5 Most Common Scenarios For Automation Testing

13 min read
16 February 2023

When it comes to ensuring your product's quality, testing is essential. To ensure your applications are working correctly, you must test them - otherwise, customers will be less likely to buy or use them. Although software testing can be done manually, it can take time and resources that you can spend on tasks that add innovation or improve performance. However with automation testing tools it’s not a big deal anymore.

What is Automation Testing?

Automation testing is a technique for executing test cases using software tools for automating the process. By contrast, in manual testing, the tests are carefully managed by a human in front of a computer.

In addition to entering test data into the System Under Test, the automation testing software can also compare expected and actual results and generate detailed test reports. It requires considerable financial and human resources to automate software tests.

Automating test cases is not intended to eliminate manual testing entirely but rather to reduce the number of test cases. It will be necessary to execute the same test suite repeatedly during successive development cycles. With the aid of a test automation tool, this test suite can be recorded and replayed. An automated test suite requires no human intervention and improves ROI.

Why is Test Automation Needed?

Performing manual testing for all workflows, all fields, and all negative scenarios is time-consuming and expensive. While on the other hand, automation in software testing is the best way to increase effectiveness, test coverage, and execution speed. The following are reasons why automated software testing is essential:

1. Faster Feedback Cycle

Getting feedback on newly developed features can take a long time without test automation. Your product will be validated more quickly, and test automation will reduce feedback time. The benefits of test automation include detecting problems or bugs early during development, thus increasing the team's efficiency.

2. Reduced Business Expenses

It is recommended that you avoid manual testing. Your company will save money when you use an automated test environment since fewer resources will be spent on testing. It can make a massive difference throughout an entire project. Installing and establishing an automated testing environment takes time and resources. Furthermore, you will likely need to invest in an automated test environment that can be stable.

3. Higher Test Coverage

Manual testing has limits on the number of tests that can be verified. By automating your tests, you have more time to write new tests and add them to your automated test suite. Consequently, more features are tested adequately, resulting in a higher-quality application. Aside from automating testing, developers can write more in-depth tests that cover complex use cases. Unattended testing can be used for long tests that are often avoided during manual testing.

4. Reusability of Test Suite

Creating an automated test suite can be challenging at first. Once you have defined your suite, reusing tests for other projects or use cases is a breeze. This allows you to add a new test to your automated testing framework rapidly. By now, you are well-versed in setting up an automated test suite and other related tools, such as continuous integration (CI). Using this knowledge, you can easily set up your test automation for a new project.

5. Improved Accuracy

In manual testing, even the most experienced testing engineer makes mistakes. It is common for faults to appear when testing a complex use case. On the other hand, automated tests produce the same result every time they are run so that they can be executed with 100 percent accuracy.

6. Provide More Features

A test suite that simulates thousands of virtual users interacting with your web application can help you with even more features. For instance, you can test how the web application responds to thousands of virtual users. This kind of feature saves developers a great deal of time! By manually testing, it's impossible to fix such behavior.

7. Less Stress on QA Team

By implementing an automated testing strategy, your QA team can focus on tasks other than manual testing. Furthermore, when you remove the manual element from the job description of a QA engineer, the job description becomes more interesting. Test automation allows QA engineers to optimize their current testing suite or add additional functions.

8. Eliminate Human Error

Humans are prone to making mistakes when performing manual testing. It is essential to automate tests for complex scenarios to prevent mistakes. Despite this, when using test automation for the suite of tests, you will find that the rate of errors is significantly lower.

Most Common Test Scenarios For Automation Testing

Getting the most out of your automated tests requires a plan that helps you get the most out of them. Automating certain test cases early in your plan is essential because not all tests can be automated.

Automated testing can be done in various ways, including selecting which tests to automate based on a defined set of best practices. You don't have to start from scratch, determining which test cases to automate. Listed below are some types of tests where automation can streamline your process. The following are things to look out for:

1. Repeatable Test Scenarios

The term "automation" refers to using technology to perform a task humans previously carried out. In addition to reducing the risk of human error, automation is a time- and money-saver, as it speeds up workflow. The automation of repetitive tasks will save employees valuable time.

As a result, employees can focus on high-value activities instead of mundane, daily tasks. Moreover, automation led to best practices being set out rather than people completing processes based on their best guesses. The process is clearly defined and documented. The procedure is clearly outlined and registered.

Examples of Business Processes Automated

It is possible to automate a large number of business processes and repetitive tasks. For example, Expense Reporting, File Transfers, HR Processes, Social Media Scheduling and Posting, Calendar appointments, Report Generation, Email Automation, and Sales Analytics and Forecasting.

