Posted on August 8, 2019
Companies are always searching for ways to save money and time. Automation testing is a critical part of the Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) processes of application development and incorporating a Shift Left approach with Automated Testing is a great strategy to save money while producing a solid app.
Let’s cover some basics about Automated Testing, common terms and some of the benefits.
What is Automated Testing?
It refers to running tests in an automated fashion, instead of having test engineers execute each one manually. It saves a great deal of effort, and makes it possible to run more tests more quickly, leading to better software quality.
You could also say that Automated Testing is the use of software tools (or automation code) and the power of machines to control the execution of tests, compare their outcomes, and report functions that would otherwise require manual testing activity.
Advantages of Automating Tests
Testing for mobile apps helps in identifying and significantly reducing the bugs during every stage of the lifecycle for an app’s development. Automating tests brings additional advantages to the testing process including:
- Simplifying test execution
- Increasing speed of executing tests (test scripts)
- Increasing the amount of test coverage
- Improving the reliability of tests
- Shortening software development cycles
- Minimizing human interaction with testing, Eliminating boring tasks
- Reducing maintenance cost of testing
- Improving accuracy of software tests
- Saving time and money
- Developing software values
- Shift left process
Automated Testing Frameworks for Mobile
A test automation framework is a set of guidelines used to produce beneficial results of the automated testing activity. These guidelines may include:
- Common practices (test scripts)
- Assumptions for the desired outcome
- Test tools (software) and interfaces
- test libraries
- Coding standards/span>
Automation frameworks, when designed and implemented correctly, deliver frequent and stable automated test code. With a proper framework, the code is easier to maintain and often reusable.
Types include:
- Linear Scripting Framework: Recording and replaying test scripts in sequential (“linear”) fashion with little or no modification.
- Data-driven Framework: A constant source of test criteria (internal or external data) specifies the test scripts to run.
- Keyword-driven Framework: Tables on a spreadsheet specify the action of a test script based on a library of functions for an assigned keyword.
- Modular Testing Framework: Modules of an application under test are divided and tested with individual test scripts that can be combined for larger test scripts.
- Hybrid Testing Framework: A combination of frameworks to leverage the strengths of each.
Frameworks for Mobile Automation
It is important to choose a good mobile automation testing framework that works for your test needs so that your test automation code is stable, maintainable and reusable. On the top of that framework, we can build our test cases. Mobile automation testing frameworks can be segregated by the operating system of the mobile device. We’re most interested in Android testing frameworks.
Example Frameworks:
- Appium
- Cucumber
- UI Automator 2
- Espresso
- Robotium
Our ERs shared their favorites in this poll. Do you agree?
Continuous Integration Workflow
Continuous Integration (CI) as a practice that leads to significantly reduced integration problems and allows a team to develop cohesive software more rapidly (daily or even several times a day). One of the key benefits of integrating regularly is that you can detect errors quickly and locate them more easily. As each change introduced is typically small, pinpointing the specific change that introduced a defect can be done quickly.
Automated tests are fundamental to this practice which leads to reduced risk, believable progress, and user feedback.
Check back soon for our upcoming post on Automated Testing Pain Points and how to solve them!