7 Mistakes You Must Not Commit For Test Automation

In the earlier years of software development, manual testing was the only means to test the functionality of any website and software. However, with the development of Technology, the complexities in the application development process are increasing day by day. So, it is an easy guess that the testing process will also become more and more complex. This gave rise to the popularity of automation testing. Many companies are adopting test automation to perform all the time and resource-consuming tedious daily testing processes. Automation Testing can be a confusing process for beginners. Testing errors can not only result in test failures but also degrade the quality of the test environment. In this article, we are going to discuss the most common mistakes that occur during test automation.  We will also discuss all the ways that can help you to resolve these issues.

The Basics Of Test Automation

During a software testing process, various stages are repetitive and have to be conducted several times. With the conventional testing mechanism, the developers had to manually conduct this test every time. However, this process resulted in massive losses of time and revenue. With modern testing technology, test automation replaced manual testing in this segment. Automation Testing conducts all these repetitive and redundant testing processes with the help of an automated test script. The developers can reuse a massive portion of these test scripts for future testing processes. In simple terms, we can easily justify that Automation Testing has completely revolutionized the present software testing industry. However, the developers must remember that test automation requires a massive initial investment to get things started. Now, let’s move on to some of the common mistakes that testers can commit during automation testing. 

Mistakes You Must Not Commit During Test Automation

1.      Selection of Incorrect Tools

Improper test automation tools can lead to the complete failure of test automation or can lead to incorrect results. Various factors lead to poor decision-making and ultimately result in the selection of the wrong tools. Let us take a look at some of the common factors.

• Failure to properly analyze all the testing requirements for the software or the web application.
• The tester did not lay out the requirements for the tool selection process. 
• The company did not properly assess the readiness or the skill set of the testing team.
• The testers did not evaluate the capabilities of the tool or the vendor.

The quality assessment team did not analyze the cost-benefit of the tool.  Another common issue is the selection of any test automation tool just because it is an open-source application. 

Companies can easily avoid these issues by implementing a strict procedure to analyze the tool and the tool’s supplier.  Various tools can help to elevate the quality of any application testing process. The testers should also consider their personal preferences and skillets to make the right decision. Let us consider the example of Lambdatest Automation Testing to understand the influence of a proper tool on the testing procedure:

Lamdatest Automation Testing

LambdaTest Automation Testing is a platform to perform test automation procedures in a secure Selenium grid. Using this platform the developers can automate various redundant tests in the web application development life cycle. The testers can also use LambdaTest automation testing to develop the automation test scripts and store them on the cloud. Using this platform, the developers can also test the performance of all locally hosted web pages. The cloud platform allows the developers to test the functioning of the software on even the latest devices. Lambdatest has an activity log to store all the final test reports. Lambdatest is very supportive of individual creators and small startup companies. This is because they provide various attractive plans for all of their test automation services. Millions of companies all around the world use Lambdatest for performing automation testing on software and web applications. 
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2.      Insufficiently Validating the Test Automation

The data validation process is very critical to smoothly completing the test automation process. Automation testers make a common mistake of not validating the data at every level of the testing process. For instance, there may be a scenario when the function may work completely fine at the user interface level. However, on investigating behind the scenes you will find that it is not providing the expected Data integrity at the database level. Variations in data at different stages of the software testing process can lead to major failures in the entire system. 

To avoid these failures you must create the automation test scripts in such a way that it validates all the functions at every level of the testing process. This means that you should not restrict the data validation process to only visible UI elements like combo boxes, buttons, hyperlinks, and texts. These testing practices will always be viable for data leakage during AUT production. Data Validation ensures that the application performs smoothly on all systems and in every use case scenario.

