There is no shortage of testing tools in the market and many claim to take automation testing to the next level. With the introduction of the Agile approach where a software product is iteratively released, traditional test automation becomes a challenge for the testers.

This ushered in the idea of scriptless test automation which also allows for better participation of functional testers and QA Analysts and enterprises began to gradually move from traditional automation testing tools that depended heavily on written codes to a more easy Scriptless automation testing approach.

Some of the driving factors for the adoption of scriptless automation include:

Quick time to market

Less maintenance cost

Easy configuration

Plug and play

Improved efficiency

Table Of Contents

1 Advantages of Adopting Scriptless Automation Testing

Advantages of Adopting Scriptless Automation Testing

“You don’t have to be a programmer to do Automation Testing.”

It makes automation testing more comprehensive. This means you can see precisely what is automated and what data has been put to use.

Since predefined test methods are set in place, development teams spend less time developing new functions.

There is zero or negligible scope for code level debugging making test maintenance easier and quicker.

Non-technical test engineers or QA Analysts can also review the test scripts.

Creating new or custom tests and managing them is easier.

Allow testers more time to focus on more complex activities.

Automated and manual testing can be done in the same location thus eliminating the need for a separate tool for maintaining manual tests.

1) Dynamic Element Locators

As the scope of the software changes, the software itself changes too. This means that any automation scripts that testers once developed tend to break. A good Scriptless Automation Testing tool will allow you to bring in more than one element locator. In case, a particular element is missing, the automation testing tool should be able to find an alternative element locator. This reduces the effort spent in maintaining huge scripts and results in more stable test scripts.

Testsigma makes it easy to define a list of reusable UI objects irrespective of where the application is being tested.
Testsigma uses dynamic locator strategy where it uses multiple locators to identify an object. Each of these objects uses dynamic locators to identify the object on the page helping testers cope with the changes made to the application.
Even if there are any changes in the software, Testsigma will look up for alternative locators to find the object and complete the test. With the use of the dynamic locator strategy, Testsigma helps businesses save maintenance time and effort up to 70%.

2) Conditional Checks

The traditional approach to testing is time-based. What this essentially means is that the script is paused for specific durations of time in between steps. This involves authors keying in pauses, making it tiresome and time-consuming. However, conditional waiting allows scripts to run based on specific criteria. For instance, if a condition is true in a particular step then the script will continue to the next step else it will pause until the condition turns true. Scriptless automation testing tools should allow authors to insert conditional checks so that the tests become more efficient.

Testsigma allows you to easily include conditional checks such as ‘if’, ‘else’, ‘else-if’ in your test steps. This ensures that the script will wait until a specific object becomes available or until a particular attribute is set on a property.

3) Control Structures

Traditional testing tools lack essential control structures.

Control structures are basically programming blocks that analyze various conditions and determine the direction to take based on certain predefined parameters. Some of these control structures include loops and conditional clauses.

For example, if an action needs to be repeated ‘x’ number of times, it would require the script author to write it ‘x’ times and maintain each of those repetitions individually. This isn’t the case with loops. Similarly, when there are multiple alternatives within a step, where action A needs to be taken when a condition is true and, action B when the condition is false, the script author can use conditional clauses to support such logic. Traditional tools were limited with the absence of such logic which restricted the scalability of the project.

Testsigma comes with key control structures that allow script writers to have more control over the execution flow of test cases. You can set up loops for repetitive tasks and conditional clauses such as if-then and if-then-else statements in your test steps when there are multiple variables you need to consider.

4) Easy assertions

Once you have written the code, you need to know whether or not the test is successful. This is where an assertion is important. This feature makes sure the tests fail whenever the result does not match the expected outcome. Assertions are of two kinds — hard assertion and soft assertion. A hard assert throws an error immediately when an assertion fails. However, if you want the remaining steps to be executed even when the assertion fails, you can make it a soft assertion.

A good scriptless test automation tool needs to provide an assertion as one of its features. Testsigma provides most of the assertions you would ever require(over a hundred) using built-in verification NLP grammar. If you ever need custom assertions, those can be easily created using Custom Functions. The individual step-wise setting also lets you make it a hard assertion or soft assertion.

Read all about Assertion Testing

5) Easy modifications without redo

When an application changes, the script author is required to add, delete, or edit an existing action in a scenario. This essentially means having to re-write the entire scenario and inserting new actions or editing existing actions wherever necessary. This might not play out in your favor because it affects your turnaround time and quality. A scriptless test automation tool should make this process easy for you.

Testsigma allows you to modify, make new changes, and manage all of this on more than one application quite easily. When you write new steps, you can simply append test scripts or specify the location where you would like to add them. Additionally, you can delete existing test scripts that might not be relevant to the new releases.

6) Reusable steps

There are many scenarios that have the same steps. However, imagine having to record these every time these scenarios are being tested? It would be a challenge to manage and maintain them because every time there is a change in a frequently used step, the script author will need to update every test that includes it.

Hence, it is necessary that a good scriptless test automation software allows the script authors to save a set of common steps and insert them into any test flow. And when something changes in the test step, the author does not have to update that step in every test that it occurs.

With Testsigma, you can create reusable step groups that have common test steps across all your automated tests. This reduces the script development time and maintenance efforts. You can also add these step groups in your automated scripts easily using an intuitive UI.

7) Cross-browser support

Most often, test automation tools come in the form of browser extensions. Browser extensions are usually tied to a specific browser. Unlike browser extensions, the software that companies build is not restricted to specific browsers. Tests need to be run across multiple browsers and devices. Testing the same scenario on multiple browsers can take a toll on the script authors because there are multiple scenarios within an application that needs to be checked thoroughly. A good scriptless test automation tool should allow test authors to use the tests on multiple browsers available.

Testsigma provides multiple browser environments for major browsers including Google Chrome, Safari, etc. There are about 800 OS/Browser/Version combinations that you can select from and Testsigma makes it easy to manage them. It also helps you manage the cloud infrastructure for running browser sessions in parallel and on multiple devices.

8) Reporting

Reporting is important for any function in an organization. The same applies to test automation as well. With multiple testers involved and plenty of tests being run simultaneously, you need to be up-to-date. You need reports that tell you how your tests are performing, which failed tests need not be re-run, what features do not require extensive debugging.

Testsigma has it all covered. It provides you with a deep analysis on how your tests are performing, shows test results of each test environment for any execution, provides test summary at the test suite level, and helps you analyze the details of each step result with screenshots, videos, and text logs.

9) Ability to insert code

Scriptless tools provide solutions for incorporating all possible test scenarios. But, it is important that automation testing tools allow room for testers to fill those gaps in edge cases. Script authors should be able to use code within tests for complex and scenarios highly specific to the Application Under Test(AUT). To speed up the Test Case Executions, many development teams prefer certain actions as Web Service API calls over UI actions.

In order to create Test Steps tailored to your needs, Testsigma provides an option for creating Custom Functions. Custom Functions allows us to use Java(Selenium) program code to make Test Steps customized for our needs.

10) Continuous integration

Continuous integration (CI) is one of the best practices for software development. One of the key benefits of continuous integration is that errors can be detected and located quickly. In the Agile frameworks where changes are small, it is easy to identify a change that caused a specific error easily. Additionally, it helps you keep your application in a deployable state at all times. This means that you can push new changes into production as and when they are made.

Testsigma takes a shift-left approach and allows for continuous integration and continuous delivery. This helps you shorten software lifecycles, enhances product quality, and also brings down operational costs.

If you are looking for a scriptless automation testing tool, give Testsigma a try now or schedule a demo. If you know of any features that you think should make it to this list, let us know in the comments below.