Test automation has been receiving a lot of attention lately. The idea of saving time and efforts invested in repetitive and long testing processes is being bought. However, it does not apply to all the aspects of testing and it certainly cannot replace manual testing. Therefore, it won’t be right to say that test automation is stealing jobs of software testers around the world.
Test automation cannot be expected to perform all the work that can be done manually by a tester. A test automation company can, however, provide it as a perfect solution for someone who’s not from a technical background. For example, automating regression tests, that ensures proper working of all the existing and new functionalities, can reduce the time taken to complete the tests. Regression testing is a repetitive process. That’s why automating it can be beneficial.
An inevitable thought may come to your mind, “Can the same be said about end-to-end testing?”. It is important to note that not always will the newly introduced functionalities interact with existing ones in predictable ways. There will be surprises and test automation is not advanced enough to capture all these unforeseen conditions. That’s because it is practically impossible to determine where two versions of code would interact to give unexpected results. During the recent past, a concept called exploratory testing has been introduced to overcome this hassle.
Exploratory testing requires testers to use their creativity as well as experience and analytic skills to figure out all the unforeseen instances mentioned above and learn about the application. Understanding the application is the first step towards exploring all the possible areas to find issues. Human factors such as cognition, intuition, experience, individual thinking capabilities, etc. are in play throughout this process. This is why it cannot be automated under any circumstances.
There are numerous related situations in which manual testing cannot be replaced by test automation. As discussed, there are certain human factors involved in manual testing that can’t be replicated in automation testing for which reason manual testing has a distinct place out of both. It’s the responsibility of testers to point out areas that cannot be automated and look for issues. At the end of the day, software applications are being made for human beings who have particular feelings and thoughts. And by keeping testers as an integral part of this process can ensure better user experience and test based on human thoughts. This cannot be expected to be done from the test automation process or a computer. The purpose is certainly not to imply that test automation is completely useless. We just covered how helpful it can be in regression testing, for example. A test automation company can better implement test automation and guide willing organizations to their goal of fast and effortless testing tasks.
