automated scripts can run tests repeatedly and on a scale. This facilitate­s catching issues early while pre­serving human resources. Overall, automated testing through continuous integration and deployment helps U.K. companies acce­lerate time to marke­t while still delivering bug-fre­e software.

What is Automated Testing?

Software te­sting automation employs sophisticated tools and platforms to assess computer programs. This technique nece­ssitates less human participation than conventional te­sting methods. Specifically, it entails drafting scripts and e­xecuting them through automation programs to evaluate software performance. By le­veraging automated processe­s, quality assurance efforts can achieve thorough coverage within tighter time­frames using fewer re­sources.

This testing me­thodology helps software teams stre­amline repetitive­ tasks. Automating such duties decrease­s the time and expe­nses associated with regre­ssion testing. This approach moves the overall te­sting process at an accele­rated pace while significantly cutting down the­ testing cycle. Careful automation of standard proce­dures allows teams to focus their valuable­ time and skills on more challenging issue­s, ultimately improving quality and efficiency.

A dedicate­d quality assurance automation testing professional holds an essential position within software­ firms. These individuals draft and construct testing scripts during the­ early stages of a project. Working close­ly in cooperation with automation testers and product de­signers, they guarantee­ thorough testing of software and products. As an integral part of a cohe­sive team, that ove­rsee test automation e­fforts, leveraging various automated te­sting systems and software testing automation instrume­nts to recognize the most impactful me­thodology for successful test automation.

It has been noted that the software automation testing market has been rapidly growing in recent years. The global automation testing market will increase from USD 12.6 billion in 2019 to USD 28.8 billion by 2024. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 18.0% during the forecast period of 2019-2024. According to GlobeNewswire, the automation testing market is expected to reach USD 68 billion by 2025. This growth is possible by integrating IoT, DevOps, and A.I. technologies. It led businesses to adopt automation solutions, which increased demand for this market. Companies must imple­ment a dependable­ automation testing plan that will guarantee quicke­r software updates and better user experience by enhancing­ their software product quality.

Why is Automation Testing Important?

Relying sole­ly on human testers can create­ bottlenecks as applications grow more intricate­ and teams want quicker rollouts. This is where­ automated testing helps. Let’s examine a few ways automation te­sting improves the process:

• Accelerates the testing process and reduces time-to-market

• Consistently carrying out thorough te­sts serves to strengthe­n evaluation coverage and quality assurance­ by systematically implementing compre­hensive checks.

• By removing the pote­ntial for human mistakes, this method enhance­s the accuracy of test cases

• Aims to maximize­ efficiency by minimizing manual labor and allowing multiple te­sts to run simultaneously. It works to optimize costs

• Allows organizations to respond swiftly to market demands and gain a competitive edge

• Re­duces the chances of significant proble­ms affecting end-users

Automation Testing

The fie­ld of automation testing utilizes many approaches and methodologies, each fulfilling a unique role during te­sting. By capitalizing on automation’s capabilities, companies can accomplish quicker time­ to launch, enhanced exce­llence, and decre­ased expense­s. Let us outline the various kinds of automation te­sting and where they apply:

Unit Tests

Unit testing focuse­s on validating individual parts of a program to confirm they work as inte­nded. Software e­ngineers usually perform unit asse­ssments, utilizing platforms like JUnit for Java or NUnit, .NET. These­ evaluations center around se­parating little pieces of code­, making recognizing bugs or issues faster in the­ development cycle. Unit testing advances code­ reusability, improves supportability, and assists with forestalling re­lapse blunders.

Functional Tests

Functional tests e­nsure that software applications fulfil their inte­nded purposes and perform as re­quired. It examines the­ system’s behaviors by evaluating its functions, capabilitie­s, and user interactions.

Se­lenium, Appium, and Cypress are ge­nerally utilized for functionality testing we­b and mobile applications. Automating repetitive­ tests enables organizations to e­nhance precision and reduce­ work. This leads to smooth application functionality.

Integration Tests

Integration te­sting centers around validating the inte­ractions between distinct parts or module­s of a program. It confirms that the interconnecte­d pieces work seamle­ssly together and interchange­ data accurately.

Specialize­d software programs freque­ntly utilized for interface validation e­fforts. Tools like Apache JMete­r, SoapUI, or Postman are commonly leverage­d to assess integration betwe­en independe­nt components. This form of testing aids in identifying issue­s with data handoffs, transmission faults, and compatibility inconsistencies. By dete­cting such problems early, deve­lopers can efficiently re­medy situations before the­y impact end users or other downstre­am operations.

Performance Tests

Performance­ testing evaluates how a software­ application responds, remains stable, scale­s accordingly, and utilizes resources whe­n subjected to varying workload leve­ls. Tools like JMeter, LoadRunne­r, and Gatling automatically simulate real-world scenarios. The­ goal is to measure and analyze syste­m behavior. This process helps companies find and fix performance issues. Automate­d performance testing de­livers useful knowledge­ about system capabilities, ensuring maximum pe­rformance and a positive user e­xperience.

Security Tests

In today’s digital era, prote­cting sensitive information from cyber thre­ats has become crucial to safeguarding data and maintaining syste­m reliability. This form of evaluation identifie­s susceptibilities, errors, or we­aknesses within an application’s security frame­work that could potentially be exploite­d. By methodically analyzing various components, security te­sting works to discover any cracks in a program’s armor so issues can be re­solved proactively rather than re­actively after harm has already occurre­d. Such diligence helps bolste­r an organization’s defenses and mitigate­ risks to the sensitive user and busine­ss details.

Security e­valuation tools such as OWASP ZAP help pinpoint protection flaws. These­ instruments also authenticate e­ncryption techniques and bar possible infringe­ments. Automated security asse­ssment supports keeping information private­, intact, and accessible.

Regression Tests

Regre­ssion testing verifies that re­cent changes or updates to software­ do not adversely impact existing functionalitie­s. It helps guarantee that ne­w features or bug fixes avoid introducing ne­w problems or disrupting previously functioning components. By me­thodically evaluating software updates through re­gression testing, programmers can de­termine whethe­r code alterations negative­ly affect performance in any unfore­seen manner.

Reduce­d errors, time savings, and thorough test cove­rage are achieve­d through automated regression te­sting. It also enables continuous integration and continuous de­livery pipelines.

How do you build an effective automation testing strategy?

Creating a care­fully designed automation testing approach is crucial. It will guarante­e success for the automate­d software testing procedure­. Implementing such a strategy provide­s numerous advantages. Some of the­ advantages involve improved te­st coverage, increase­d test dependability, faste­r time-to-market, and swifter re­turn on investment. Organizations must embrace­ the following methodology for an effe­ctive software test automation strate­gy.

Identify the Automation Testing Goals

De­fining objectives before initiating automated software­ testing is crucial, as it maintains the process on course. Objective­s may include quicker testing imple­mentation, enhanced te­sting outcomes, elevate­d accuracy, diminished regression pe­riod, cost reduction, and additional factors.

Onboard the correct set of people in the team

When e­stablishing automation objectives, assembling an appropriate­ team is paramount. Experience­ executing test case­s and developing scripts is invaluable. The­ team must design test procedure­s, execute e­valuations, investigate failures, re­fine scripts as neede­d, and generate re­gression tests to ensure­ continued performance ove­r time. A well-rounded staff with dive­rse, applicable abilities work toge­ther systematically to help accomplish goals through quality automation.

Plan the testing approach

With the prope­r team in place and responsibilitie­s assigned, planning the testing me­thod is the next crucial step. First, ide­ntifying what portions will be tested automatically is ke­y. Next, choosing whether te­sts will be written at a basic or broader scope­ level nee­ds addressing. Finally, opting for a test to imple­ment wraps up the planning process.

Select automation testing framework

Guideline­s must be established for cre­ating and executing tests. Te­ams can opt for frameworks like Linear scripting (re­cord and playback), Library architecture testing frame­work, Modular testing framework, or Data-drive­n testing framework, depe­nding on their needs. The­se frameworks provide structure­ when automating tests.

Choose the right testing tool

When se­lecting the proper te­sting instrument for a fruitful automated software te­sting procedure, seve­ral important criteria must be examine­d. To opt for the most suitable testing tool, one­ ought to evaluate its compatibility with the curre­nt project’s technological framework, programming language­ backing, trial environment sanction, interne­t browser, working framework (O.S.) help, cell/desktop/web application, and so on.

Set up the test environment

With the pre­ceding tasks completed, e­stablishing the test setting for carrying out e­valuations is the subsequent stage­. To outfit the test e­nvironment, procure the re­quired hardware and software capabilitie­s needed to conduct the­ testing.

