The core objective of agile methodology is to develop and deliver products faster. As businesses embrace test automation in agile software development, the overall productivity and deployment of software development activities accelerate to deliver high-quality software. Businesses get a fully functional, bug-free, and flawless product as a final product.

However, implementing the right automation testing tools plays a vital role in enhancing the effectiveness of the agile and DevOps implementations.

Content

1. What are Agile software development methodologies?
2. Where does test automation fit into agile development?
3. Four key factors that depict the importance of test automation in agile ?
4. Benefits of implementing test automation in an agile environment
5. How to implement test automation in agile?
6. What tests can be automated in agile?
7. Five major automation testing tools businesses can leverage
8. Conclusion

Agile software development methodologies

Agile software development methodologies include Scrum, Kanban, Extreme programming, Lean development, and Crystal development.The scrum method is an important agile methodology wherein the development and testing activities are run parallelly within sprints.

A set of features are released in each sprint during the agile process, and continuous development and testing are performed to ensure faster releases. But, to ensure faster and quality releases, manual testing does not suffice in the latest agile and DevOps scenarios. Thus, businesses should embrace test automation using the latest automation tools to carry out the testing in an agile environment.

Where does test automation fit into agile development?

The product is developed in iterations during the agile development, and testing is done within sprints. Each time a new feature is added to the software, the software needs to be tested again to ensure there are no bugs. Testing each feature manually becomes almost impossible for the QA team with so many new features added. Hence, automation testing should be leveraged for faster testing outcomes in agile development. Businesses should leverage various automation testing tools, such as Selenium, TestNG, Appium, Tricentis TOSCA, etc.

During automation testing, testers need to develop test cases according to the needs of the software to be tested. These test cases can be executed multiple times while performing continuous integration or continuous builds. This form of automation testing ensures that the software remains bug-free, and even if a bug is introduced, it can be easily identified in the early stages and can be fixed early.

This form of automation testing ensures that the software remains bug-free, and even if a bug is introduced, it can be easily identified in the early stages and can be fixed early.

Four key factors depicting importance of test automation in agile

Test scripts reusability

Automated test cases can be reused, which means these test scripts can be re-run several times in different ways. This test reusability will reduce the maintenance costs to a great extent. The application of reusability eliminates human errors and saves cost.

Optimal test coverage

Test coverage plays a vital role in improving the efficiency of software testing activities. The depth and scope of tests are increased through automation testing activities. This is because testers need not run all the tasks manually. Instead, the testers can create a test suite for every feature of the application, such as internal programs, data tables, and memory contents.

By leveraging automation testing, complex test cases can be automatically run, ensuring better and faster test coverage. The manual testers’ work is reduced, and they can be used for other important tasks.

Faster test execution

The efficiency of the development process is significantly improved by the test automation process. Testing is done parallel to development to ensure all the bugs and issues identified are resolved at the earliest. Further, this sort of testing is also known as the ‘Fail Fast’ method, wherein as the defects are found early in the SDLC, they can be fixed early, and it also saves a lot of time.

Typically, if the automated testing is performed from the initial unit testing phase, then the defects can be found early and fixed, rather than fixing them at a later stage. Moreover, the time-to-market of a software product is also drastically reduced through the application of continuous testing. Developers and testers can save time and ensure to deliver a high-quality product at a quicker pace.

Cost-effectiveness

At the initial stage, the cost of test automation will be more as the required training, tool cost, and tool setup needs to be taken up to ensure effective test automation. However, with the test automation once set up, the cost factor will be reduced as the automation activity goes on for a longer time.

Further, without investing any additional costs, test cases can be run several times as and when required, thereby improving the overall speed and efficiency of the software testing activities.

Benefits of implementing test automation in an agile environment

•Parallel testing can be performed wherein the same scripts are run on different devices

•When the testing is done using test scripts, the reliability factor is scaled up to an all-new level

•Agile software development can be carried out at a faster pace through the strategic application of test automation

•Initially, the costs are high for implementing test automation in agile, but, eventually, the ROI is more

•If a specific test script is developed, it can be used several times to test the software for bugs.

•Test automation is an innovative way for carrying out agile methodologies cost-effectively and efficiently. Thus, it helps to improve the overall software testing activities by enabling a high-quality product in a shorter time with faster releases.

How to implement test automation in agile?

Develop an effective plan for agile automation

For the success of an agile project, it is essential to prepare an automation testing plan that must cover the automation framework and. Also, ensure a proper collaboration between QA and the development teams.

