Many tech companies that are developing software and applications rely on automated testing to ensure the reliability and quality of the end product. A valuable alternative to time-consuming manual testing, automated testing has a reputation for being more reliable and more efficient with less risk for errors — but that doesn’t mean there are not challenges when it comes to automated testing.
Test automation will mitigate many complications that plague manual testing — but it does present its own challenges that range from choosing the right tool to test your software to prioritizing test cases. Tech companies that plan to use automated testing must have a plan to overcome common test automation challenges and Truss may be able to help.
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What Are the Most Common Test Automation Challenges and Solutions?
Test automation presents a number of challenges for software development companies. That is the bad news. The good news is that with the right tools and the right strategy, those challenges can be overcome to help you reach your end goal and deliver a product that is high-quality and reliable. Here is a closer look at a few of the common test automation challenges that developers will face and the solutions that can be used to overcome them.
1. Finding the Right Tools to Test Software
Tech companies that hope to automate testing have a wide range of test automation tools and platforms to choose from that enable different types of testing — unit tests, function tests, performance tests, and security tests. Choosing the wrong tools for your testing can waste time and money, and still not help you find a reliable solution.
Solution: Evaluate Your Needs and Limits
To find the right tool for test automation, you must first define your needs and limits. Determine the type of testing that you need to perform, examine the potential tools that will meet your needs, and determine if the cost is within your budget.
2. Effective Collaboration
Effective test automation requires that members of your team or multiple teams all need to be on the same page. Poor communication and collaboration within a team when performing automated testing can lead to additional issues like delays, quality issues, and challenges with how you deploy the testing.
Solution: Create Clear Lines of Communication
This challenge can be overcome with a few easy steps. Teams that create a clear line of communication with regular meetings will benefit from more effective collaboration. It is critical that automation teams communicate potential risks and errors, so that they can be managed more effectively.
3. Updates and Changes to User Interfaces
Updates and changes to user interfaces are a common challenge with test automation. Testing protocols can quickly become out of date with the addition of new features, updates to the backend, and user interface changes that make the test results unreliable and irrelevant and mean you must spend more time updating test scripts.
Solution: Modular and Flexible Testing
Frequent changes to the user interface you need to test present a real challenge, but can be overcome with a flexible and modular testing strategy. With modular test scripts, you can minimize the impact of these updates and the time it takes to adapt to the changes. An added solution is to employ locator strategies like ZPath or CSS selectors.
4. Building a Test Automation Strategy
Test automation is important to your success — but without a comprehensive testing strategy it will not be as effective. Building a comprehensive test automation strategy that aligns strategy with end goals can be a challenge. A comprehensive strategy should define end goals, a timeline for deliverables, and set expectations for testing.
Solution: Collaboration and Feedback
The solution to overcoming this challenge is pretty straightforward — collaboration. Automated testing must be done with a collaborative effort between software developers, engineers, and project managers. With multiple eyes on the testing, you can make sure updates are made quickly to test scripts, ensure better coverage, and make sure the test remains relevant. This solution requires feedback, communication, and discussion between each member of the testing team.
5. Upfront and Maintenance Costs
Test automation can involve high upfront costs that include the cost of testing tools, training, and infrastructure for talented software engineers to support the testing. The costs for testing can include purchasing licenses for testing tools, the money needed to establish test environments, and ongoing maintenance costs to update test scripts.
Solution: Employ a Phased Strategy
The best way to combat and overcome the high upfront and continued maintenance costs of test automation is to employ a phased strategy. Create a priority list and invest in the most important test cases first. This allows you to minimize the initial costs by limiting how much testing you are doing to begin with and providing a high return on investment (ROI) for shareholders.
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U.S.-based tech companies that are looking for ways to overcome common test automation challenges when they test new software applications may find the solution here with this overview created by Truss.
Tech companies in need of talented software engineers and testers may find that the talent and skill they need for their remote software development team can be found overseas. Truss provides tech companies with a comprehensive global hiring platform and employer of record services in Central Asia that will help you find, recruit, hire, onboard, and manage talented individuals to join and grow your team.
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