Design and execute the test cases

At this pivotal stage, te­st scripts are authored and carried out. Whe­n crafting the test scripts, ensure­ reusability, well-organized structure­, and thorough documentation. Once the te­st scripts have been writte­n, perform executions using automation te­sting frameworks and instruments.

Analyse and report the test results

Ultimately, upon comple­tion of the testing process, it is crucial to e­valuate the test outcome­s to determine what we­nt amiss, what necessitates corre­ction or enhancement, how succe­ssful the testing proved, and more­. Distributing the­ test results and discoverie­s to all invested parties is imperative.

Maintain test scripts

It is important as a final step to maintain the­ test scripts in a way that allows for their reuse­ in regression testing or e­valuation of similar software programs. Test cases should also be­ reviewed re­gularly, removing any that are obsolete­ while adding new ones to the­ repository. These practice­s ensure effe­ctive test automation and the future applicability of the­ scripts.

Creating a strate­gic test automation approach and incorporating current testing te­chnologies are essential for companies wanting to re­main competitive. To have a productive­ automation testing process, organizations must establish an e­ffective strategy and adopt ne­w automation testing methods. This allows businesse­s to test software efficie­ntly and keep up with the constantly changing marke­t.

4 Major Automation Testing Trends

Implementation of Test Automation in DevOps

DevOps has been in practice for some time now, but the use of test automation in DevOps is said to have increased significantly. According to EIN Presswire, the automation testing market is expected to grow from USD 8 billion in 2018 to USD 60.4 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 33.4% during the forecast period 2018-2026. The automation testing market growth is because of the rising demand for DevOps in automation.

In addition, companies can advance­ DevOps capabilities by expanding automate­d testing implementation and utilizing strong automate­d security testing service­s. This enhances protection and guarante­es early and continuous security e­valuation across the entire software­ delivery process. Some­ of the top automated testing tools for DevOps and constant te­sting include Test Sigma, Selenium, and Appium.

Adoption of Codeless Automated Testing Tools

Adopting automate­d testing tools without coding will be a primary pattern in the­ coming year. As stated in the Pe­rfecto Report called “The­ 2021 State of Test Automation Report,” 40% of companie­s want to use codeless re­medies.

Codele­ss testing is a methodology for gene­rating automated tests without writing source code­. It involves leveraging code­less testing platforms constructed using artificial inte­lligence and visual modelling te­chniques. Codeless te­sting provides various benefits. It offe­rs straightforward usability, expedited te­st execution, optimal resource­ utilization, and more advantages. Some of the­ premier codele­ss test automation solutions include Katalon Studio, Test Craft, Pe­rfecto, and other leading options.

Need to Automate Functional and Non-functional Testing

There­ is an expectation for notable growth in the­ realm of software testing automation. It is imperative to automate both functional and non-functional evaluations. This involve­s performance testing, se­curity testing, accessibility testing, and usability te­sting. A variety of metrics must always be conside­red to achieve we­ll-rounded testing: perple­xity, which measures complexity, and burstine­ss, which assesses variation betwe­en sentence­s. Utilizing some more prolonged or more e­laborate sentence­s alongside shorter, punchy ones with abundant dive­rsity helps mimic natural human speech patte­rns. Furthermore, avoiding commas when joining inde­pendent clauses with coordinating conjunctions uphold.

In today’s competition, businesses must deliver high-quality software to customers. Automating the software testing process is the best method to overcome this challenge. By doing so, companies can expand test coverage and achieve faster test execution. It will also ensure high-quality products and reduce time-to-market. However, software testing process automation is only possible with quality automation tools. Tools like Selenium, Trecentist Tosca, etc., are suitable for functional tests. Tools like JMeter, Neo load, etc., are ideal for non-functional tests.

Accessibility Testing to take an Uptrend

Accessibility te­sting is anticipated to become an incre­asingly significant trend. A GlobeNewswire report predicts that the acce­ssibility testing market will reach $606.46 million by 2027. As companies implement digital solutions, the ne­ed for accessible software­ is also expanding. With businesses adopting more­ online platforms, ensuring users of all capabilitie­s can access information equally will be paramount. Conformance­ with accessibility guidelines aims to provide­ equitable digital experiences for all. Businesses must ensure that their software is accessible to everyone. It includes individuals with blindness, motor impairment, color blindness, etc. Companies should ensure their apps follow specific accessibility guidelines such as W3C’s, i.e., WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1, Section 508, Stanca Act, etc. Businesses can leverage various accessibility testing tools such as Dyno mapper, WAVE, JAWS, etc.

Conclusion

DevOps continue­s to grow in popularity within the United Kingdom. This explains why automate­d software testing has become­ crucial for companies in the U.K. This testing te­chnique will see substantial e­xpansion in the coming years. The merging of A.I. and ML technologies will accompany it. Firms ought to utilize automation to achie­ve quicker rele­ases and guarantee high-quality products. It will he­lp them gain an early industry prese­nce to enhance custome­r experience­ (CX). Enterprises should capitalize on ne­xt-gen Q.A. and independe­nt software testing service­ providers for the test automation in the De­vOps application.

How can TestingXperts (Tx) help Your Business in the United Kingdom?

TestingXpe­rts has led the way in providing test automation solutions for clie­nts across various sectors. Our qualified assurance te­ams are well-verse­d in open-source and commercial automation tools to unde­rstand the advantages of mechanize­d testing. We have e­xperienced quality analysts who know about ope­n-source and paid automation tools to address the be­nefits of automation testing.

Tx has an in-house extensible automation framework, Tx-Automate, which is modular, reusable, and compatible and can be customized based on the business need.

Our quality assurance spe­cialists have implemente­d robotics process automation testing solutions using UiPath for clients around the­ world. This incorporates Spotify, well-known music streaming busine­ss in Sweden and the Unite­d States.

Why Choose Our Automation Testing Service?

• Expertise in diverse­ types of automation testing, including functional testing, regression te­sting, and performance testing.

• A strong automate­d testing structure for productive script e­volution, implementation

• When te­sting websites, it is crucial to ensure­ functionality and compatibility across all browsers and platforms through thorough automated testing. A compre­hensive testing approach can verify that all elements pe­rform as intended regardle­ss of the specific browser or de­vice being used.

• Strate­gic use of innovative testing automation.

• Testing we­bsites across various browsers ensure­s functionality and compatibility. Automated browser testing e­valuates how a site displays and operate­s in different browsers like­ Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Interne­t Explorer.

• Emphasis on continuous test automation learning and skill enhancement.

• It allows te­sters to assess code in le­ss time compared to manual testing since­ automated scripts can repeat sce­narios consistently.

To know more, contact our QA experts now.

The post How to Build an Effective Automation Testing Strategy For Businesses first appeared on TestingXperts.

Enterprises across industries continue to demand faster releases and quality software to withstand the ever-changing market scenario and competition.

With enterprises following DevOps and agile methodologies of software development, software testing forms an integral part of it. The earlier manual method of testing does not suffice the present-day connected devices and complicated architecture applications with industry 4.0 in place.

Table of Contents

1. What is Automation Testing?
2. What does Test Automation Do?
3. Significance of Automation in Testing for Enterprises?
4. Best practices of Test Automation
5. Benefits of Automation Testing
6. How does Test Automation works?
7. What Does an Automation Tester Do?
8. What are Automation testing challenges and how to overcome them?
9. Automation Testing Vs Unit Testing
10. Why Should You Leverage Next-gen Testing Services Provider for Test Automation?
11. Related Queries on Automation Testing

There is a need for businesses to adopt test automation that ensures faster and quality releases along with saving considerable time, and efforts.

What is Automation Testing?

According to WIKI, automation testing is the use of software separate from the software being tested to control the execution of tests and the comparison of actual outcomes with expected outcomes.

Test automation can automate some repetitive but necessary tasks in a formalized testing process already in place, or perform additional testing that might be difficult to do manually.

Test automation can speed up the release cycles, increase coverage and ensures quality software releases.

In manual testing, a human is involved to perform the manual tests that are more prone to human error and might even lack their correctness. This sort of human involved testing encloses many gaps which are seen and sometimes even have missed project timelines due to the huge number of misidentified bugs.

But, as automation testing involves the usage of tools and test scripts to test the software, the results are more reliable and delivers accurate results while testing various use cases and user scenarios.

Hence, this sort of automation testing ensures effective outcomes and can be successfully used by businesses to ensure faster and quality releases.

Automated testing is also known as test automation is a method in software testing that effectively makes use of special test automation tools. These tools are used to control the execution of tests using well-crafted test cases for each of the user scenarios and compares the actual test results to the predicted or the expected results.