Determine the test cases that can be automated

Not all test cases can be automated; therefore, identify the test cases that can be automated beforehand.

Conduct parallel testing

With automation in place, QA teams can execute several tests on different devices, browsers, and operating systems simultaneously. Specifically, parallel testing saves a good amount of time for the teams.

Adopt DevOps Integration

DevOps ensures proper collaboration between developers and operation teams. Also, testers can integrate the automation tool into CI/CD pipelines for effective testing.

Select the right automation tool

Testers should select the right test automation tool (open source or commercial tools). Test automation tools reduce regression testing time and ensure faster testing outcomes with high-quality software. However, while selecting the test automation tool, testers should ensure that the tool matches their technical skills, software testing needs, current IT infrastructure, etc.

What tests can be automated in agile?

•Unit tests

•Smoke tests

•Integration tests

•Regression tests

•API tests

•Security tests

•Accessibility tests

•Performance tests

Automation testing tools to leverage

•Selenium

•Tricentis TOSCA

•Appium

•TestNG

•Katalon Studio

Conclusion

Automation testing helps QA teams create test cases that run automatically when new code is pushed to the code repository. Automation testing also scales up the agile development activities if combined with the right tools, expertise, and an effective automation testing roadmap.

Leverage the test automation services from a next-gen testing services provider to get high-quality products with a faster time-to-market and quicker ROI.

The post Importance of Test Automation in Agile first appeared on TestingXperts.

The rapid demand for IT organizations to deliver high-quality software at a progressively faster rate has necessitated the shift to agile development and DevOps methodologies. As applications under development become more complex in nature, continuously changing to include new technologies and feature sets, manual testing simply can’t keep up. This rapid shift is driving the need for test automation. Test Automation delivers strong benefits, such as.

Contents 1. Test Automation Benefits 2. Ways to Drive Value from Automation Testing 3. Define a Clear Set of Goals 4. Don’t Automate Everything, Manual Testing Will Still Be Needed 5. There is More to Automation Than Just Functional Testing at the GUI Level 6. Test Automation Requires Regular Maintenance 7. Choose Tools Matching Your Team’s Skills 8. Define a clear test data management strategy

Test Automation Benefits

Irrespective of whether a traditional or agile development approach is applied, opting for test automation needs careful planning and an exhaustive understanding of the benefits it can deliver. Setting the right expectations for test automation can lead to creating a successful strategy whereas having unrealistic expectations can do the opposite.

Embarking on the journey of automated software testing requires the adoption of best practices such as behavior-driven development (BDD) and continuous integration and testing. These are key elements to improving the overall development process. When done well, the advantages of test automation are indisputable, but when done poorly, the disadvantages can be worse.

In this blog, we will identify the ways to drive value from Automation Testing.

Ways to Drive Value from Automation Testing

The following recommendations will increase your possibility of succeeding in adopting test automation as an integral part of your testing approach.

1. Define a Clear Set of Goals

It is essential to define a simple but clear and balanced set of goals while automating tests. Test automation has been taken as a “magic bullet” that will reduce the cost of testing dramatically and is also assumed to offer 100% coverage. However, the main purpose of automation testing is to find defects early on and diminish quality risks by not allowing them to proliferate without the need for human intervention.

Defining a clear set of test automation goals allows the whole team to experience the benefits of automation. On the other hand, if automation is considered as another form of management control, it will not be effective. Therefore, it is important to list goals and develop an execution plan which leads to incremental improvement.

2. Don’t Automate Everything, Manual Testing Will Still Be Needed

While there are numerous benefits to test automation, automating every test might not be beneficial. For example, usability and exploratory testing require human intelligence and intervention, and do not explain an investment for automation.

Therefore, teams will need to leverage both manual and automated testing to ensure software quality before launching an application. Employing a mix-blend of the manual as well as automation testing can be the best way to succeed.

3. There is More to Automation Than Just Functional Testing at the GUI Level

Almost every team starts its automation effort with GUI functional tests, however as the components of the GUI tend to change regularly, they are costly to build, slow to implement, and delicate to maintain. Hence, to ensure that problems are discovered easily and rapidly, a blend of different testing levels and types is required to reach the anticipated level of quality and to alleviate the risks associated with defects.

Teams should not just think about automating GUI functional testing, but also various other types of tests, such as:

A clear test automation strategy should feature the amount of time your teams spend in each area. The prime focus should be on the highest-value tests, allowing you to establish a clear ROI.

