Automating the testing process with the help of testing software is called Automation testing. It involves automating the manual testing process and also replacing the manual testing with the help of a suite of testing tools. These tools assist software testers to evaluate the quality of software by automating manual aspects of the software testing task. Manual testing is considered costly and time consuming therefore, automated testing cuts down the time and cost overheads. Following table shows some software and automation tools associated with that.
| Software | Testing Tools |
| Segue | Silk Test, Silk Performer, Silk Central |
| IBM/Rational | Requirements Pro, Robot, Clear Case |
| Mercury Interactive | Win Runner, Load Runner, Test Director |
| Compuware | Reconcile, Quality Assurance Load, Quality Assurance Run |
Similarly Bug trapper is used to perform white box testing. This tool traces the path of execution and captures the bugs along with the path and different I/P values which results in the error.
Problem with Manual Testing
- Less Reliable: Manual Testing is less reliable as there is no yardstick available to find out whether the actual results and expected result have been compared properly. For that we have to rely on testers statement.
- High Risk: Manual Testing process is subject to high risk of oversight and mistakes. Hence unintentionally mistakes can happen.
- Complex Task: Testing is quite complex when we have a mixture of multiple platforms, operating systems, servers, clients, business processes etc. A Compressive manual testing is impractical.
- Time Consuming: Limited test resources make manual testing simply too time consuming.
Benefits of Automation Testing
Automating the manual testing process replaces and supplements the manual testing and help to increase software quality , reduced time, reduced testing cost etc.
- Automating test case execution is faster than manual execution and hence saves time.
- Test automation relives test engineers from repeated routine tasks.
- Automated test is more reliable and accurate.
- Automation lead to lesser human dependency thus reduce effort.
- Test cases for some specific types of testing cannot be executed without automation. For example: If we want to study the behavior of a system with the millions of users locked in than there is no way one can perform these tests without using automated tools.
- Tests, once automated, take comparatively less resources to execute.
- Automation produces a repository or record of different tests performed which helps us train the test engineers.
Disadvantages of the Automation Testing
- An average automated test suite development normally requires 3 to 5 times the cost of a complete manual test cycle.
- Automation is a complex task to begin with as it require prior knowledge