What tools and approaches do you use for test automation?

Automation testing is considered to be the most important type of software testing because it can rapidly increase the productivity of the software development process. Speed of execution, little to no manual intervention and less time to perform testing activities with minimal or no errors are some of the core factors to consider test automation. Upon that, by strategically using test automation tools depending upon the project, the overall performance of software testing is enhanced.  In this article, you will get to know about the tools and approaches used for conducting test automation activities. 

Following are some of the best test automation tools:

1. Selenium: It is an open-source tool exclusively used for web applications. Selenium test scripts can be written in popular programming languages such as PHP, Perl, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, C#, etc. It offers a record and playback features. To create advanced and complex automation scripts, a selenium web driver is used. Execution of parallel tests is supported by this tool and also makes code maintenance easy.

2. Appium: It is a test automation tool exclusively used for mobile applications and is an open-source tool. It is based on a client/server architecture. It supports many popular programming languages such as JavaScript, PHP, Java, Python, etc., and can also easily integrate with CI/CD tools. Cross-platform testing and code reuse can be done through this tool. With the application of appium studio, you can easily debug, analyze and execute tests on real devices.

3. Katalon studio: It covers mobile, web, desktop and API testing. It can easily be integrated with other important tools such as Kobiton, JIRA, Slack, Git, etc. It can reuse and create UI test scripts without any code being put into use. It can easily be deployed on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This tool offers dual scripting interfaces so that non-coders can use a more straightforward interface. For those who can code, they can use Groovy (Java scripting language) and enables debugging, scripting with syntax, and further provides code suggestions.

4. Cucumber: It is an open-source tool that works on the concept of Behavioral Driven Development (BDD). Cucumber code can be easily executed on frameworks such as Ruby, Selenium, etc. This tool is focused on end-user experience. It supports various programming languages such as Groovy, Java, Ruby, etc.

5. LambdaTest: It is one of the most preferred test automation tools for performing cross-browser testing. It offers a secure, scalable, and ultra-fast selenium grid, which can be utilized by users to run their tests on numerous browsers and operating systems. It can be easily integrated with team communication, project management, and CI/CD tools. If users want to extract all the data depending upon their needs, then they can utilize various APIs.

Following three important factors are involved in the test automation approach: 

1. Process: The automation rollout must always be structured and well-defined.

2. Technology: Those applications that need to be automated should be thoroughly analyzed. Identify what technologies are being used for the application development and whether the test automation platform supports these technologies.

3. Roles: The test automation team should have clearly defined job roles. All the team members must know what is their specific role in the automation project. It may be testers, developers, domain specialists, all of them play a key role in making the test automation work properly. A test automation platform should be leveraged for the benefit of testers.   

Conclusion: If you are looking to perform automation testing for your specific project and want able support from testing experts, then do get connected with a top-notch software testing services company that will help you in providing the right tools and solutions for flawlessly performing testing activities in line with your specific project needs.