It is actually a process that validates if the software is functioning appropriately and meeting the given requirements using these test automation tools.

What does Test Automation Do?

Automation testing meaning can be broadly defined as the process which involves running scripts that are executed by leveraging software testing tools. Automated test systems ensure high accuracy and reliability of the test results.

As no human observations are involved, it ensures more accurate test results. Moreover, this sort of automation testing using open source and paid test automation tools is most suitable for regression testing, performance testing, load testing, security testing along with other types of testing.

Significance of Automation in Testing for Enterprises?

Software testing is essentially an important part of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and should be taken up to ensure quality software.

Earlier manual testing was the major mode of testing but with advanced applications and connected devices in place, it is essential to have Test Automation to ensure faster and quality releases.

Even smaller and mid-sized companies in their quest to have good quality products continue to adopt test automation best practices to deliver high-performing products to their clients.

For enterprises, with automation in testing in place, there is a faster feedback cycle and that brings faster validation at various phases in product development.

The other benefit of automation testing is the testing procedure becomes automated as the test scripts are run by the test automation tools without much interference of QA.

Test automation also helps enterprises to improve the communication between DevOps, QA teams and product owners who depend on the results of these automated tests as these results are more reliable than the manual testing results.

It is more important to note that automation testing is best suitable for applications that need to be tested for various versions, platforms, and operating systems.

Test automation involves the usage of tests that are repeatable and can be run many times to test various conditions and scenarios.

It is best suited with regression tests and high-risk functionality tests to check whether they fail under real-time conditions.

These automated test results help to save businesses of any probable loss due to their application failure as with effective automated software testing the results are more reliable.

Best practices of Test Automation

Below listed are 6 best practices for test automation:

1. Select the right automation tool:

Testing teams must select the right automation testing tool that is in-line with their project requirements which helps them to execute automated test cases in an effective manner.

2. Design tests before automating them:

It’s always preferred and is considered as a good practice to create test cases before initiating the test automation process. A good test design will eventually help in finding defects and fixing them.

3. Don’t plan to automate unstable functionality:

Whenever there is a new feature or functionality that is to be tested, care should be taken such that automation testing will be taken up only for stable functionalities.

4. Decide which tests to automate:

Every feature cannot be automated as there are certain features that require manual testing. A proper automation test strategy needs to be put in place to fulfil all those test cases that need to be automated.

5. Early and frequent testing:

To leverage test automation, it is much better to start testing early on in the software development process. By running automated tests often, testers will be in a better position to detect bugs and resolve them at the earliest. This would save time and money which would have been spent otherwise on fixing bugs at a later stage of the software development process.

6. Do not completely rely on UI test automation:

Completely relying on UI test automation is not considered as a best practice as every application might have some UI changes made. Hence, UI testing should be planned carefully to ensure the app delivers a great user experience to end-users.

Benefits of Automation Testing

There are many benefits with Test Automation which have been broadly classified as Qualitative and Quantitative benefits.

Qualitative Benefits of Automation in Testing

– Speeds up the testing cycle with automated runs

– Reduces test execution time effectively

– Increases test coverage on each testing cycle

– Ensures ease of test case maintenance

– Reduces the need to update scripts in case of changes to the application

– Ensures faster test scripts generation

– Facilitates reusability of code

– Reduces manual intervention and they can be utilized for functional testing

– Reduces testing timelines significantly

– Reduces regression testing time enormously

– Saves time as automated testing brings in more efficiency

– Improves test accuracy compared to manual testing

– Breaks up large business processes into smaller components to be re-used multiple times

– Ensures longer automation code life

– Increases the team’s testing speed

Quantitative Benefits of Automation in Testing

– Generates quicker ROI

– Reduces QA cycle times by up to 80%

– Lowers the overall QA costs up to 60%

– Improves organizational efficiency

– Ensures cost optimization

– Delivers faster time to market

– Helps improve the business bottom line

After having known about the various benefits of Automation testing, it is necessary to know about the different types of automation testing.

What are the Types of Automation Testing?

Unit Testing:

This is the first type of automation testing in which the individual components of an application are tested. These tests are usually written by the developers but sometimes automation testers also write them. These tests are usually performed during the software development phase.

Smoke testing:

This type of testing is performed to check whether the build is stable or not. If the build is not stable, then it will be sent back to the developers as an unstable build and if the build is stable then testers will accept it to perform further testing on the build.

Black box testing:

This form of testing is performed to check if there are any incorrect or missing functions, checks for the existence of any interface errors, or any behaviour related or performance errors and also checks the presence of termination errors if any.

Integration testing:

In this integration testing, the application modules are typically integrated logically and tested as a group. Essentially, this form of testing checks and verifies the data communication between different modules of the application.

Functional testing:

This form of testing is done to check if all the functions work as expected or not. This involves testing APIs, database, security testing and also tests the overall functionality of the application.

Regression testing:

This is an exhaustive testing methodology done to check whether all the existing features are functioning well even with recent code changes.

It basically verifies that the old code works in the same way as they were before making any changes to the code.

Some of the Most commonly used Test Automation tools are:

Below is the automation testing tools list that will help you understand more about each of these tools

Selenium:

Selenium is one of the most popular test automation tool and is the preferred tool for web automation testing for DevOps. Selenium offers two parts of its software, Web driver and IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Selenium automation testing is also one of the most preferred automation testing in the market these days.

Appium:

It is an open-source test automation framework that can be used with native, hybrid and mobile web applications to test them.

It facilitates to make use of preferred test practices, frameworks, and tools. It is preferred to automate any mobile app from any language and any test framework.

Cucumber:

It is an Open source automation testing tool that revolves around behavior-driven development.  

Ranorex:

This is a unique test automation tool that can be used to test web apps, desktop or mobile applications.

TestComplete:

This is the first automation testing tool that has AI with a visual recognition engine that can test with or without scripts and the tool can be used to test desktop, mobile, and web applications extensively.

Microfocus UFT:

The Unified Functional testing tool (UFT Tool) is used in regressive and functional test automation.

It also supports API and web services testing, continuous testing, support for testing ERP and CRM applications.

Apache JMeter:

This is the most popular performance testing tool that perfectly measures the performance of your software. It is built on java and runs functional tests to measure the performance of web applications.

Tosca:

This is a very effective testing tool that can be used for end-to-end testing as it supports functional testing, load testing, risk-based testing, test data management and also app testing.

How does Test Automation works?

10 Basic Steps for a Well-Defined Test Automation

1. Evaluate to understand the need for automation based on project type

2. Define automation goals and priorities

3. Plan automated testing strategy

4. Select the right automation tool & framework based upon the project requirements

5. Decide on what test cases to automate

6. Develop good quality test data

7. Create automated tests more resistant to UI changes

8. Execute the tests for the test scripts developed

9. Test early and often with CI/CD pattern

10. Maintain the test scripts

Business Benefits with a well-defined Test Automation Approach

– Delivers quality software products

– Increases release velocity through the CI/CD model

– Reduces human errors as human tasks are automated

– Ensures cost optimization

– Maximizes ROI

– Ensures faster time to market

What Does an Automation Tester Do?

The QA automation tester and the automation test engineers are the main people involved to achieve test automation initiatives. They know how to automate for the successful roll-out of quality products for businesses.

The QA automation tester is responsible for designing and writing test automation scripts as the first phase and they use various types of test automation frameworks to achieve successful test automation.

They run test scripts to ensure all the scenarios are successfully tested and they have a close association with the developers and other QA analysts.

They log bugs and issues in various test management tools such that the developers work on these bugs and fix them.

Once again automated regression testing is done to ensure the new functionalities do not affect the functionalities of existing features.

What are Automation testing challenges and how to overcome them?

Though Test automation brings about a lot of advantages for enterprises. Typically, by using automated testing, an expedition of the process of software validation can be achieved along with achieving increased test coverage.

However, there are a lot of challenges in applying test automation for applications under test (AUT) which need a careful follow-up process to achieve successful test automation implementation.

1. Lack of Proper communication & collaboration between Developer and QA teams: 

Lack of proper interaction and collaboration between developers, QA automation engineers, and operations teams does not signify test automation success.

Hence, it is essential to place the entire team members to get involved in identifying test automation objectives and setting targets.

They also need to spend significant efforts on proper communication between teams to have a clear understanding of the requirements and project specifications to ensure test automation success.

2. Proper Selection of Right Test Automation Tool:

With the availability of a variety of automation testing tools for both open source and paid tools, it is necessary to evaluate properly before adopting a tool. A proper in-depth evaluation of the application under test (AUT) is required.

It should be carefully done and then the tool that appropriately matches the AUT should be chosen.

To overcome it, an expert QA test automation engineer can prove helpful to evaluate the tools based on the application that has to be tested.

