Advantages and disadvantages of Automated Testing

Test Automation

Testing a software product, during which the main stages of the verification are carried out using automatic tools (launch, initiation, execution, processing of results and drawing conclusions) in the English version looks like “functional testing services”. In Russian - automated software testing.

Prerequisites for Automation

Like all highly targeted products, software testing automation has its pros and cons. Accordingly, there are cases when automatic testing can be carried out, and options where manual mode is more useful.

The undeniable advantages of automatic testing include:

• Cycling is a guarantee that the created autotests will always follow one test algorithm, which will not miss the intended test in one of the cases of use.
• Quick result - there is no need for the time that a person needs to verify the intermediate results, to confirm the correctness of the fulfillment of requirements.
• Cheapness - once created software for testing requires less effort to analyze the data obtained, as a result, replacing the same volumes of manual testing without loss in quality.
• Plenty of room for reporting - ready-made results are easy to process, and the reports themselves are easy to distribute to interested parties.
• Free hands - a human tester, while the program is running, can perform other useful activities that are not subject to automation. It is permissible to conduct testing at a time when the load on numerical resources is reduced (after hours).

Cons of automated software testing

• Cyclicity (yes, yes) - uniform tests cannot catch other elements than those for which they are written. A person is able to notice minor inconsistencies and, at the testing level, draw conclusions about the nature of the error or make corrections.
• Support - although the costs of manual testing are greater, automatic tests also need to be updated and brought up so that the functionality of the checks corresponds to the level of the application being tested (with increasing complexity of the software being tested, there is a need to update the autotest code).
• Development is writing, and most importantly, debugging and testing of autotests takes a lot of time. After all, in fact, software for testing software is nothing but the same software. Only the functionality is very narrow.
• Cost - a licensed copy of the test automation services framework can cost a decent amount. And although free options are also usually widely used, their functionality often leaves much to be desired, and a license should help in case of a problem described in clause 2 of this list.
• Minor errors - autotests may not notice minor defects that do not harm the functionality of the code, but spoil the visual interface and impede the end user (window shifts, grammatical errors ...).

To know more about regression testing services

As you can see, the advantages and disadvantages are the same. Therefore, in each case, it is necessary to compare the expected benefits and the upcoming costs of testing automatically. 

If the shortcomings are insurmountable for you - there remains one alternative - manual testing. But, he also has his own shortcomings.