Automating repetitive tasks makes your business more efficient while saving time and money. Doesn’t matter how large or small your business is; you've probably encountered specific processes that cost you time and money without adding value. Because of a lack of resources or technology, these processes are often overlooked or left untouched.

2. Many database operations

To store information, databases (spreadsheets containing data) can prove to be very useful tools. In fact, they are so useful to an organization that they play a vital role in the company's operations.

Databases are often a treasure trove of sensitive and valuable information assets that contain data on systems, users, and organizations. A lot of data needs to be maintained, processed, and updated in an organized and efficient way. This work is performed by teams of database administrators (DBAs) who use various technologies, such as database management systems (DBMSs), to accomplish these tasks.

However, in the 21st century, these operations are often predictable and repetitive, and they are being performed at such a large scale that manual DBA skills no longer suffice to perform these tasks. Consequently, there is a growing trend among companies to automate database management operations: the process of automating database management activities. After all, database automation aims to simplify and speed up data management.

3. Tests with several combinations

There is no need to confuse this with any of the above categories. Test cases involving different combinations and configurations are automated to save time and avoid human errors. Here is an example; imagine a program that checks the hardware and software configurations of other hardware.

By storing the expected parameters in a database or XML file, you can connect to the device and compare the parameters you stored with the parameters it actually stores. You will find it difficult to test manually when you have to test various devices with various combinations. So, their automation eases your work to a great length.

4. Business-Critical Test Scenarios

In its most basic sense, automation is using technology to perform a task previously achieved by a human. You can reduce human error and increase efficiency by using software to assist your business. The automation process can fulfil all of these functions instead of having someone enter data into a computer or make phone calls for you.

The main goal of automation is to eliminate or reduce non-value-adding processes or those prone to human error. In other words, machines should do everything. As a result, you can run more efficiently, save money, and ensure that operations are done correctly, regardless of who is in charge.

Your employees will benefit from automating their business processes. This allows them to focus on higher-level tasks instead of answering the same questions. The advantages of automation are that you can accomplish your work faster and more efficiently, saving time and money. It is more efficient in the long run.

When should business processes be automated?

Automating business processes can be challenging, but when should it be done? Making mistakes is never fun, but owning a small business can prove costly, even when you make small ones. For this reason, you should implement process automation as soon as possible to begin saving money.

When deciding which processes in your business should be automated, at that point, there are a few factors to consider. Probably the best way to automate a process is if it involves many repetitive steps, human error is common, and it doesn't add value to your company.

Imagine if you had ten orders for a product that required five steps in an order process, and four of those steps included human interaction but were not necessarily automated. In that case, that process could save you money.

Automation Example: Once an invoice is created, sent, and the payment is received at the bank, the sales page should be updated, the stock should be assigned, a packing slip and label should be printed, and a delivery collection should be scheduled. When you automate processes, you will save time and resources that would otherwise be wasted.

5. Data-driven Test Scenarios

Test cases that are data-driven require multiple data sets or multiple data entries, such as testing that requires a username and password and filling out forms with various data variations. Here are some examples to consider.

Testing different permissions for different roles is what you want to do. A healthcare project will require testing around 20 positions with permissions. Imagine testing each role's permissions by logging in for each role. Additionally, these tests can be run as part of smoke testing. The ideal solution would be to automate these tests.

Another testing scenario involves monitoring medical devices such as CT and MR machines. Several parameters, perhaps 50, would be monitored by the application, and an alert would be raised if something went wrong. As an example, raise the alarm if the hard drive is full. Suppose each parameter had its warning. The testing of all combinations used to take two days, but after automation, it took 30 minutes.

Automation testing tools such as LambdaTest help free up your time and resources, along with improving software quality. LambdaTest is a cloud based test orchestration and continuous testing platform that allows you to automate your Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium and Puppeteer tests in a single click.

To Wrap Up

In recent years, automated testing techniques have become much more cost-effective and have been proven to save time. The testing of system applications can be automated using many different methods.

The tester can choose appropriate techniques for their systems with a detailed understanding of the system applications and test case techniques. Suitable test cases for their software products must be identified and determined before any test automation can be performed.

Automated testing facilitates completing a task faster and generating acceptable results. However, some test cases can produce effective results using manual techniques instead of automated ones. Testers should take the lead in identifying potential automation cases, discussing with stakeholders, and developing an action plan. And should surely automate the above-discussed points to enjoy maximum profit in business.

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Alex 9.8K
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