3. Lack of Highly Skilled Test Automation Experts:

It is a truth that test automation requires efficient and industry rich technical skills to accurately design and maintain test automation framework and test scripts.

The team should properly build test scripts and maintain them to effectively run test scripts to verify the application performance and further resolve technical issues.

In order to overcome it, automated testing resource(s) should have a strong knowledge of the Test Automation framework’s design and implementation aspects to ensure effective automation is achieved.

4. Involves High Initial Investment Costs:

It is also a known fact that the initial phase of test automation is usually expensive as it is necessary to analyze, design and build a automation testing framework, libraries or reusable functions through a thorough analysis of the AUT.

Further, if a licensed test automation tool is selected, then the operating cost should be evaluated.

Else, if free open-source tools are chosen then also significant efforts should be spent on learning, training and maintaining them.

Hence based on the AUT priority and cost capability available therein, either open source or licensed tools should be selected.

5. Challenges with Scaling Test environments:

This is an important challenge today as QA teams that don’t provision test environments in the cloud, continue to face scalability challenges when they introduce test automation.

It is necessary to rapidly provision the different test environments that automated testing requires, scale them up, run the tests, tear them down, to ensure success while testing in the cloud.

The in-house (on-premise) teams usually have a limited number of test environments they can use, which means fewer tests they can deploy at any given time.

As a result, testing takes a much longer time. In order to overcome this, it is essential to move test environments to the cloud to scale the test automation and it will also reduce QA teams operating costs.

Automation Testing Vs Unit Testing

Why Should You Leverage Next-gen Testing Services Provider for Test Automation?

Test automation is nowadays dominating in the Agile and DevOps adoptions. Test automation enables tremendous benefits to enterprises as it ensures faster releases, quality software and also delivers a quicker time to market.

But, in order to achieve successful test automation for all critical projects, it is essential to leverage next-gen automation testing services providers as they use a balanced test automation approach to achieve quality products.

Some of the Highlights of the Approach they perform are:

– Assessment of your automation needs and application landscape

– Assessment of your existing automation solution

– Tool selection, Proof of Concept and implementation

– Automated test script creation and execution

– Creation of regression test suites with flexible execution options

– Training and handover of automation test pack to client for future maintenance

Moreover, with the huge number of benefits with automation testing services, it is time for enterprises to adopt test automation initiatives using either open source or the licensed automation testing tools.

TestingXperts has developed an extensible test automation framework, ‘Tx-Automate’, which is modular, reusable, integrated and compatible.

The framework has best-in-class features for test automation including rich custom reporting metrics, third party integrations, configurable execution options, etc.

The framework helps configure/ create test suites by combining various automated tests and making those test suites available for execution.

Get in touch with our team to discuss further

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Test Automation 2025 first appeared on TestingXperts.

DevOps has completely changed how businesses approach their IT operations and work towards innovation. It assists them in designing, developing, and delivering products/services at a much faster scale. However, during this shift, business leaders realized that traditional security measures and manual controls relying on legacy methods could not keep up with high-paced, continuous delivery software development. And this is true. DevOps has struggled for a long time with security integration, creating risky trade-offs between business agility and digital resilience. That’s why DevSecOps seeks to resolve this issue by integrating security throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

DevSecOps enables businesses to address security issues before they get pushed into production, making bugs much easier and cheaper to fix. This also means that making the product safer and bug-free will be the shared responsibility of the development, testing, IT operations, and security teams. However, for DevSecOps to be effective, businesses need to automate it. DevSecOps automation would allow the operations team, developers, testers, and security engineers to scale SDLC collectively regardless of the production environment (public, private, on-premises, or hybrid cloud).

What is DevSecOps Automation? Why is it Important?

DevSecOps automation involves automating and integrating security processes into the SDLC pipeline. Teams use various tools, frameworks, and technologies to automate security controls, thus streamlining testing and compliance checks. This allows businesses to manage security without human bottlenecks and promotes cross-team communication and skill development. In a study, it was analyzed that: 

• 17% of organizations were still in the exploratory and proof-of-concept stage in the DevSecOps implementation 

• 86% of organizations faced challenges with their current security approach, and 51% claimed they were unable to decipher how security fits into DevSecOps 

• 71% stated that cultural difference was the biggest obstacle in their DevSecOps progress 

Sometimes, businesses eliminate the security check to speed up the deployment process in the production environment. With DevSecOps automation, they no longer have to sacrifice security for speed while eliminating manual involvement in checking software vulnerabilities. This enables teams to focus on other priority tasks to deliver higher business value. It also improves visibility and observability across SDLC and assists teams in identifying vulnerabilities’ root causes and designing action plans accordingly.  

Steps for Implementing DevSecOps Automation Strategy

Although DevSecOps automation assists businesses in releasing quality and secure products faster, it does have its own set of challenges. Compatibility issues, false alerts, tool sprawl, etc., can hamper the integration of security processes within the DevOps pipeline. To successfully implement DevSecOps automation, businesses must follow a holistic strategy to automate security seamlessly. 

Let’s take a look at the steps for implementing the right DevSecOps automation strategy: 

Step 1: DevSecOps Requirement Analysis 

Before adopting DevSecOps automation, assess your current security protocols. This will allow you to choose the right tools and technologies that support accuracy and speed. Implement the strategy that syncs with your security requirements and goals while you select the appropriate resources and tools. 

Step 2: Test Third-party Code 

Businesses often outsource the software/application development process, meaning most code comes from open/third-party sources. Such codes will contain flaws/errors/bugs, and DevOps teams will be in a pinch to evaluate them. Automated security testing would address this by regularly testing such code elements. With DevSecOps automation, businesses will be able to ensure their third-party code is free from any known vulnerabilities and is automatically updated as the development progresses.  

Step 3: Using Right Tools 

Leveraging correct security tools would support successfully implementing the DevSecOps automation strategy. As a business leader, it would be your responsibility to ensure that your security technologies sync perfectly with DevOps cycles. The DevSecOps tools you select should be accurate and actionable, requiring minimal human supervision to double-check the results. 

Step 4 Security Testing Automation 

All security testing parameters, such as code analysis, vulnerability and patching management, and configuration management, should be automated. Businesses must leverage security automation technologies to pinpoint risks, unauthorized code changes, and process challenges. Also, integrating security automation across the CI/CD pipeline will facilitate flexibility across tech stacks, deployment environments, and security tools. 

Step 5: Implement Continuous Monitoring 

Continuous monitoring is the key to successful DevSecOps automation. It will ensure automation across security processes and controls and improve audibility, observability, and traceability. Businesses can quickly identify and mitigate security issues before they become a hassle, avoiding costly rollbacks without compromising production UX. 

How do Organizations Benefit from DevSecOps Automation?

• Enhanced Security: Integrates security protocols into the SDLC to mitigate vulnerabilities early.   

• Cost Efficient: Detects and mitigates security errors early to minimize post-deployment fixes and costly rework.  

• Continuous Monitoring: Enable real-time tracking of code vulnerabilities to ensure a secure development pipeline.  

• Better Collaboration: Break down barriers between Dev, Sec, and Ops teams to promote a unified approach for deploying secure software/applications.  

• Regulatory Compliance: Automates compliance checks to satisfy industry regulations and standards efficiently.  

• Quicker Development: Speeds up development and deployment process with automated security checks and reduces delays due to manual checks. 

• Reduced Time-to-Market: Ensures a faster release cycle by automating repetitive tasks and addressing security concerns during development.  

• Quality Improvement: Maintains high code quality with automated testing, integrated feedback loops, and security scans.  

• Scalability: Businesses can scale operations while ensuring security across complex production environments.  

• AI-enabled Threat Analysis: Utilizes AI/ML technologies to simplify, streamline, and accelerate complex DevSecOps processes. AI tools analyze software logs to detect bugs and suggest code changes before issues arise. 

5 Automation Tools for DevSecOps Pipeline

How can Tx Assist with DevSecOps Automation?

We know the importance of security in your business infrastructure and software development lifecycle. With our experience in security, automation, and AI-driven methodologies, we assist businesses in accelerating code quality and delivery timelines. Our in-house accelerator, Tx-DevSecOps, can assist your IT teams in leveraging a shift-left and high-speed approach for continuous security development and testing. It seamlessly integrates security checks within your existing DevOps environment to track and remove modern threats and helps to deliver secure software. Our security experts team understands that DevOps is about collaborating development and operations teams into a seamless, ongoing Agile process.  

