How to choose the best tool for your business or IT project
Whether it’s a medical test, a college entrance exam or a fitness test, testing isn’t fun. Software testing isn’t any different – it isn’t much fun for developers who manually test newly created code for a new application their team creates or updates. It’s easy to omit testing, but impossible to have a viable software product without it. As much as we would like developers to just get it right the first time, it isn’t going to happen, and it’s not necessarily their fault.
Developers often have little more than an agile user story to work on. Confusion and complexity can grow as different visions of the product are expressed by multiple stakeholders. Developers can’t be expected to crank out an end-product and get it right the first time. Couple this with the constant tinkering nature of an agile-based project, and it’s easy to understand just how important continuous testing is.
Manual Testing Doesn’t Cut It Anymore
The human nature of software development dictates the need for rigorous testing for quality assurance. So why would you use manual testing that incorporates the human element as well? Consider the magnitude and scope of testing required today for different applications. Tests need to be performed for a variety of environments and different data sets. For instance, a web application must be tested in multiple platforms using varying device types, browsers and form factors.
Automated Testing Should be the New Standard in Testing
Automated testing can simulate workloads representing anywhere from one user to thousands of users; and it goes far beyond the limitations of manual testing. And when testing for quality assurance is automated it can be conducted endlessly and unattended. There’s no fatigue and the cost is minimal compared to hiring manual testers. Quality assurance automation executes the full gamut of tests you need, when you need them and with increased speed and quality. Another great benefit? It reports the outcomes and comparative results versus previous assessments.
Different Types of Quality Assurance Testing and Testing Scenarios
There are many aspects to a successful application, and therefore more than one type of testing to accommodate them. In the end of course, it’s all about determining if the code behaves as expected.
- Unit Test – A unit test focuses on a single unit of code such as a function in an object or module. These tests are short and quick to run. They are especially useful when modifying existing code.
- Test-Driven Development (TDD) – TDD is more of a development process than a testing process. TDD breaks up the project into small repetitive development cycles. A cycle represents a minimum amount of new code that must then pass a specific test. New code is added only if the test failed and is then retested. This process not only creates error free code, but streamlines it as well.
- Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) – BDD focuses on the business behaviors that the code is implementing. This is the “why” behind the code. Also referred to as acceptance testing, it helps determine if the requirements for the end user as conceived are indeed met.
Popular Automated Testing Tools for Quality Assurance
Selenium
First released in 2004, Selenium is one of the most popular automated software tools for browser-based web programs. It is an open source solution and thus has no licensing costs. It accommodates multiple programming languages including Java, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, Pert and .Net. Tests can be conducted within the Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems and it supports multiple browsers including Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari and Opera. With Selenium, you can be assured that your web application behaves as expected under both normal operation flows and unexpected user behaviors.
Behat
Behat is an open source BDD testing tool for PHP. It’s used to help define how your application should behave in different scenarios. It utilizes continuous example-based communication between developers and business stakeholders that all parties can easily understand. Every application has a list of documented actions and Behat verifies them by auto-testing them against the application itself.
BrowserStack
Created for testing mobile web applications, it is a cloud-based automated testing platform that incorporates more than 2,000 environments including various mobile devices, browsers and operating systems. It utilizes mobile emulators of both Apple iOS and Google Android and can be utilized for continuous integration or cross-browser testing.
Cucumber
Cucumber is another BDD tool that focuses on the end-user experience and can serve as a bridge between business and technical professionals. It supports multiple languages including Ruby, Java, Scala, Groovy and .NET. Like Behat, Cucumber is written in the Gherkin format that uses simple English and is especially user-friendly to non-programmers. It’s so user-friendly that test scripts can be written by those without any prior coding experience.
We’re only scratching the surface here because new automated testing solutions are readily being introduced and expanded upon. There is no “one perfect” tool out there as every environment is different. When choosing an automated testing tool, consider the type of tests you’ll be conducting, the language you’re working with and ultimately the type of application you’re looking to test. Automating the QA process will soon be mainstream, so it’s best to brush up on the various tools and start thinking about how you can implement QA automation in your company.
Not convinced you’ll get the ROI your business is looking for? Check out our QA Automation ROI Calculator to find out.
