Scriptless Test Automation for Agile and DevOps
Today applications are feature-rich, complex and undergo frequent changes.In Agile/DevOps, the release cycles are short. Hence, Development needs to speed up.
Development teams use Agile/DevOps methodologies to cope with the changing application requirements.
Today, developers use frameworks that involve less or no coding to match the DevOps speed.
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Importance of Test Automation in Agile and DevOps
Development is fast-paced, so should be Testing.
Testing has not evolved at the same pace as Development. Even today, testers use age-old testing methods and tools to test complex applications.
Testing teams need to adopt automated test processes to keep up with the DevOps/CD advancements.
As compared to Manual Testing, Automation Testing is best suited for changing application needs, to improve test effectiveness and coverage. But setting up the Test Automation ecosystem with the essential elements to automate isn’t easy.
Why the Scriptless Test Automation Approach
The scriptless/less coding approach can speed up the process of software development and allow more participation in test automation and maximize the reusability of code with reduced maintenance.
The biggest challenges in Automation Testing is the initial time spent on test script development. As Development teams do, it is wise to adopt a script-less framework for automation that makes test automation appear less complex.
Scriptless automation allows stakeholders to participate in quality improvement and requires less/no technical expertise.
This approach towards automation reduces time and effort required to automate and ensure higher levels of maintainability and ease of updating changing requirements.
Automation Testing tools have evolved in recent times to fit into the Agile/DevOps process to release quality software faster.
Challenges in existing Automation Testing tools
There has been a retreat from Automation Testing, however, and the main reason would be the need for programming knowledge. In fact, test automation requires a deep technical understanding to design and maintain the test automation framework and test scripts.
Automation Testers write super complex test scripts for each test case and need to have a deep technical understanding of the underlying framework, application functionalities, have programming knowledge, etc. It may take several lines of code to test a small feature of an application.
Depending on the application type, Automation Testing requires expertise in multiple languages and technologies and a sudden shift towards Automation Testing can be a bit overwhelming for functional testers.
Also, Automation Testing requires that the technical experts continuously monitor and maintain automated tests, unlike Scriptless Test Automation.
Because of all these reasons, test automation becomes complex and unaffordable with an increased ROI time, especially, for small businesses.
Benefits of Scriptless Automation
With Scriptless Automation, only the underlying complexity of the test scripts is hidden from the users and doesn’t mean that test scripts are being erased off.
Today, with Scriptless Automation, the time required to test an application can be shortened to match the pace of Agile development to continuously deliver software that will make the testing process easier and manageable.
Scriptless Test Automation can also reduce the testing cycle while maintaining test quality. This approach is well suited to continuously release quality software.
Through Scriptless Automation, a lot of ramp-up time and effort can be saved and requires a short or no learning curve.
Hence it’s time to shift gears towards scriptless automation testing to address the fast-paced delivery requirements.
While maintaining simplicity, the right automated testing tools offer all the flexibility and scalability required for enterprise-class automation without compromising on quality. Hence, selecting the right automation testing tool becomes critical for test automation success.
A few important points of Scriptless Automation include:
- A robust, scalable approach to automation
- Unified approach to diverse application types on multiple browsers and platforms
- Less or no ramp up time
- Automation can start before the application is readily available
- A reduced maintenance effort and maximum test coverage
- Easy updating of changes and updates with reusable test groups. Regression tests can be executed more often
- Better participation in automation from the part of Functional Experts, Business Analysts and SMEs
- Test scripts can be reviewed by domain experts and business analysts
- A reduced investment and faster Return On Investment
- To achieve this to its full potential, selecting the right tool becomes critical for Test Automation success.
Selecting the right Scriptless Automation Testing tool
Record and Playback tools are among the first picks in adopting Scriptless Automation. It may seem easy and compelling at first, but the system generated scripts are hard to understand and are difficult to maintain. Also, they demand a lot of rework.
Check out Why Record and Playback is not suitable for enterprise-class Test Automation.
The main challenges with legacy test automation are building a robust and maintainable automation framework and managing the objects and identifiers.
Automated tests need to be reusable and maintainable and should not be resistant to changes in the application UI and should ensure that the automated tests do not break.
A lot of the times, test scripts are developed only once the application is built and stabilized. Due to this, a lack of early feedback becomes a downside affecting the cost of quality.
The test automation tool needs to address this.
While we adopt Scriptless Automation testing, the test automation tools should ensure simplicity and allow everyone to participate in test automation with the flexibility that enterprise-class test automation tools provide.
Testsigma’s Approach
Testsigma offers a hassle-free test automation journey.
Testsigma allows Manual testers to take charge of test automation using a user-friendly easy scriptless approach. The test scripts are developed using simple natural language and involve no complex coding.
Go!
It provides a unified automation testing mechanism that suits every complex testing requirements and allows for collaboration of cross-functional teams will ease out the existing complexity to actively participate in test automation.
Testsigma empowers your functional manual testers, business users and subject matter experts with automation, without learning to program.
Testsigma has an extensible set of features to automate even the most complex scenarios.
Here’s a sample account login scenario with Testsigma.
Regression Test Suites are usually formed by carefully prioritizing and selecting Test Cases from previous release cycles. With a Centralized Object Repository, Test Data Management, and Reusable Step Groups, Testsigma helps you speed up the automation process of regression tests.
In addition, Testsigma lets you write Selenium and JS based custom functions for your custom requirements while retaining the ability to code Custom functions to meet typical automation requirements.
Testing isn’t just for testers. Your entire team from developers and product managers to marketers and designers can take part in Automation Testing and, that is essential too. But, why is it important to involve SMEs and QA Analysts in the process of automated testing?
Test Automation needs to be extended to enable continuous testing along with the Shift Left approach to meet the modern delivery standards of today. Why is it necessary to Shift Left?
Testsigma offers Test Automation through Continuous Testing with a Shift-left approach and integrates test automation scripts with tools like Jenkins and more.
Shift Left Testing can help organizations improve the test automation process throughout the delivery lifecycle and this is exactly what Testsigma does!
A tester can spend manual efforts on analyzing more complex functionality and exploring the application functionalities as a user would!
Bottom Line
Scriptless automation is, therefore, an ideal solution to shift left suited for Agile development.
Scriptless automation can start at an early stage and is an ideal choice for CD/DevOps practices. Stakeholders and Functional Testers can also participate in the test automation process now, letting testers to ensure a better user experience.
