Selenium alternative for Automated Regression Testing

Automated Regression Testing using Selenium

Selenium is undoubtedly the most popular and widely used Automated Regression Testing tool in the Test Automation realm. However, it has been, from the very beginning, a programmer’s tool. Only a good programmer can make use of the tool properly to meet their automation needs. Beside that, there is the steep learning curve associated with it.

This becomes the biggest hindrance for its acceptance as the go-to tool for functional QA Testers. Also, that’s a major reason why only Big Enterprises rely heavily on Selenium for Test Automation and others opt for Manual Regression Testing.

Automated regression testing is a software testing technique that utilizes computer-based tools and techniques in testing software after it has been changed or updated.
It is a test automation process that applies the work flow, plan, scripts and other processes within a regression testing methodology. 

Techopedia

In a perfect world, all the QA Testers could perform Automated Regression Testing with Selenium in their toolbox. However, due to Selenium’s code-centric approach, the QAs and Functional testers, who understand the functionality better, will not be able to take part in the automated regression testing activity. For that reason, companies are bound to invest heavily in recruiting a new team of automation experts, and it is not an option for small and medium-sized companies.

Challenges with Selenium-backed Automated Regression Testing

1. Initial Setup

Though there are many readily available frameworks to build this, it is still an effort to put everything together. That’s the reason why it takes huge initial time, cost and resources to start automation regression testing.

2. Slow Test development and Limited participation from Team

“But in the modern Agile, Continuous Delivery and DevOps practices quality and faster delivery is everyone’s responsibility.”

Creating coded Test Scripts that run stable is a time-consuming task even for the experienced. Also, due to the code-centric Approach, it is difficult for non-programmers to take part in test automation and continuous testing.

3. Test Maintenance and keeping up with growing Regression Suite

Even if we bite the bullet and set up one, it is only going to get complex and cryptic as the Framework grows and matures. It will eventually become a parallel development project with significant Software management and development efforts.

Also, there would be a need for significant Test Script maintenance for any change in the application as the Regression Test Suite gets bigger with releases.

4. Requirement of a complete Test Automation Ecosystem

When it comes to Automated Regression Testing, Selenium is just a piece in the puzzle. Moreover, Test Automation is not just about writing Test Scripts. It is an ecosystem of various components like the Team, Tools, Test Environments, Proper Management of Test Data, and Integrations that help deliver quality software faster. And, the synergy between these components is as critical as is the collaboration between Team members.

Therefore, a single tool such as Selenium is not enough to steer the product development efforts in an effective manner.

Check out – Selenuim alternatives

The below article mentions the Essential elements of the Automated Regression Testing Ecosystem:

Essential Elements of Test Automation

5. Team Collaboration

As we mentioned in the previous point, the Essence of Agile and Continuous Delivery practices lies in close coordination between the teams in each phase which, in turn, ensures a quality product. Lack of communication leads to wrong assumptions and that leads to a product that diverges from the intended one.

Therefore, we need a platform where all the stakeholders can come together to share the resources as and when required.

So, to summarize, the challenges faced by everyone who is getting started with and dealing with Test Automation using Selenium are given below:

1. Initial setup – time, cost, and resources
2. Slow Test Development due to programming efforts
3. Lack of time to automate within the sprint
4. Limited participation from  everyone in the team
5. Maintenance problems with the ever-changing user interface
6. Less or no coordination between the team members (which is a must for Agile approaches)
7. The requirement of a Test Automation Ecosystem

With all the above challenges, In-sprint test automation becomes a tedious task.
As we know, In-sprint test automation aims to develop faster and reliable test automation in parallel to development. It ensures maximum coverage within short release cycles. However, there are a few challenges in implementing In-sprint test automation using Selenium.

Learn more – In-Sprint Test Automation Challenges for Regression Testing

How Testsigma solves the above challenges

Testsigma is an Automation Ecosystem with all the essential components required to automate Web, Android, iOS apps and API testing on a single platform.

It addresses different Testing needs such as Cross Browser Testing, Data-Driven Testing, Manual Exploratory Testing etc..

It is Built for Today’s Agile and Continuous Delivery practices.

1 – Zero Initial Setup – Time, Cost and Resources. Get Started Immediately

Get started with zero initial Setup and near-zero Test Development time in Testsigma as everything is pre-configured for you on Cloud – from Test Creation to Test Environments.

You can write and execute Test Cases from day one.

2 – Easy Test Creation Using Simple English

Test Development – We can use Simple English statements to create Test Steps in Testsigma. Therefore, the Test Scripts can be used as documentation as well.

Testsigma uses AI to create stable and reliable tests faster than ever and to speed-up the maintenance of your automated tests.

3 – In-sprint Test Automation

Testsigma allows you to shift left and start creating the Test Cases early in the SDLC even before prototyping

In-sprint test automation for regression testing at DevOps speed

4 – Lets Everyone Participates in Test Automation

It uses natural language processing to write stable and reliable automated tests, faster than ever. Anyone can start writing automated tests using simple English.

This allows even the non-technical SMEs and Stakeholders to take part in creating and reviewing the Test Automation Efforts.

5 – Near Zero AI-driven Maintenance

Whenever there is a test failure, Testsigma uses AI to identify other tests which may have been affected. Testsigma also tries to auto-correct the tests to some extent.

By the definition in Techopedia, Automated Regression Testing is whenever there is a test failure, Testsigma uses AI to identify other tests which may have been affected. Testsigma also tries to auto-correct the tests to some extent.

Identify potential failures upfront and save execution time and cost.

6 – Team Collaboration

Integrate necessary tools with Testsigma to bring all your testing resources together to achieve continuous testing. We integrate some of your favourite tools like Slack, JIRA, GitHub, Jenkins, BrowserStack, Sauce Labs.

7 – It’s a Complete Test Automation Ecosystem

Some of the essential elements which come out of the box are:

Dashboard – Personalized to focus on the key business indicators that are driving your project.

i. Test Plan – All you need for better test planning like multiple Projects, Applications, Versions, and Requirements. Testsigma also allows you to create your own artifacts like Requirement Categories, Test Case Types and Test Case Priorities.

ii. Team Management – Manage users by giving them a proper role and assigning users to the projects.

iii. Test Reports – Dynamic and context-driven reports to help you understand the test results better. Reports with drill-down options to help users at different levels(Test Manager, Test Lead, Developer, Testers etc..)

iv. Analytics – Take a look productivity trend, test development progress and user activity. Take proactive actions to increase resource utilization and productivity, if required.

v. Integrations – Integrations/Plugins will enable you to integrate Testsigma with multiple other tools to achieve continuous Regression Testing.

vi. Built-in Test Lab – Run tests on hundreds of combinations of browsers and operating systems and over 2,000 iOS and Android devices on our public cloud.

vii. CI/CD integration – Integrate your Test Execution with your existing Jenkins CI/CD Pipelines to enable Continuous Testing on par with Agile and Scrum in your organization.

And many more…

 Testsigma – All Features