4. Test Automation Requires Regular Maintenance

Poor practices yield tests that are hard to understand and maintain, and may produce failures which take time to research. As the application or system is modified, you need to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of each test constantly. New scripts must be written to bring out new features and directions. Teams have to write and maintain these tests. This truly helps to ensure that you are not building tests that will disrupt things as easily.

5. Choose Tools Matching Your Team’s Skills

Due to a large number of automation in testing solutions available on the market, the products available from various software companies often vary in terms of their focus and practical scope. No single solution from a solution provider will meet all of your testing needs. Therefore, it is important to select the right tools that take application targets into account, fit your team’s development practices, and also match the skills of your resources.

6. Define a clear test data management strategy

In order to test business-critical software, testing teams need to plan and retrieve the essential test data, as well as the activities associated with it. Unavailability of the required data can have a severe impact on the software testing activity and can result in inadequate testing coverage. Test Data is something which constantly gets refreshed and versioned after some time, having to be repeatedly referred to to evaluate the required outcome of an activity. If test data is not managed and maintained appropriately, it can cause delays in the testing and development process. Hence, it is important to have a clear test data management strategy to accelerate the application’s go-to-market speed and to eliminate business losses.

Conclusion

It can be established that automation testing results in cost reduction, as well as time/effort savings, consistency, quicker feedback, and results, thereby contributing to increased productivity and profits. Improved test automation with accurate testing techniques helps ensure that a shippable product is delivered at the end of every sprint.

TestingXperts’ Test Automation strategy enables organizations to increase release velocity and reduce time to market. TestingXperts has developed an extensible automation framework, ‘Tx-Automate’, which is modular, reusable, integrated and compatible. The framework helps to configure/create test suites by combining various automated tests and making those test suites available for execution. Connect with our software automation testing services to know more.

The post 6 Recommendations for Driving Business Value from Test Automation first appeared on TestingXperts.

Agile methodology has transformed the software industry completely. Every organization is adopting agile in various forms and shapes to align with their business needs and to achieve their ultimate goal of being accessible to the market needs and end users. Therefore, agile methodologies are being executed in several ways. These days, agile methodology is perceived as a quick, responsive, and a flexible software development method. As a result, many companies have customized Agile Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to suit their needs.

Contents 1. Agile Methodology: Effective Transformation in Testing 2. Benefits of Agile Methodology 3. Conclusion

Agile methodology: Effective Transformation in Testing

However, with the passage of time, and the changing user requirements, testing became an important and the most significant aspect of the agile methodology. All these years, testing teams have been contributing to the agile methodology and have evolved immensely.

Here is the list of progressions made by the testing team from several perspectives:

Benefits of Agile Methodology

1. Great collaboration and complete involvement with the whole team: By shifting left in the development lifecycle give a chance to the testers to collaborate with the rest of the product team rather than just being an isolated entity that enters the phase just before the release. This value addition by the testers has revealed the evolution of their work and how they have become a great help to the other teams by collaborating with them.

2. Better-quality work with the best methods: The focus on test automation has helped testers in giving up repetitive tasks from their plates which were earlier done manually. This has given testers more time to analyze and perform better and bigger things such as competitive analysis; business needs accomplishments, end-user feedback analysis, etc.

3. Recognition for the work they do: Testing teams have their own accountability and have a better reputation than ever before. Nowadays, testers are involved in the project right from its production planning and designing stages, the development teams and the testers work together to bring out a better deliverable in lesser time. This level of contribution polish their skills and bring out their best in consideration that they were earlier not a part of.

4. Stronger connection with end users: With the understanding that in an Agile program, the product team as a whole is more accessible and involved with end users, testers as end-user representatives on the team have enormous potential to the front-end with users, be it usability studies, beta programs or product demos, etc. Currently, testers have a better understanding of the product from an end-user viewpoint which helps them get better in their own roles.

Finally and most importantly, agile has helped the testers to build quality with speed and contribute to the project in their own way.

TestingXperts with its expertise and extensive experience in agile methodology has been able to deliver high-quality projects within a shorter duration. Our software testing experts employ industry best agile and DevOps practices, in-house developed intelligent frameworks and processes that enhance the client’s processes to enhance process predictability and performance in the long run.

The post Agile Methodology- An Effective Transformation in the Testing Domain first appeared on TestingXperts.