Summary

DevSecOps automation allows businesses to identify and remediate vulnerabilities before code gets pushed into the production environment. They can also build a long-term and productive secure coding practice. It allows them to promote collaboration between Dev, Sec, and Ops teams to integrate best practices in the SDLC process. Advanced DevSecOp automation frameworks leverage AI and ML to simplify complex DevSecOps tasks. Through continuous monitoring and customized strategies, Tx assists its clients achieve secure and robust releases with reduced time-to-market and enhanced code quality. To know how Tx can help, devsecops automation experts. 

The post Implementing DevSecOps Automation: A Step-by-Step Guide first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents

1. Web Application Testing

2. Web Application Testing Practices

3. What are the benefits of web application testing?

4. How to test Web Application?

5. What are the challenges faced in web application testing?

6. What are the tools for Web Application testing?

7. Conclusion

Web Application Testing

With all the impending issues, web app testing holds more importance than ever. However, testing a web application is not just an ordinary task, and depends on several factors such as compatibility across various browsers, application performance, user experience, user acceptance, ensuring proper security, etc.

The enterprises must deploy skilled testers to assess all aspects of the website across platforms, browsers, and devices. The testers must always implement web application testing best practices in order to produce accurate and reliable test results without increasing testing times.

Web application testing Practices:

1. Emphasis on Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing

With more and more users accessing websites on their mobile phones and tablets, enterprises are exploring more ways to make their websites mobile-friendly. Responsive web design makes the web applications deliver a rich user experience on every device. To ensure that the web application is able to work well on all browsers and devices, developers build responsive websites by using open web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Hence, it becomes important to perform cross-browser compatibility testing to ensure that the website is accessible on every available version of individual web browsers.

2. Evaluate the Application’s Performance Under Various Conditions

In addition to assessing the proper working of the application on all devices and browsers, it is also equally important to ensure that it does not crash under heavy loads. Sometimes minor flaws in the coding or design can affect the website’s performance adversely. Therefore, it is important to perform load testing and evaluate how the application performs under varying loads. There are various automation load testing tools available to accelerate load testing.

3. Choose the Right Parameters for Usability Testing

Usability and the user-experience of the web applications are of the utmost importance to keep the visitors engaged and convert them into customers. Hence, it is important to evaluate the usability of the applications based on most appropriate parameters. Performing usability testing on the application before its release is a best practice. Usability testing involves several parameters such as UI design, speed, navigability, content readability, and accessibility.

4. Validate all Security Issues with Security Testing

Underestimating the significance of web application security is a ticking time bomb. Even a single vulnerability can lead to a massive data breach that can shake even the largest of companies down to its grounds, causing a negative impact, substantial financial consequences, and the loss of public trust. It is therefore imperative to ensure that the web application is thoroughly tested on the security front. A number of strategies that should be incorporated into the web application security testing are as follows:

• Defining coding standards and quality controls

• Creating strategies based on both internal and external challenges

• Using industry standards as a benchmark

• Implementing a cross-functional approach to policy building

5. Integrate Exploratory Testing in the Software Development Lifecycle

Exploratory testing reduces testing time and discovers more defects. As a regular practice in the software testing approach, testers write and execute test cases simultaneously. When failing to understand the shortcomings of exploratory testing, they are surrounded by more defects. By integrating exploratory testing with other black-hat and white-hat software testing techniques, the limitations of web app testing can be easily overcome. The integration can help in producing more reliable test results while reducing the testing time significantly.

How to test Web Application?

There are six important steps to test a web application:

1. Functionality testing:

This step ensures that the functionalities of a web application are properly functioning or not. Functional testing takes place in the source code.

Functionality testing includes:

• Determining the data input and entry
• Test case execution
• Functions need to be properly identified because the software runs effectively through the integration of functions
• Actual results must be analysed

2. Usability testing:

This testing type focuses on how user experiences while using a particular web application. Efforts are put in to ensure that the application is built in-line with user needs. This testing method makes it a point to see that a user is able to easily navigate through the various functions of an application. The content that is displayed in the web application must also be clearly visible.

3. Interface testing:

This testing method ensures that the three main components of a web application which are web server, web browser and database are running harmoniously. This testing type checks whether there is any interruption while the data is being transferred. Upon that, the communication taking place between various interfaces is also thoroughly checked.

4. Compatibility testing:

This testing methodology ensures that a particular web application is compatible with all browsers. Compatibility testing takes place at three levels which are browser compatibility, operating system compatibility and device compatibility.

5. Performance testing:

In here, a specific web application is tested in terms of how better it can perform under stress conditions and heavy load. How the application is able to perform under different internet speeds, networks and browsers are also worked upon. Stress testing is one form of testing which is used to determine what amount of stress a web application can go through until it ceases to function. Also, how an application performs when it is running through various hardware configurations and what are the mechanisms that need to be strategized in order to prevent the application from crashing. All the above-mentioned aspects are thoroughly scrutinized and tested under the scope of performance testing<.

6. Security testing:

The final and most important step of testing a web application is Security testing. When a web application is being built, there is a lot of data that is being used and stored. Some of this data can be sensitive and needs to be protected at any cost, failure of which can cause a lot of technical issues for a web application to function properly. In order to fully secure these types of mission-critical data, security testing is implemented.

What are the benefits of web application testing?

Compatibility across browsers:

The practice of web application testing helps the applications to be compatible across all web browsers. Every user uses different browsers while surfing websites. The practice of web application testing effectively helps the apps to function the same for every user using different browsers.

Improves website performance:

The methodology of web application testing successfully helps to overcome the slow app performance. Applications with slow performance are not the choice for any user and Google even. Web app testing helps to resolve the load time delays caused due to the graphics, code, etc. and maintains a quality application.

Secures App from vulnerabilities:

Security is one of the important concerns for every application. Day-by-day the rate of website hacks is excessively increasing, so there is an immediate need for every small and large enterprises to practice the web app testing to ensure that the applications are free from the different kinds of threats.

Ensures high quality of the application:

The end-to-end testing practice effectively helps in enhancing the performance and functionality of the app. And, this way of testing helps to find and resolve the bugs at earliest. Thus, a high-quality app will be achieved before the release.

Reduces the Time and Cost Consumption:

The end-to-end testing practice through automation tools reduces the occurrence of errors and the performance of repetitive test cases. This will help the enterprises to achieve quality results with reduced time and cost.

What are the challenges faced in web application testing?

Challenge in interacting with Firewalls:

There are several instances where a firewall or a port can block a web application due to the issues of security certificates. Therefore, to avoid these scenarios, it is mandatory to test the application across various firewalls.

Challenge for validating Web Services:

The modern web applications are prominently depending on the web service layers such as JSON/REST or XML/SOAP to exchange data between systems or applications. So, the need for testing these web services has become huge, but the web automating testing tools are not the ones to tackle the services. Hence, testing web services is one of the important challenges faced by the teams.

Challenge to maintain consistency across browsers:

Interactive and Scalable web applications are always the preference of any user. If any inconsistency is experienced by the user while surfing on different browsers, then this can become a huge negative affecting the enterprise brand and growth. Hence, while performing usability testing, the developers need to monitor the interactivity and scalability of the app across different browsers by using different hardware.

Challenge to overcome performance issues:

An application with slow loading time is not a choice for any user and this drive affects the enterprise’s brand and app future. Hence, to overcome this challenge, developers should find the reasons influencing performance testing such as extending application features, interoperability, and integration issues, etc.

Challenge to secure app from data breaches:

Cyber threats are exceptionally increasing in number and affecting the user’s sensitive data which is available in the apps. In order to avoid data breaches and loss of information, it is important to regulate security testing practices. This will help to avoid the issues related to DDoS attacks and other cyber attacks and if there are any found, they can be resolved at the earliest.

What are the tools for Web Application testing?

Selenium: 

Selenium is one of the leading open-source web automation tools. It helps to perform automation across different devices and browsers. Also, there are several options to choose the language for writing test scripts such as C#, Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript, etc.

TestComplete:

This is an easy-to-use functional test automation tool. It allows in creating and maintaining automated regression tests on various devices. This tool is efficient to run 1,500 tests in parallel across remote test environments.

Qase:

This is a modern cloud-based test automation tool that is designed for helping QA and development teams. This tool doesn’t limit to run test cases or projects.

Zephyr:

Zephyr is also a top tool providing end-to-end solutions for many small and big enterprises. A one-click can enable to integrate with Jenkins, JIRA, Bamboo, etc. Also, it provides a good number of deployment choices for the user.

Robot Framework:

This is an open-source tool with an test automation framework. It helps to drive a keyword-driven approach for acceptance test-driven development and acceptance testing.

