Published: 05 Aug 2016
Why adopt Test Automation in Agile Testing?
Last Updated: 10 Jan 2024
The popular idiom, ‘Being an early bird is better than being a night owl’, is taken quite literally in today’s digital era. The ever-rising trend of digital transformation coupled with the adoption of Agile and DevOps practices has mandated organizations to find extensive ways to meet faster delivery cycles and achieve better business results.
Contents
1. Test Automation And Agile Testing
2. Importance of Test Automation in Agile Testing
3. Effective rise in development output
4. Efficiently resolving recurring changes
5. Easily identifying the code issues
6. Thorough and continuous testing
7. Automated test support activities
It has become critical to detect defects, which arises due to continuous changes being introduced during agile software development, early on in the development cycle. Hence, organizations are migrating towards test automation to ensure thorough and continuous testing of applications.
Test Automation And Agile Testing
Automation, in any arena, increases productivity and reduces cost. Usage of test automation in the entire software testing life cycle (STLC) enables the team to increase test accuracy and productivity. Professionals working in agile recognize the significance of automated testing, but are also aware of the complexity involved with automated solutions.
Due to the constant change in the test objects and ongoing maintenance, it becomes challenging for the team to keep the automation suite up-to-date and relevant. Despite all these issues, the bitter truth is that it is impossible to work in agile environment without test automation. In fact, according to Robert Walsh, test automation incorporates three of the four pillars of agile automation testing i.e. unit testing, acceptance testing, and automated regression testing.
Importance of Test Automation in Agile Testing:
1. Effective rise in development output:
The short development cycle is the most important factor that demands automation in agile testing. The Agile teams have short time frames to grasp the requirement, build the code and then regress those changes. Therefore, it becomes essential to use a method of testing that supports these compressed cycles as manual testing is too resource intensive and can easily surpass the given time frame to complete the task. Test Automation, assists in carrying out the work at a rapid pace without affecting the quality of the application.
2. Efficiently resolving recurring changes:
We are all well acquainted with the fact that projects rarely come with a pre-decided set of requirements. The requirements are developed and changed over time depending upon the priorities of the business. The prompt discovery of issues demanded by agile can only be carried out by an automated method. Test automation helps in bringing the essential agility needed in order to respond promptly and effectively.
3. Easily identifying the code issues:
Test Automation allows the tester to test the code quickly without hampering the quality of testing. It also comes with a collection of pre-decided test scripts that help to identify the issues effectively. Thereby, it allows the tester and the developer to get the exact idea of the code and also helps them to respond quickly.
4. Thorough and continuous testing:
Automation allows repeated and exhaustive examination of the code with a detailed overview. A thorough and continuous testing helps in ensuring the quality of the code. The demand of continuous testing in agile, makes it essential to use test automation as it helps in preserving the previous functionality that could have been affected due to the recently added functions.
5. Automated test support activities:
Test Automation not only contributes in carrying out test scripts but also supports in automating other test activities like test reporting, result validation and data set up. Agile testing requires repeated code of arrangements which can be programmed by test automation. It subsequently releases the testers from the mundane and laborious tasks.
At TestingXperts, we have extensive experience to identify automation needs in your agile projects. Also, with our ingenious Agile Software Testing Services, we have helped our clients achieve augmented success. Get in touch with one of our test advisors here.