Automated Software Testing: What You Need To Know

 

Automated Software Testing: What You Need To Know

Information Management Online, June 1, 2010

Info-Tech Research Group

IT departments know firsthand that manual software testing can take more time than is available. Automated software testing tools can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of testing. Automation tools use software to accelerate the testing process by generating test scripts and tracking results to speed up the testing phase of the software development lifecycle.

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Automated testing tools are most helpful when used in the following situations:

• Repetitive, mundane tasks. As software is created, it goes through many versions, each of which must be tested. By creating test scripts once, automated testing allows reuse for future versions. 
• Regression testing. Each time a change is made to a system, testers using a manual approach have to go through each function and make sure it does not affect any other part of the system. Automated regression testing uses test cases to do this quicker.  
• Granular function testing. Automated testing tools can provide more accuracy in testing. They can pick up granular differences that manual testing may not isolate. For instance, a slight color difference on a GUI may not be seen by the naked eye during manual testing, but would be picked up during an automated test.  
• Multiple combinations. In more complex environments where many scenarios must be examined, automated testing can rapidly run many test case combinations using a single script. 

Automated Functional Testing

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Functional testing verifies the correct implementation of functional software requirements. Functional test suites are created from requirement use cases, with each scenario becoming a functional test. As each component is implemented, the respective functional test is applied. For many projects, it is unreasonable to manually test each function; however, when automated functional testing is implemented, testers are able to cover more scenarios and ensure higher quality code.