Conclusion

Every application whether web, mobile, or desktop-based, is experiencing more users. Considering the device variety, the ease of access has grown fundamentally over the past few years. With so much going on in the software domain, there is no way that testing will get easier. TestingXperts follows a comprehensive QA strategy that handles the unique requirements and challenges associated with web application testing. Connect with our experts to improve the overall user experience of your application with our testing strategies.

The post 5 best practices for web application testing first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. What is App Modernization?
2. Types of App Modernization
3. Role of Automated Testing in App Modernization
4. Automation Testing Tools & Frameworks for App Modernization
5. How to Choose the Right Automated Testing Tool?
6. Conclusion
7. How Can TestingXperts Help with Automated Testing for App Modernization?

What is App Modernization?

App Modernization refers to updating older software applications with modern architectures, features, and capabilities, ensuring they remain relevant and efficient in contemporary IT environments. It encompasses many activities, from simple code refactoring to replacing legacy systems entirely.

The digital landscape is evolving at a remarkable rate. With over 87% of enterprises reporting digital disruptions challenging their business models, there’s a pressing need to adapt and transform. Here’s why modernization is so essential:

Stay Competitive:

Modern applications cater to current market expectations, ensuring businesses remain relevant in the eyes of customers and stakeholders. According to a study, companies that fail to modernize risk falling 20% behind their competitors in revenue and customer satisfaction.

Optimize Costs:

Legacy systems, although familiar, can be expensive to maintain. Upkeeping outdated software drains resources, while modern apps can reduce operational costs by up to 25%, enhancing ROI.

Scalability & Flexibility:

Modern applications are designed to scale with growing business demands. They offer flexibility, ensuring businesses can quickly pivot in response to changing market dynamics.

Enhanced Security:

As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, outdated software becomes more vulnerable. Modernized apps incorporate the latest security measures, protecting valuable business data from breaches.

Types of App Modernization

App modernization is a comprehensive process that involves updating and improving software applications to enhance performance, security, and adaptability in today’s technological landscape. As technologies evolve, businesses need various methods to update their software based on specific needs and objectives. Let’s explore the different modernization techniques to determine which might be optimal for varying scenarios:

Re-hosting & Re-platforming:

Re-hosting is about taking an app from one environment and moving it to another, like from an in-house server to the cloud. It doesn’t change how the app looks or works but where it’s located. Re-platforming means making changes for apps to perform better in their new environment without altering their core functions.

Refactoring & Re-architecting:

Refactoring is making small changes in the software to improve its performance or clarity without changing what it does. Re-architecting means restructuring the app, changing how it works internally to make it more efficient or to add new features.

Rebuilding & Replacing:

Rebuilding means making the app again from scratch using modern methods and technologies. Replacing means buying or adopting a new app to replace the outdated one.

Every business is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. When deciding on a modernization approach, companies should consider their goals, budget, and how crucial the app is to their operations. For some, a simple re-host might be enough. Others might benefit from a complete rebuild. It is essential to evaluate the needs, consult with IT experts, and choose a path that aligns with the business’s future vision.

Automated Testing: A Deeper Dive

In the context of app modernization, the efficacy of the updated software is paramount. Automated Testing, an integral aspect of modern software development, employs specialized tools and software for comprehensive testing procedures. This approach not only assures the quality of the software but also streamlines the deployment process.

Why Manual Testing Isn’t Enough in Modernization?

While manual testing offers the advantage of human intuition, its scalability and efficiency in the face of complex modernized applications are limited. Applications today can encompass extensive lines of code, making exhaustive manual testing cumbersome and less precise. Automated Testing provides a systematic and swift alternative, enabling thorough verification of modernized applications to ensure optimal performance.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment in Modernization

CI/CD displays modern software development characteristics. CI represents the frequent integration and testing of code changes, while CD ensures that these validated changes are promptly deployed. Automated Testing is foundational to this framework, facilitating rapid and reliable assessments and enabling businesses to deploy updates with greater frequency and confidence.

Role of Automated Testing in App Modernization

Ensuring the new version works perfectly when updating old software is crucial. That’s where Automated Testing comes in. It checks every part of the software to ensure it’s functioning correctly and is secure. Let’s explore how Automated Testing helps when modernizing apps:

Ensuring Seamless Transition:

When businesses update their software, they must test it to ensure a smooth transition. Automated Testing does this quickly and thoroughly. It checks the new software, finds problems, and ensures that the transition from old to new is smooth, with no major errors.

Reducing Errors and Reworks:

Mistakes can be expensive. If a business launches updated software with issues, fixing them later can cost time and money. Automated testing detects these issues early on. By catching problems before they reach users, businesses can save money on fixing issues and avoid the costs of unhappy customers.

Improving Time-to-Market:

In the business world, time is money. Getting updated software to customers faster can be a significant advantage. Automated Testing speeds things up. Instead of waiting for humans to check everything manually, a computer program quickly tests the software. This means businesses can launch their modernized apps faster and stay ahead of the competition.

Building Trust in Modernized Apps:

People trust brands that offer quality. When businesses update their software, they want users to trust the new version. Automated Testing helps with this. Thoroughly checking the software ensures that the updated app is of high quality. So, when users use it, they can be confident that it will work well.

Automation Testing Tools & Frameworks for App Modernization

As app modernization becomes necessary, the right automated testing tools and frameworks become essential to ensure the revamped software meets quality standards. These tools simplify the testing process and seamlessly integrate with modern development practices, making them a vital aspect of the modernization process. Here’s a list of some of the automated testing tools:

Selenium:

Selenium, an open-source tool, has gained popularity among testers for its flexibility and wide range of capabilities. It allows testing of web applications across various browsers, ensuring that the modernized application performs uniformly across platforms. The tool’s versatility, backed by a supportive community and rich documentation, makes it an ideal choice for many businesses venturing into app modernization.

Appium:

With the surge in mobile app usage, testing mobile apps for functionality and user experience is crucial. Appium is an open-source platform that enables automated testing on iOS and Android platforms, regardless of the native, mobile-web, or hybrid application type. Its ability to write tests in multiple programming languages further underscores its adaptability and broad reach.

TestNG & JUnit:

Frameworks like TestNG and JUnit have reshaped how developers approach testing in the Java environment. TestNG, inspired by JUnit, offers enhanced functionalities like grouping, sequencing, and parallelizing tests, ensuring a structured and comprehensive testing process. On the other hand, JUnit is known for its simplicity and annotations-driven approach, making it a staple in many modernized application testing scenarios.

Jenkins:

It’s an open-source tool that facilitates the automation of various stages in the development pipeline, including testing. Integrating seamlessly with various testing tools, Jenkins accelerates the feedback loop, allowing developers to address real-time issues essential for apps undergoing modernization.

How to Choose the Right Automated Testing Tool?

The key to making an informed choice lies in aligning the tool’s capabilities with the project’s specific requirements. This section provides a roadmap for businesses to determine which tool best aligns with their app modernization objectives.

Understanding Application’s Architecture:

Before starting with tool selection, it’s crucial to understand the application’s architecture undergoing modernizing. Is it a web application, a mobile app, or a desktop application? Different tools are optimized for different platforms. For instance, while Selenium excels in web application testing, Appium is tailored for mobile environments.

Integration with Existing Systems:

Consider how well the testing tool integrates with existing systems. A tool seamlessly integrating with your current development environment, version control system, and CI/CD pipeline can streamline the testing process, reduce manual interventions, and increase efficiency.

Flexibility and Scalability:

Modernized applications often evolve, adding new features and functionalities. The chosen testing tool should be flexible and scalable to accommodate this growth. It should allow testers to quickly modify, expand, or reduce tests’ scope without substantial rework.

Language and Framework Support:

The programming languages and frameworks the team is familiar with should be considered significantly. If the team is well-versed in Java, tools that support Java will have a shorter learning curve. Similarly, if an app is built on a specific framework, ensuring the tool that supports that framework can be beneficial.

Cost Implications:

While open-source tools come without licensing fees, it’s essential to consider the total cost of ownership. It includes training, maintenance, integration, and potential downtime costs. Sometimes, investing in a paid tool with premium support and features can be more cost-effective in the long run.

Performance and Reporting Capabilities:

Real-time feedback and comprehensive reports are vital to understanding the efficacy of tests. A tool that provides detailed logs, visual reports, and real-time alerts can help teams quickly identify issues and improve the quality of the modernized app.

Conclusion

The digital realm constantly evolves, with innovations and technologies reshaping how businesses operate and deliver value. In this dynamic environment, app modernization has become necessary for any organization to stay relevant and competitive. With its efficiency and precision, automated testing is essential for businesses. Businesses can confidently leverage new opportunities and tackle emerging challenges by ensuring modernized apps function optimally and meet quality standards.

How Can TestingXperts Help with Automated Testing for App Modernization?

