Which is better, manual testing or software testing automation?

by Riley Claire Senior Software Test Engineer

Manual testing was initiated as the traditional software testing method that still holds prominence in the vast and complex software development and testing market. But, over a period of time, certain drawbacks of manual testing gave rise to a more powerful testing method known as “automation testing.” In this article, you will get a detailed understanding of manual testing and automation testing.

What is manual testing?

It is a testing method wherein defects/bugs in the software product or application are detected manually by the tester. A test plan is prepared by a team of manual testers, which consists of sets of various test cases. The tester needs to put in strategic efforts to scrutinize the behavior of the mobile app or website and ensure whether it is functionally aligned with the specific requirements or not.

Inconsistencies and discrepancies are pointed out by the testers from the expected behavior and then the defects are reported to developers. The same bug needs to be replicated by the developers and then these bugs need to be fixed.

The right context to use manual testing:

Manual testing is used where behavioral and cognitive abilities are required for testing the software. It can be used for testing:

• User Experience (UX)
  
  
• User Interface (UI)
  
  
• Functionalities
  
  
• Website and App behavior
  
  
• User Acceptance
  
  
• Features

 High performance can be expected from manual testing when a QA tester exhibits a multidimensional approach and has an in-depth understanding of business and technical user case aspects of the app and website.

 What is Automation testing?

Frameworks are used by software testing automation to run tests. Each framework is particularly scripted with the rules of automation related to the software being tested. The integration of this framework can be done with various components like:

·       Object details

·       Test data sources

·       Function libraries

·       Other reusable modules

The team must make sure that the right automation testing framework is selected so that the testing process could be optimized by delivering high performance with low maintenance costs.

This framework could be keyword-driven, data-driven, structured, linear or agile depending on the business requirements. The required infrastructure is provided by an automation framework that the test automation tool can use to perform testing.

The advantages of automation testing:

·       Testing can be performed easily at a large scale

·       Faster turnaround time

·       Cost efficiency and

·       Better accuracy.

Software Testing Automation can be best used when codes need to be repeatedly executed that have a higher frequency of iterations, where there is a shorter development cycle and when the scale of testing is large.

Differences between Manual testing and Automation testing:

Manual testing:

1. User behavior needs to be mimicked by users and thus test plans need to be built to cover all the scenarios

2. Manual testing can be used to perform Ad-hoc testing, Usability testing and Exploratory testing to exhibit the best results

3. There are costs involved as manual testers need to be hired to perform the tasks

4. The test coverage is not sufficient enough

5. There is a possibility of human errors as manual testers will be solely responsible to carry out the testing process.

Automation testing:

1. Testers must have the necessary expertise in scripting and programming in order to build test cases and automate as many scenarios as possible

2. Automation testing is used to perform performance testing, load testing, regression testing and also carrying out repeated execution for optimal results

3. There are initial costs for setting up the automation testing infrastructure and then feasible results can be expected in the long run

4. Greater test coverage is provided

5. The test automation method is considered to be reliable as test scripts and automation tools are used for carrying out testing activities. There is no human intervention required.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing manual testing for your specific organization, then do get connected with a reputed software testing services company that will provide you with tactical testing solutions that are in line with your project specific requirements. 

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Created on May 10th 2023 01:21. Viewed 276 times.

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