Test Automation Benefits & Priorities

I have listed out few points about automation below. These points will elaborate how important an automation tool in testing is.

Test Automation Benefits

• Improves testing efficiency
• Consistent and repeatable testing process
• Supports quality metrics for test optimization
• Improved regression tests - decrease cost of change
• More tests can be run in less time - better coverage and shorter time
• 24/7 operation - better use of resources
• Human resources are free to perform advanced manual tests
• Objective and measurable performance and stress tests
• Execution of tests that can't be done manually
• Tests can access system parameters that are not visible to tester
• Simple reproduction of found defects
• Testing costs decrease with reuse

Test Automation Priorities

• Right selection of test procedures for automation is critical.

• The test automation project should prove its usefulness to the organization by providing maximum impact for minimum effort from the start.

• The following list represents recommended candidates for the first automation stage:
  - simplest to automate tests
  - frequently running tests
  - critical set tests
  

• Good for system "smoke test" execution

Test Automation Introduction

Test Automation is the use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions. Commonly, test automation involves automating a manual process already in place that uses a formalized testing process.

Many test automation tools provide record and playback features that allow users to record interactively user actions and replay it back


Types of Test Automation

• Functional Testing
• Performance Testing
• Stress Testing
• Load Testing

Functional testing

Functional testing is testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system's compliance with its specified requirements. System testing falls within the scope of black box testing, and as such, should require no knowledge of the inner design of the code or logic.

Tools

• WinRunner
• IBM Rational Functional Tester
• Silk Test

Performance Testing

Performance Testing is testing that is performed, from one perspective, to determine how fast some aspect of a system performs under a particular workload. It can also serve to validate and verify other quality attributes of the system, such as scalability and reliability.
demonstrate that the system meets performance criteria.
impossible to exactly replicate this workload variability of a real time system

Tools

• OpenSTA
• LoadRunner
• Silk Performer

Stress Testing/Load Testing

Stress Testing is a form of testing that is used to determine the stability of a given system or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in order to observe the results. Stress testing may have a more specific meaning in certain industries.
stress testing often refers to tests that put a greater emphasis on robustness, availability, and error handling under a heavy load, than on what would be considered correct behavior under normal circumstances.

Load Testing is the process of creating demand on a system or device and measuring its response.
Load testing generally refers to the practice of modeling the expected usage of a software program by simulating multiple users accessing the program's services concurrently.

Tools

• LoadRunner
• Visual Studio Team Test
• Application Center Test
• Silk Performer