In the evolving digital landscape, app modernization helps businesses to progress, offering them a way to remain agile, relevant, and ahead of the competition. Automated testing ensures that revamped applications meet and exceed quality benchmarks. At TestingXperts, we deliver top-notch automated testing solutions tailored for app modernization, ensuring your software is robust, efficient, and future-ready. Here’s why you should partner with TestingXperts for app modernization services:

• We utilize cutting-edge tools and methodologies for accurate testing

• Comprehensive testing expertise across web, mobile, and desktop platforms

• Seamless integration with continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines

• Tailored solutions aligning with specific app modernization objectives

• Proactive monitoring and real-time feedback for early issue identification

• Commitment to continuous learning, ensuring alignment with the latest trends and best practices

• To know more, contact our QA experts now.

The post Importance of Automated Testing in App Modernization first appeared on TestingXperts.

The manufacturing industry hasn’t been left untouched by the industry 4.0 revolution. It is driven by the need for efficiency, adaptability, and precision. Unlike traditional automation, which lacks the flexibility to handle complex processes, intelligent automation (IA) in the manufacturing industry optimizes operations, enables data-driven real-time decision-making, and reduces costs. However, manufacturers must implement cutting-edge solutions like AI, ML, IoT, and RPA to fully leverage IA benefits. From predictive maintenance to real-time quality control, intelligent automation is reshaping the manufacturing industry.

This blog will explore how intelligent automation transforms the manufacturing sector, the key technologies involved, and why businesses should leverage it for long-term growth.

Intelligent Automation in Manufacturing Industry

After the era of industrial automation, intelligent automation is transforming the manufacturing sector with advanced automation technologies like LPA, RPA, and AI. It allows manufacturers to focus more on innovation and core tasks. They can free their workforce from repetitive processes and can achieve approx. 40% reduction in operational costs, optimize performance, improve quality, and facilitate process automation.

Intelligent automation optimizes production lines and minimizes downtime to ensure consistent product quality. Predictive maintenance, one aspect of IA, prevents failures before they penetrate the production cycle. Also, IA-driven systems help improve supply chain management by supporting inventory management, logistics, and demand forecasting. Manufacturers can achieve higher productivity, improve agility, and reduce costs, a critical factor in today’s digital and AI-enabled industry.

IA Technologies Transforming the Manufacturing Sector

Intelligent automation integrates advanced technologies affecting manufacturing process efficiency, scalability, and precision. Let’s take a quick look at the technologies driving this transformation:

AI-driven Robotics and Autonomous Systems:

Modern autonomous and robotic systems powered by AI can perform complex tasks like precision assembly, adaptive manufacturing, collaborative operations, material handling, etc. They can quickly adapt to the working environment and collaborate with human workers to improve operational efficiency. The robots can be more productive in handling assembly lines, product handling, and quality inspection.

Internet of Things (IoT):

Integrating IoT sensors with machines and devices streamlines data flow, enabling manufacturers to generate real-time data for monitoring and decision-making. This helps with predictive maintenance, remote asset management, and process optimization.

Machine Learning:

ML algorithms use historical and real-time data to predict the likeliness of software and hardware failures. This helps reduce downtime issues, improve the lifespan of assets, and keep equipment maintenance costs in check.

Intelligent Machine Vision Systems:

Manufacturers can automate quality control inspections using AI-powered vision systems. These systems help analyze product quality with high precision and detect defects that are hard to spot with human eyes. These systems use computer vision and AI to improve QA and reduce production line waste.

Digital Twins:

In the manufacturing industry, a digital twin can imitate the virtual replica of a physical process, enabling businesses to simulate operations, optimize test runs, and predict results before change implementation. This technology helps minimize risks and improve efficiency.

Benefits of Intelligent Automation in Manufacturing

By implementing IA in the manufacturing sector, businesses can optimize their inventory management and maintenance activities and improve their efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. Let’s take a close look at some of the business benefits of leveraging intelligent automation in the manufacturing industry:

Supply Chain Optimization:

Intelligent automation will ensure seamless real-time inventory tracking, demand forecasting, order processing, and vendor communication. This will enable the seamless movement of raw and finished products through the supply chain. Manufacturers can reduce bottlenecks, improve delivery timelines, and avoid stock-related issues.

Compliance Management:

Simply the regulatory adherence process by automating documentation and compliance monitoring and ensuring the process aligns with strict industry regulations and quality standards. This would help reduce violations and penalties risk.

Digital Platforms Connectivity:

Modern manufacturing infrastructure relies on interconnected systems like IoT-enabled machines and cloud-based platforms. IA enables uninterrupted cross-platform data exchange, enabling real-time insights, predictive analytics, and remote monitoring. This helps improve business decision-making and efficiency.

Facilitate Innovation:

IA can handle data-intensive and repetitive tasks, enabling enterprises to redirect their resources towards R&D and innovation. AI-driven simulations and digital twins can accelerate product development, leading to faster time-to-market.

Better Customer Engagement:

IA helps improve CX by improving product customization, automating order tracking, and streamlining after-sale support. AI-powered chatbots and self-service portals offer on-the-go assistance, while predictive analytics improve customer satisfaction.

KPIs to Measure Intelligent Automation Impact in Manufacturing

How can Tx Assist with Automation in the Manufacturing Industry?

At Tx, we assist our manufacturing industry clients with next-gen automation solutions that improve efficiency, agility, and precision. Our team of AI-driven test automation helps businesses improve the quality of their software solutions while reducing costs and downtime. Partnering with Tx would give you access to the following perks:

AI-driven Test Automation:

We leverage AI-powered automation accelerators (Tx-Automate) for quick and frequent quality checks, reducing defect rates and time to market.

Supply Chain Management:

Our software testing solutions help streamline supply chain management with AI-based demand forecasting and automated inventory control, ensuring optimized resource allocation.

Scalable Automation Strategies:

We design scalable automation solutions tailored to industry-specific needs, whether RPA, AI-powered decision-making, or autonomous systems.

RFID Solutions:

We leverage RFID solutions in software testing for tasks like asset tracking and inventory management, ensuring the integrity of test data and offering real-time automation and visibility.

Summary

Intelligent automation in the manufacturing industry enables efficiency enhancement, cost reduction, and product quality improvement. It helps manufacturers handle extensive data and streamline ordering, workflow scheduling, and procurement. By pairing with innovative technologies like AI, IoT, and RPA, businesses can speed up their transformation efforts and free their workforce from redundant tasks. Partnering with Tx would accelerate your software QA process and ensure you deliver better customer engagement and increase profits. Contact us now to know how the Tx manufacturing industry and automation experts can help.

The post Modern Manufacturing’s Silent Revolution: Intelligent Automation first appeared on TestingXperts.

Software testing undoubtedly forms an integral part of the application’s software development lifecycle (SDLC) and earlier manual testing was more popular. But, today with agile and DevOps software methodologies on the go, and the enterprises quest for faster releases and quality products, it requires software testing methods that are faster and efficient than manual testing methods. It is at this point the software test automation architecture enabled through test automation frameworks comes into prevalence and is today leading the charts of software testing.

What is Test Automation Framework?

Techopedia defines Test Automation Framework as a set of guidelines for creating and designing test cases. It is a conceptual part of the automated testing that helps testers to use resources more efficiently.

A framework is defined as a set of rules or best practices that can be followed in a systematic way that ensures to deliver the desired results.

Typically, a broader description of test automation framework shows that it consists of a set of processes, tools, and protocols that can be collectively used for automated testing of software applications.

An automation testing framework is a platform developed by integrating various hardware, software resources along with using various tools for automation testing and web service automation framework, based on a qualified set of assumptions. This framework enables efficient design and development of automated test scripts and ensures reliable analysis of issues or bugs for the system or application under test (AUT).

The important functions of software testing automation frameworks are broadly defined as they are effectively used to identify objects and arrange them to be reused in test scripts, perform some action on these identified objects and further also used to evaluate these objects to get the expected results.

It can be inferred that a testing framework is an execution environment for automated tests which revolve around a set of assumptions, concepts, and practices that successfully support the designated process of automated testing.

Why do we use automation framework in test automation?

It is essential to use a framework for automated testing as it specifically improves the automation testing team’s efficiency and test speed. This automation testing framework also helps to improve test accuracy, and drastically reduces the test maintenance costs and lowers risks involved. Due to the numerous advantages of automation frameworks, test automation has become a fundamental component of today’s agile and DevOps practices.

What Is the purpose of a Test Automation Framework?

