How To Create An Effective Automation Testing Strategy For Your Business

In today's fast-paced world, businesses require quality products to be rolled out fast to the market to stay ahead of the competition. Software testing is critical to bringing these high-quality products to market as soon as possible.

In particular, as companies quickly adopt DevOps and agile practices to speed up software delivery, the idea of automated qa testing dominates the charts in their search for more frequent and high-quality releases. Software testing is amid a paradigm shift that will see automation testing gradually replace manual testing.

By 2026, it is anticipated that the automation testing market will reach $49.9 billion, growing at a CAGR of 19.2% from its current size of $20.7 billion. Although there is no denying that manual testing will always be necessary, automated testing is becoming more and more popular.

The reason is straightforward: it is the need of the hour. Customers demand quick product updates and additions, and companies strive to reduce the time to market to gain a competitive edge.

This blog will highlight specific tactics and industry best practices for developing a successful test strategy for businesses. So let's get going!

But first off, let's jump into what is an Automated QA Testing strategy and how it can be helpful.

What is an Automated QA Testing Strategy?

Test automation significantly enhances your workflows, helps you save time and money, and ultimately results in higher-quality software. Additionally, introducing automation into testing will streamline QA team tasks and improve testing effectiveness. Studies show that up to 63% of QA teams have had positive testing ROIs, which shows that automation has saved time and money.

However, not everything is like it appears in automation testing. You can't expect an automation testing tool to do everything for you. Rich rewards can only be attained with meticulous planning and flawless execution.

Simply put, a test automation strategy is a subset of your overall testing strategy. Therefore, it will use the same techniques to create and implement your overall testing strategy.

Consequently, your test automation strategy should be on the same level as your other system and performance testing since you're using similar data points to determine what to automate, how to automate it, and which technology to use.

The following situations may result from a lack of a test automation strategy:

Loss of Business Value: The test automation framework's ROI (return on investment) will be deficient if it doesn't add any business value. No organization will support something with no business value or a negative return on investment. Therefore, the automation strategy must be clearly defined to provide greater business value than anticipated.

Absence of Vision: The automation strategy establishes the long-term objective and vision, without which you may bring multiple tools and discard them often.

Unsuitable Technology: You might use incorrect tools and technology without an automation strategy. In the long run, if you pick the incorrect tech stack and tools, you might run into many problems or even need to throw out what you have and start all over again.

Risk Analysis: A strategy aids in forecasting the risk associated with test automation. It will include details on any risks present, how they can be minimized, potential solutions, and alternatives. Without a plan, you won't know what risks might occur in the future, and by the time they do, it might be too late for you to find a solution.

What are the benefits of strategizing automation testing?

Offers more thorough testing. Even complex test automation tasks are completed quickly, making your products more robust.

Encourages the reuse of critical components. Due to this, employees are more productive because they have more time for other important tasks and business endeavors.

Lowers the cost of maintenance. Your testing methodology can be updated and changed with ease. The members of your team can easily and quickly adopt these changes.

Develops your organization's testing standard. Because your strategy is comprehensive and robust, it will become the industry standard.

Tip: Stakeholders will gain confidence in shippable software if your strategy is based on a results-oriented approach.

What about the goals of strategizing?

• The main goal of a good strategy is to provide information on the risk, capabilities, and functionality and establish a trustworthy, repeatable process.
  
• It serves as a channel for conveying your objectives and plans.
  
• It also serves as a discussion starter and occasionally as a launchpad for a new proof-of-concept or a new technology you can introduce to your business.
  
• Finally, it's an auditing tool that lets you review what you had initially planned to do and contrast it with what was accomplished.
  

Automation Testing Strategy and Best Practices

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The testing phase of software development is crucial, and automating the testing phase can both speed up the process and guarantee quality. But what constitutes a successful test automation strategy? Here are some suggestions to help you get started.

Establish your goals and objectives

Before automating your tests, you must understand your objectives and goals. For example, do you want to boost the quality of your software? Accelerate the development process? Or perhaps both?

Once you have recognized your goals, you can devise a strategy for getting there. Some of the factors listed below can assist you in defining your goal:

• The reason for choosing test automation for this project
• The anticipated business value of automation (known as ROI)
• Automation's scope
• An elaborate process to deliver the automation
• The anticipated automation percentage (for example, quarter by quarter)
• The aim of automation
  

Determine the best tool for the project

Many different test automation tools are available, so it's crucial to pick the one that best suits your requirements.

Consider the language you'll be using, the platforms you'll be targeting, and the types of tests you'll perform. Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution, selecting a tool that meets your specific requirements is critical.

When evaluating a testing tool, you must consider several factors, including:

• The tool's scope
• Expected test automation tool functionality
• Platforms/browsers supported
• Need to determine whether it fits your domain
• Cost
• Language support
• Community assistance and documentation
• Learning involved  
  

Learning Objectives

Suppose you are transitioning from one tech stack to a QA automation tester transition; learning must be considered when choosing the tool. When learning is involved, productivity cannot be 100% because team members must devote time to learning. As a result, you must establish a learning objective. The management should be aware of this because productivity may differ from expectations.

Construct a reliable test suite

Having a solid and comprehensive test suite is essential for effective test automation. The software's functionality, usability, performance, and security should all be covered by this test suite. Developing a comprehensive test suite can be time-consuming and costly but is critical for ensuring your software's quality.

Select test cases for automated testing

It would help if you first chose which test cases to automate and which to leave out. Although the developer will want every test case to be automated, this is not how automation testing operates. There are some issues with the software testing projects that need to be manually verified. Finding the root causes of automation testing is therefore crucial.

