How to Tackle Challenges and Failures in Test Automation?

Test automation shapes software product and modern test automation techniques benefit organizations in various ways. The automation testing team prepares the test data, executes the test cases across multiple platforms, and identifies the bugs early in the development cycle. Test automation also reduces the cost, and time, and improves the productivity of the organization.

Applying best practices from the beginning stage of test automation can help in the smooth execution of test cases.  To give the best quality and secure applications robust automation tools are used these days. The market for automation testing is anticipated to expand at a rate of 14.2 CAGR between 2021 and 2026.

Even though automation testing has a lot of benefits but still developers face some challenges. At Sapizon we provide various test automation services to make your software solution bug free.

In this article, we will see the common challenges of an automation testing and how to overcome them.

Why does an Automation Project fail?

1. Using automation to achieve success

Test automation does not completely imply automation testing. It frees up the time for manual testing like testing unstable features and exploratory testing. The total 100% coverage cannot be attained by automation testing.

It is recommended to automate the test suites and begin by automating the easiest flows. These are the test suites that are simple and do simple things over and over.

2. Testing for multiple things in a single test case

There are several reasons test automation can fail, and it can be examined to see what went wrong. When using automation testing, it is always preferable to create modular parts that can be reused in other contexts rather than combining several tests in a single instance. This will minimize the effort required to develop a new test case while maximizing the reusability of previously developed test case logic.

3. Using an appropriate tool

The test automation platform you choose should meet all the technical requirements. This includes installing the tool in your system and allowing the users to test with your software.

Selecting the tool based on current challenges and automation goals may lead to risk in the long run if it is not a perfect fit for your organization.

4. Trying to execute a huge number of test cases in a predefined order

Each test case should run independently without relying on the other cases and the order should not matter. If your test suite contains hundreds of tests that must be run in a specific order, and one of the test cases fails, you must re-run the entire suite when doing re-testing. Again, identifying the errors require manual intervention.

How to overcome the challenges in Test Automation?

1. Effective Team collaboration and communication

This may be a challenging task for both manual testing and test automation teams. It is more difficult in test automation than in manual testing because the automation team must communicate and work together more.

Test automation requires investment and just with it, we need to make a considerable effort to communication, and present considerable evidence and historical data to get the entire team involved in creating test automation objectives and setting targets.

Automation testers discuss not only the plan, scope, and timescale with developers, business analysts, and project managers.  They also discuss what should be done in automation and what should be done manually with the developer and technical architects.

2. Choosing the proper tool

There are multiple testing tools available today that support various testing techniques, ranging from open-source tools like Katalon and Selenium to commercial tools like TestComplete. Each tool typically supports specific circumstances.

Testing product vendors frequently overstate the capabilities of their product. Vendors frequently believe they have some secret for every automation procedure. This leads to misunderstandings and confusion that make it difficult to choose the right testing tool that will meet all needs.

People choose tools without doing enough research and buy commercial tools based on the wrong evaluation. Without a suitable testing tool, it will end up in failed test automation results.

3. Demanding professional resources

Some people believe that test automation can just be handled by manual testers because of recording test scripts and playing them quickly. But this is a completely wrong approach because automation testing requires expertise to precisely develop and manage test automation framework and test scripts, build solutions, and address technical challenges.

Automation testing resources must have deep knowledge of the framework’s design and implementation.  The resources should have strong programming abilities and reliable test automation techniques to meet the job requirements.

4. Choosing an Effective Testing Methodology

Automation testing not only requires the right tool but also needs the right testing methodology. Finding a suitable test automation strategy is crucial for testers from a technical perspective. To accomplish that they must answer several questions, how to reduce the execution and maintenance of test scripts?

Will test suites for automation have a long lifespan? How can I create effective test metrics and reports? An ideal test automation solution would be able to detect these problems with automatic updating and revalidate the test without the need for human intervention.

5. Expensive in front investment

The initial phase of test automation is expensive. It is essential to analyze, design, and build a test automation framework and reusable functions. In some cases, it is necessary to account for licensing fees, facilitating expenses, and running costs like those associated with hardware and software.

Although we use free open-source tools to reduce the licensing costs but spend more on learning, training, and maintenance. Regression testing cycles offer a significant long-term effect but getting the stakeholders to agree on this expenditure is difficult. Many people give up test automation owing to budget constraints.

Conclusion

Teams that start their test automation journey with planning are more likely to avoid major blunders that end up in the replacement of tools. Test automation is very much essential in modern technological development where the software world is customer driven and the end users’ experience affects the revenue and growth of the company.

Sapizon Technologies is a leading test automation company which delivers one-stop solution for all automation software testing needs.

Looking to test your product? Get in touch with us now!