– Enhances efficiency during the design and development of automated test scripts by enabling the reuse of components or code

– Provides a structured development methodology to ensure uniformity of design across multiple test scripts to reduce dependency on individual test-cases

– Enables reliable issue and bug detection and delivers proper root-cause analysis with minimum human intervention for the system under test

– Reduces dependence on teams by automatically selecting the test to execute according to test scenarios

– Refines dynamically test scope according to changes in the test strategy or conditions of the system under test

– Improves utilization of various resources and enables maximum returns on efforts

– Ensures an uninterrupted automated testing process with little man-power involvement

What is the need for Test Automation Framework for enterprises?

As mentioned, the test automation framework consists of a set of guidelines for creating and designing test cases. They form an important aspect of automated testing as it significantly helps testers to use resources effectively and efficiently. These automation frameworks also help to configure and create test suites by combining various automated tests and make them available for execution.

In general effective test automation support rigorous functional tests and also prove to be more useful as they require shorter design time. These automation testing frameworks ensure more consistency of automation across the organization and brings in higher developmental activity.

Enterprises often face the dilemma of balancing costs and managing resources select automation frameworks that could cover all their business scenarios to deliver quality applications. Evidently, by selecting and implementing best test automation framework, enterprises can significantly increase the speed of test execution and accuracy of the testing process to deliver higher return on investment (ROI) and quality products. Hence, enterprises should choose effective types of automation framework to ensure effective testing of their applications.

Different Types of Framework used in Automation Testing

There has been a significant evolution of these  over the years and some of the important types of these frameworks are:

Linear Scripting Framework:

This framework is based on the concept of record and playback mode that is always achieved in a linear manner. It is more commonly named as record and playback model.

Typically, in this scripting driven framework, the creation and execution of test scripts is done individually and this framework is an effective way to get started for enterprises.

The automation scripting is done in an incremental manner where every new interaction will be added to the automation tests.

Modular Testing Framework:

Abstraction is the concept on which this framework is built. Based on the modules, independent test scripts are developed to test the software. Specifically, an abstraction layer is built for the components to be hidden from the application under test.

This sort of abstraction concept ensures that changes made to the other part of the application does not affect the underlying components.

Data Driven Testing Framework:

In this testing framework, a separate file in a tabular format is used to store both the input and the expected output results. In this framework, a single driver script can execute all the test cases with multiple sets of data.

This driver script contains navigation that spreads through the program which covers both reading of data files and logging of test status information.

Keyword Driven Testing Framework:

Keyword Driven Testing framework is an application independent framework and uses data tables and keywords to explain the actions to be performed on the application under test. This is more so called as keyword driven test automation framework for web based applications and can be stated as an extension of data driven testing framework.

Hybrid Testing Framework:

This form of hybrid testing framework is the combination of modular, data-driven and keyword test automation frameworks. As this is a hybrid framework, it has been based on the combination of many types of end-to-end testing approaches.

Test Driven Development framework (TDD):

Test driven development is a technique of using automated unit tests to drive the design of software and separates it from any dependencies. Earlier, with traditional testing a successful test could find one or more defects, but by using TDD, it increases the speed of tests and improves the confidence that system meets the requirements and is working properly when compared to traditional testing.

Behavior Driven Development Framework (BDD):

This has been derived from the TDD approach and in this method tests are more focussed and are based on the system behavior. In this approach, the testers can create test cases in simple English language. This simple English language helps even the non-technical people to easily analyse and understand the tests.

What are the major advantages of Automation Frameworks for Enterprises?

Cost-Effective Benefits

– Helps reduce time-to-market as it delivers continuous execution of automated test scripts
– Ensures enhanced scalability
– Reduces operational costs
– Delivers faster and quality products for launch
– These frameworks ensure higher test performance over manual testing
– Though initial costs are high but lowers overall maintenance costs
– These automation frameworks become reusable and brings in cost-effectiveness as they can be used for similar testing needs in the future with the same test scripts
– Delivers comprehensive defect management reports

Application-Efficiency Benefits

– Identifies defects early with effective detection of bugs and issues
– Ensures maximum test coverage as end-to-end automation testing frameworks are used
– Reduces manual efforts as tests are fully automated and need less manual intervention
– Most significant usage is with respect to code reusability
– Delivers greater efficiency as testing time consumed is reduced
– Automated scripts save lot of QA time and ensures quality is maintained and delivered
– Automated tests can run anytime,anywhere as the system runs them automatically
– Bug tracking reports deliver comprehensive reporting that is useful to DevOps teams
– With agile and DevOps, and continuous deployment, test automation and continuous integration is the key and pre-requisite to ensures continuous testing is achieved

What are the advantages enterprises get with Cloud test automation frameworks?

– Delivers real-time communication
– Facility to access data and resources anytime/anywhere
– Supports parallel testing across various platforms, OS and environments eases testing process
– No need of any upfront costs
– Ensures faster time to market
– Delivers cost effectiveness

What are the steps for an effective Test Automation Approach?

1. Evaluate to understand the real need for automation based on application type

2. Define automation goals and priorities

3. Plan automated testing strategy

4. Select the right test automation frameworks and tools based on project requirements

5. Decide on what test cases to automate

6. Develop good quality test data

7. Create automated tests more resistant to UI changes

8. Execute the tests for the test scripts developed

9. Test early and often with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pattern

10. Maintain the test scripts for future use

What Is Selenium Automation Framework?

Selenium is a leading test automation framework that is portable and is used for testing web applications. This test automation frameworks and tools provides a record and playback feature for authoring functional tests.

Some of the other test automation frameworks effectively used by testers are integration testing framework, UI testing framework and more commonly used are the keyword driven frameworks.

Based on the application under test, these testing frameworks should be chosen in order to get the complete advantage of using these best test automation frameworks.

What are the types of tests to test automation frameworks?

Before using the testing frameworks, it is important to perform a number of tests on these frameworks which include:
– Functional testing,
– Learning tests,
– Upgradability testing,
– Installability testing,
– Portability testing,
– Interoperability testing,
– Performance testing,
– Suitability testing,
– Syntax testing,
– Usability testing
– Understandability testing along with static analysis
All this can be performed to ensure the successful performance of these test automation frameworks.

Is there an intelligent and easy-to-use Test Automation Framework?

Tx-Automate – An Intelligent and Ready-to-Deploy Test Automation Framework

TestingXperts’ has developed an innovative and extensible test automation framework, ‘Tx-Automate’ – a reusable, integrated and compatible framework. It has ‘out-of-the-box’ and best ‘in-class features’ for test automation. These test automation framework features include rich custom reporting, third party integrations, configurable execution options and supports all latest tools.

This end-to-end testing framework helps to configure test suites by combining various automated tests and makes them available for effective execution.

Tx-Automate helps in drastically reducing the effort to kick-start automation and offers a fully operational test automation solution.

Framework Overview (Tx-Automate)

– Matured Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) solution across a diverse set of applications (Digital, IoT, API, Legacy and more)
– Best-in-class features for test
– Rich custom reporting & configurable execution options
– Supports integration with market-leading test automation framework open source and commercial tools
– Supports functional and non-functional tests within an automated pipeline

Framework Key Features (Tx-Automate)

– Scalable, robust and reusable
– Manages a large number of scripts in real-time
– Easy to maintain test scripts
– Common reusable components include function library, driver script & configuration files
– Consists of separate features related to Test Design
– Consists of separate features related to Test Execution and Test Reporting

Framework Key Advantages (Tx-Automate)

– Tool agnostic solution which can integrate with all leading tools of automation testing like Selenium, Appium
– Generates rich UI based output reports with details for different stakeholders
– Supports complete integration into the development pipeline with CI tools
– Supports integration with third-party tools like test, defect & version management
– Interfaces with Cloud-based providers for on-cloud test execution
– Integrated to deliver performance testing and can be used for functional testing

Why Should Enterprises Leverage Tx-Automate framework?

– Integrates with all latest market trending new technologies
– Flexible framework (as simple as a Plug and Play)
– Integrates well with alternate frameworks supporting many programming languages
– Supports Cross Browser Testing
– Reusable Components
– Command Line Execution
– Integration with Test Management and Bug Tracking Tools
– CI Integration with Jenkins
– Multiple Notification Formats
– Object Identification Page Object Model

Conclusion

With the agile and DevOps practices on the go, there is a need for faster releases and quality products. Test automation using test automation frameworks has many advantages such as faster defect detection, reusable test scripts and minimum intervention by humans while running the test scripts.

However, for enterprises to take the complete advantage of these automation frameworks, they should consider leveraging independent next-gen software testing services providers who have already developed fully functional test automation frameworks that needs a simple plug and play to ensure faster and continuous releases.

The post Test Automation Frameworks – Why, Types, Benefits, Approach first appeared on TestingXperts.