With the rise in software development methodologies, it has also become essential to improve product development workflows like Agile and DevOps. That’s why companies are moving to automation testing to expand and enhance their development and deployment cycles. Automation testing provides a lot of benefits, such as reducing QA time, increasing test coverage, and speeding up the product delivery cycles.
But, switching from manual to automation testing can be overwhelming, as it requires a lot of planning and effort. And it requires more than just adopting an automation testing tool or hiring automation engineers. For instance, you need to build an efficient framework, train every individual involved in the testing process, write different test cases, and choose the right automation tool. Furthermore, you’ll face many roadblocks while transitioning from manual to automation testing.
This article will help you understand the common roadblocks that most QAs face while switching from manual to automation testing. But, before that, let’s understand why it is critical to adopt automation testing in SDLC.
Why move to Automation Testing from Manual Testing?
Every software testing engineer wants to deliver the product to the market quickly without any defects, and manual testing is not the ideal choice for that. Test automation allows testers to increase the effectiveness, test coverage, and efficiency of their testing cycles. It gives you many advantages over manual testing, including:
- Test automation saves time and money by allowing you to create automated tests that can be repeated again and again at no additional cost
- Improves the depth and scope of tests to help you cover maximum tests quickly
- Allows you to execute multiple complex test cases continuously without any restrictions
- Gives you the time to create new automated software tests and deal with complex features while avoiding mistakes
- Allows you to test a controlled web application with a wide user base
- Enable testers to catch bugs in the beginning stages of testing while saving enough time and increasing their confidence
Automation testing is an excellent way to improve software testing life cycles. It gives you a competitive advantage over manual testing. However, there is no coming back once you get a stronghold on dealing with automation testing roadblocks.
Roadblocks in Switching from Manual to Automation Testing
While automation testing is the widely preferred approach to speed up your testing cycles, it’s not easy to move from manual to automation testing. This is because the roadblocks in the migration process are challenging and often frustrate the testers. But, if you’re already aware of the migration blockers, it’ll be easy for you to transition into automation testing. Some of the common challenges you’ll face while moving to automation testing includes:
- Bringing Everyone on the Same Page
Before you even plan to move to automation testing, it’s crucial to ensure that everyone in your company is on the same page. It is often observed that most people don’t agree on the fact that automated testing outweighs the time and costs associated with the migration. It is one of the major roadblocks in automation testing to get everyone on the same page, including the practitioners, management, and other team members. You need to bring everyone on the same terms before onboarding with the new process.
- Scalability and Stability of Testing
As a tester, you’re aware that regression testing is a crucial part of SDLC, and it becomes more and more critical with time. Tests need to be performed repetitively to ensure the continued functionality of the product. With manual testing, repetition of testing takes a lot of time. Thus, generating test cases in advance becomes a crucial requirement.
- Automating the Processes
Most QAs often focus on just tests while moving to automation, which is a big mistake. There are other tasks as well, such as reporting, setting up the tearing down environments, cleaning test data, and much more. If you don’t consider these factors, they’ll become a bottleneck in the new testing process.
- Time, Resources, and Complexity
Learning automation testing is no big challenge if your team is well-versed in programming. But, every new process comes with a learning curve, which means if your team is just starting with automation, they need to be trained with new skill sets. And automation training is not a one-day task; it takes time and requires money.
- End-to-End Testing
Automation is not just about automating the test cases; it’s more than that. It would help if you considered every aspect of your software development lifecycle. For example, you need a structured framework and strategy for your automation testing to work efficiently and provide accurate results.
- Choosing the Best Automation Testing Tool
The most challenging task while switching from manual to automation testing is selecting the right automation tool for your requirements. In fact, choosing the right test automation tool can help you address the above roadblocks. Having a tool that can execute regression testing with a suitable environment can fulfill all your automation testing requirements.
Furthermore, the test automation tool should be easy-to-use with a set of extensive features for full test coverage. Although there are many choices available in the market, not every tool is made for you. So, you need to do your research before selecting a tool. For example, LambdaTest automation is an excellent choice in terms of cost, flexibility, reliability, and usability. It gives you almost everything you need to make your decision.
If you can address the above migration blockers, it will be easier to transition fully into automation testing.
Final Words
Switching from manual to automated testing seems simple and easy, but it’s not! There are a lot of things that most testers often overlook, which later become obstacles. Thus, it is necessary to consider every aspect of automation testing before onboarding the process. This article discusses the major roadblocks that QAs face while migrating to automation testing. If you come across any other challenge you faced with automation testing, let’s know in the comments.