3.      Ignoring the CI/CD Pipeline

The main purpose of integrating continuous delivery and continuous integration is to ensure that the company can speed up the software release cycles. Using this process, the development teams can integrate even the smallest of incremental code changes. Then, the testers can test these changes and release the software to the end-users. Automation Testing is one of the most critical parts of the CD/CI pipeline. Failure to integrate Automation Testing with this process will result in not utilizing the full potential of automated tests on the CD/CI tools. The testing teams should create various scenarios to integrate these processes. For instance, they must create smoke or limited regression test suites, automated build acceptance and integrate it with the main pipeline. This process will help them to quickly release high-quality software to the market. 
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4.      Maintenance of Test Automation

Any form of Automation Testing requires regular maintenance from the quality management team. The developers have the choice to automatically conduct this maintenance with a tool or manually update it. Many automation testers often make the mistake of not considering the maintenance process while selecting the test automation tool. This will affect the efficiency of a testing environment as automated test scripts are not designed for low maintenance or no maintenance at all. The situation might degrade further if you continue this for prolonged periods. In the worst-case scenario, your automation testing scenario will degrade further and will reduce the test coverage. 

So you must prioritize the maintenance feature while selecting the perfect tool for automation testing. It is a great idea to look for automation testing tools that can implement self-healing features. The Lambdatest Automation Testing tool is a great example of one such tool. It’s also a great idea to regularly monitor all the incoming changes in the core framework of the testing environment. This process will ensure that all the automation test scripts are always up to date. 

5.      Incorrect Attempts to Replace Manual Testing

Many developers have the misconception that Automation Testing can solve all the issues related to application testing processes. In reality, it is impossible to replace manual testing with automation testing in every segment. Certain areas like testing the visual elements of a web application require the intervention of a watchful human eye. Moreover, it is also impossible to conduct usability and exploratory testing without manual intervention. Thus, the testing teams should have a clear idea about all the areas that they should automate. This process will allow them to maintain a healthy balance between manual and automated testing. They should also be aware of the tests that need to be run on automated test cycles. It is a wise decision to consider automation testing as a helping hand to manual testers. 

6.      Play/Record Trap

Almost all modern automation testing tools come with the “record and play” feature. Using this feature, the testers can quickly create automated test scripts for the testing processes. This might seem tempting to all beginners. However, the massive catch is that these tests are created with static data. This means that you cannot reuse these test scripts. These tools cannot perform any validation tests like the human eye. Lastly, even for the minimal changes, you have to re-record the entire scenario. Thus, it might lead to unnecessary time loss. This process will also wipe out all the dynamic data. So, you have to enter this data manually all over again. 

This feature gives the wrong idea that developers can create automation scripts in a very short time. The main goal of this feature was to help the developers to translate and assess the user actions. So, you should use it only to create the base script. You can also use this feature to train the new automation testers. This process will benefit the testing environment in the long run. 

7.      Misplacing Your Testing Priorities

Most of the new automation testers misplace their testing priorities. For instance, they prioritize irregular test cases and low-value use cases. They also provide importance to testing unstable application features that aren’t important for the functioning of the core framework. The psychological explanation for this habit is to display good progress in the initial stages of automation testing However, it harms the functioning of the application in the long run. 

The testers should not rely on short-term wins in the testing process. The main goal should be to benefit the business in the coming years. So, you should align the business with proper tools and test priorities. This will help you to increase the ROI and the test coverage. Customer satisfaction should also remain one of the primary goals. 

The Conclusive Views

So, we can conclude that test automation is very important to ensure the proper functioning of any software or web application. A properly planned Automation Testing process not only ensures the proper functioning of any application but also delivers it quickly to the end-users. So the testers must pay proper attention to ensure that they properly plan all the steps ahead of time. The developers should also pay proper attention while creating the automated test scripts. Reusing various portions of the script will not only save a lot of time and effort but will also minimize the testing budget. Lastly, we would like to highlight the importance of the tool selection process. The right tool will help to utilize the full potential of the testing environment. It is a good idea to conduct thorough research on the company’s ideas and project requirements before the tool selection process.