Simple Steps to Select the Right Test Automation tool for your Project

Common software testing types such as regression testing, functional testing, unit testing, integration testing, etc., are being replaced with systematic testing programs using automation tools. Today, Test Automation is being considered as the most effective way to enhance coverage, efficiency and effectiveness of any software application. It is redefining the way the engineers perform testing operations. Having said that, the toughest task for any project is to decide whether Test Automation is required or not. If yes, then what apparatus (tools & procedures) should be utilized. This altogether lays down the grounds for Automation to be considered as an alternate skill set by and large.

The IT market is brimming with automation tools, but not every tool suits your project prerequisites. One may need to closely examine the project specifics to choose the most appropriate tool. However, to analyze and zero-in to one tool that best fits a specific need is a big challenge.

While working on a specific project, a team at Saviant faced challenges with their existing test automation tool and had to find the one that best suited their needs. In order to do so, they formulated a strategic approach to choose the right automation tool. Let’s take a walk through their simple yet efficient approach to select the right automation tool for a project.

Step 1: Understand your project requirements thoroughly

Maintaining the quality of an application by delivering a bug-free product is crucial for the success of any project. Automated testing can help improve the quality of a project and increase scope & depth of the tests. For this, get a deep understanding of your project requirements such as project type (web/desktop/mobile), scope of the project, and existing team’s strength on code language before you start the process. There is no such tool that is good or bad but the ROI of any tool relies on the need, i.e. what precisely does one need to automate and what amount of test cases needs automation?

In our case, after thorough analysis of the project requirements by the consulting team, it was determined that both manual & automation testing will be a mandate to test the web, mobile and desktop application. Hence, they needed a tool that integrates seamlessly with their project planning & test management tools, and is easy to learn & simple to use.

Step 2: Consider your existing test automation tool as a benchmark

 

Our team considered Selenium Test Automation Tool as a benchmark to evaluate and determine the best automation tool for their project. The advantages and drawbacks of Selenium Web Driver framework need to be understood before evaluating other tools.

Selenium is a free, open source tool available to test web applications and websites. It provides record-playback tool to produce and record playback test scripts. It provides language support for C# Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Node.js but lacks proper customer support services. Testing teams leverage Selenium if they are comfortable with coding techniques and they test web applications through the UI. Maintenance would be a nightmare with Selenium for a solitary tester who must oversee both Manual & Automation Testing and may also need a full-time Developer for upkeep. Browser compatibility is the other challenge with this tool.