Posted by If you are the software product owner, then, of course, you want everything to work without errors or bugs. And even if you entrust the task of software development to professionals, this will not protect you from possible bugs or malfunctions. And even these minor problems can cause significant financial losses.
Therefore, to create high-quality software, it is necessary to implement practical quality management tools that allow you to develop error-free products. This technology includes several elements: quality assurance, control, and testing. This is precisely what we will discuss today in our article.
But let’s familiarize ourselves with a few terms in more detail to make the meaning more apparent.
Testing is one of the main activities: identifying and solving technical problems in the software’s source code. In addition, overall usability for future users, security, and performance is also evaluated. With this process, the software will launch.
Software Quality Assurance (SQA) observing all software development processes. This includes specific organizational actions and methods to achieve a high standard at all stages and avoid possible errors.
Software Quality Control (SQC) is directly responsible for meeting your company’s requirements for the final product. If the product meets the established standards, it becomes certified.
What is the difference between classic software testing and automated software testing?
The definitive version of a software testing outsourcing company is done manually with the help of professionals. Usually, the company hires an outsourcing company that provides such services.
If quality is provided, software testing begins at an early stage, and a quality control team is assembled quickly. In this case, there is no difference between whether your project is a highly functional app or an MVP.
However, everything happens differently here when if we are talking about automated software testing. The ultimate goal is the same, but the processes are different. Usually, this method is used to save time on actions that require many repetitions.
The tester writes the script according to which the software is tested without his participation. Which option is better and more effective? It is challenging to choose something, but it is not necessary because together, these two technologies will lead you to the creation of a perfect product and satisfied users.
In what cases should you use automated software testing?
First of all, this method of work is suitable for projects with a large amount of data because it is in these cases that many repeated actions will be required to pass software testing. Then it can be an activity in which it is a shame to spend human resources or time for which you pay your employees.
According to the report created by Capgemini, Micro Focus and Sogeti released the results of the study on global quality for 2020-2021. They received stunning results that indicate two of the three key trends: the increase in test automation and the widespread adoption of Agile methodology.
World technologies are developing rapidly, and to be competitive and interest the audience, it is necessary to use all available tools, even if they seem somewhat unknown now.
So, let’s move on to the options for using automated software testing:
- Unit Testing – individual elements of the software are tested in turn
- Integration Tests – work of individual elements as a whole
- Smoke Tests – functional test for stability and the possibility of further testing
- API Testing – software interface testing
- Regression Tests – security of features against regression
- Acceptance Tests – user reaction to the final product
- Security Tests – identification of weak points that are subject to negative influence
- UI Tests – testing the user interface is one of the essential points, to get a perfect result, you should involve professionals from this field https://mlsdev.com/services/ui-ux-design
- Performance Tests – software behavior in stressful situations
Platforms you can use for automated software testing
HeadSpin is a data-driven platform that accelerates development cycles. AI testing is used for this. The advantage of this particular platform is that everything happens quite quickly.
First, I collect data. Then it is used for the automatic and preventive detection of bugs. In addition, it will be possible to see performance indicators of apps, devices, and networks. HeadSpin will be an excellent additional technology for testers who, depending on their needs, can apply it where necessary.
Selenium is a tool for automating work in a web browser. The platform started functioning in 2004, and the quality of the devices has improved significantly. Selenium provides a recording or playback application that allows you to create web application tests without learning programming languages.
The tool also provides its object-oriented language, Selenese, for writing tests in C Sharp, Ruby, Groovy, Perl, Java, PHP, Python, and Scala.
Jenkins is the leading open-source automation server. Due to many plugins, it integrates with most tools, allowing you to conduct automated testing for any project.
A significant advantage of this particular tool is that Jenkins can easily and quickly distribute work between several machines and test on several platforms simultaneously.
Sauce Labs – an automation system for creating and automating tests. The platform uses different parameters: Espresso, Appium, TestCafe, Selenium, Appium, Cypress, and XCUITest.
Depending on your needs, you choose the option that suits you best. This will save you time and speed up the work of your software testing team.
How to analyze other automated software testing services
There are many more platforms that perform the automatic testing process. Accordingly, we can only provide you with some of the list, which means that you will have to learn to analyze the platforms and choose the most effective ones. Nevertheless, we have compiled a list of parameters worth paying attention to.
Pricing. Money is one of the most critical issues for business owners. Calculate the most profitable option for your company, whether hiring individual employees to manage the automatic testing process or hiring an outsourcing company.
Coverage. Avoid customer isolation due to blind spots. Automated testing should cover multiple integrations to reach as many potential customers as possible.
User base. Here it would be best if you started with the end users. Determine exactly what product they want to receive; accordingly, you will know which aspects of automatic testing should be emphasized.
Author’s bio: Anastasiia Lastovetska is a technology writer at MLSDev, a software development company that builds web & mobile app solutions from scratch. She researches the area of technology to create great content about app development, UX/UI design, tech & business consulting.