Listed below are some scenarios where automation testing works well:

• Test cases that execute on various configurations
• Long-running test cases
• Test cases requiring larger data sets as input
• Test cases for performance testing
• Test cases for data-driven testing
  

Spread out your automated testing work

The ability of the QA engineers typically determines the types of tests created. Therefore, it's critical to determine each team member's level of expertise and experience and divide your automated testing efforts accordingly. Creating automated test scripts, for instance, necessitates a thorough understanding of scripting languages. To perform these tasks, you should hire qa testers familiar with the script language provided by the QA automation tool.

Some team members may be unfamiliar with writing automated test scripts. These QA engineers may be more skilled at creating test cases. A QA automation tool should provide a method for developing automated tests without necessitating a thorough understanding of scripting languages.

Collaborating with other QA engineers in your department on your automated testing project is best. Team testing is more effective at detecting defects, and the right QA automation tool allows you to share your projects with multiple testers.

Hire a dedicated automation software tester or team of testers

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After prioritizing test cases, hire a dedicated QA automation tester or team of testers to assist you in turning your vision into reality. Never delegate automation testing to your manual testing staff, as testing automation necessitates a different approach.

Instead, hire a tester with the knowledge, expertise, and ability to manage complex scenarios. Also, look for engineering teams that have experience with multiple test automation tools. You can do software testing outsourcing from Wishup – a platform that offers qualified, pre-vetted QA testers to help you with all your testing requirements.

Create a framework for test automation

Developing a test automation framework requires more than just perfecting the technical aspects; it also requires being scalable and flexible. The testing framework you create will assist you in numerous upcoming projects, not just this one. So make sure your testing framework is solid and long-lasting. Also, remember that test cases should be re-executable using the testing framework. Listed are a few tips to get you started:

• Establish object repositories for GUI testing.
• Implement the PageObjects model (POM)
• Set the scope of the testing framework.
• Produce detailed documentation
• Conduct regular audits
  

Think about the testing environment

There is much information about environmental conditions that need to be recorded. In addition, you can test the system's performance using a combination of hardware and software resources in the testing environment. Therefore, properly establishing testing environments can help you win the deal. The following are some best practices for creating testing environments that you can use:

• Verify that the application is accessible for testing on the system.
• Check to see if standard test data sets are available.
• Ensure that all of the testing resources are available.
• Assign one person solely to the upkeep of the testing environment.
• Schedule the testing environment's use.
• Before beginning the testing procedure, ensure that you have a network connection.
  

Remember that the staging environment must be the same as the production environment, while the development and test environments should be identical.

Think of data as a crucial part of your test case. This will include identifying where to sort the data, whether the data needs to be masked, and what will happen to the data after testing. Also, before writing test cases, define a set of best practices to ensure they are resistant to automated system changes.

Automated test execution

Here, all your hard work and planning will pay off. Since this step is automated, you only need to be concerned about the AUT and your power source. You can also adhere to pipelines like DevOps and CI/CD to speed up your release while maintaining quality. However, some testing environments, such as local, offline, and CI/CD, require initial setup. Mock servers are the solution to such failure reporting components.

When running test cases, you should keep the following pointers in mind:

• Time can be saved by parallelizing automated test cases that don't require interdependence. For instance, the outcome of a test case for a payment page shouldn't wait or depend on the case for logging in.
• To run test cases concurrently, use a scheduling tool or a pipeline orchestrator. Users can, for instance, incorporate Test-Ops into their test cases to take advantage of cloud environments and run tests immediately after setup. Additionally, it can automatically rank the most critical tests, allowing testers to optimize their test cycle without sacrificing high quality.
• Run tests on the application with reliable servers and network connections.
• Avoid time-wasting elements and unexpected failures.
  

Follow – result, analysis, and reusability

You must have a plan to analyze failing test cases and follow-up actions to address the detected issue. In most cases, it takes longer than expected for testers to discover and fix the bug. Therefore, a clearly defined process will spare teams from spending a lot of time and resources refining the application.

• Identify slow-moving tests that fail. Include a timer in your test run to identify tests that fail frequently or take a long time. This practice assists you in identifying the bottleneck and reconfiguring these test activities to maximize testing efficiency.
• To broaden coverage, compare test results to validated reports and documentation from previous versions.
• Incorporate in-tool or third-party smart test reports functionality for advanced test reports and better maintenance.
  

Maintain and monitor automation

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Robust test automation monitoring and maintenance elements should always guide your framework and tool selection. The former ensures that you and your team are constantly updated on the status and outcomes of your automation testing.

Before committing, consider which stakeholders need to receive such reports. Unfortunately, not every automation tool includes an easily understood reporting component.

Similarly, there are differences in the accessibility with which various tools can be maintained. You want something that you can easily modify and reuse and has comprehensive failure logs to fix script errors quickly. Your test automation strategy can be sustained if you have a firm grasp on maintenance and monitoring.

Thankfully, Wishup's Agile software testers are trained and prepared to communicate and report effectively, ensuring efficient workflows and an overall robust QA process.

The secret to your growth is a solid automation testing strategy!

The success of test automation is determined by how well the strategy is defined and implemented. A successful automated qa testing strategy can have far-reaching consequences! An intelligent test automation strategy must be developed to fully gain the benefits of automation testing and achieve the desired level of success.

Any mistakes you make while developing a strategy can have a significant impact. Therefore, you should exercise extreme caution and objectivity when developing a test automation strategy. The management should be aware of both the good and the bad. Ask for feedback and opinions, and try to avoid making decisions independently. Then, make a decision using the feedback and opinions gathered.

You're in luck because Wishup is among the top software testing outsourcing companies that provide automation software testers to assist you in developing and defining the best testing strategies and utilizing their cutting-edge expertise to enable successful automation testing.

To hire qa engineer for automation testing, send us a mail at [email protected] or book a free consultation with our team.