Do you know that on daily basis approximately 3,739 applications are added to the play store? Moreover, google store has 3.5 million of mobile applications accessible for the android users. The whopping number of applications does not show that launching an impeccable application is a cake walk. According to an estimation, approximately 99.5% of consumer applications fail owing to various malfunctions. To overcome this, it is necessary to get software testing done. If the software testing is not done properly, there are various risks are attached to the software development. Some of the prominent risk if the testing is not done properly are written as follows-

Reduced brand reputation
Excessive expenses
Delayed product launch
Dissatisfied users

To avoid these risk factors, testing has become a crucial step. Generally, there are two kinds of testing procedure which are manual and automation. In this blog, we will understand the importance of the automation testing, its types, and future scope, etc.

What is automation testing and its importance?

The automation testing is the procedure of testing the software and various other products to assure its efficacy. Precisely, it is a test to cross check that whether the app is doing alright or not. The software testing method uses various tools to execute the test scripts to without any interference of the human. The a utomation testing procedure is the widely acceptable pathway to increase the productivity, efficiency, and test coverage of the software testing. The test scripts get tested automatically with the help of tools without any intervention of the human and declares the result whether it has errors or bugs. Only while creating the initial scripts human efforts are needed. Let us understand why testing is important for software deployment-

The importance of automation testing-

As we have already discussed that a huge number of the application fails and all the efforts go in vain. The following important reasons why a software testing technique must be done in the development of applications: –

1. To identify early defects

The development of the complex applications can leave huge scope for the errors. The software testing is an important procedure in order to identify defects and issues with the written code. These bugs can be fixed before the software product is delivered.

2. Raises the customer satisfaction & trust

An exhaustive testing is done to render an impeccable product to the customers. Testing a product throughout the product development process renders a visibility into the products’ weak and strong points. The time when customer receive the product, the efficacy of the product becomes assured because it has gone through multiple test procedures.

3. Enhanced product quality

The exhaustive testing procedure gives an assurance that the obtained product is of high quality. A rigorous procedure of testing makes an exceptional product.

4. Detecting the vulnerability in the security

A testing procedure saves the software from the probable software attacks. An insecure application code can leave a room for the vulnerabilities. An application which is not tested properly can easily become victim to the various cyber-attacks.

5. Helps with the scalability

A scalability testing is implemented to analyze load testing. This measures the ability of the application to handle the load. In other words, it describes how the application would perform in the case of sudden spike of users.

Consisting the above written points, we can understand the importance of the testing. Although testing is of two types which are manual and automation testing. Let us now discuss how automation testing holds an upper edge on the manual testing.

What can be automated under software testing?

Automated testing can be widely utilized to test the larger number of the software. The test scripts run automatically which spares time and resources. This enables companies to test the products effectively at the lower costs. Let us understand the difference between the automation and manual testing.

Manual testing vs automation testing: –

Criteria	Automation testing	Manual testing
Testing at scale	It performs testing at a very large scale	It needs time when needed to done on large scale
Accuracy	It depicts a superior accuracy due to computer based testing and eliminates the chances of errors	Lower accuracy owing to the probable human errors
Turnaround time	It completes a cycle of testing within recorded time which has lower turnaround time	Manual testing take more time to complete aa cycle of testing
Cost efficiency	It saves costs and works for a longer time	Manual testing needs more costs as it involves hiring of the new experts
User experience	It cannot guarantee a good user experience	Manual testing ensures high end User experience
User skills	Users must be highly experienced to automate as many scenarios as possible	Users must have the ability to imitate the user behavior and cover all the scenarios

Hence, the key advantages of the automation testing are cost efficiency, easy performance, faster turnaround time, and better accuracy. Furthermore, the automation testing is preferable when the human resources are scarce and large number of repetitive tests have to be run.

Although, it is not possible to automate all the testing at once. So, users generally decide to categories that which tests are to be automate first. Let’s take a glimpse of tests which can be benefitted from the automation-

Repetitive and monotonous tests
Test which a lot of time manually
High risk test cases
Tests which may lead to the failure due to human error
Extensive tests which require multiple data sets

Now, let us see the type of the automation testing which can be used in various circumstances, which depend upon the application under test. There are 5 key types of the automation testing.

1. Unit tests

It is all about checking the individual component of the product or the service. This means that every element of the software is exhaustively tested before making the finished version. In the procedural programming the unit can be an entire module or a procedure.

Below written are some commonly used tools in unit testing-

Let us discuss the features of the tools for the doing unit tests-

A – Feature of NUnit

It renders the assertions for testing anticipated results.
This tool quickly develop code which increase the quality of the code.
The NUnit tool can be structured in the test suites.
The tool takes less time to run the test cases.

B – Feature of TestNG

In case of development, the TestNG used to develop unit test cases, and each test will be tested through business logic
It has the dependent methods for application server testing
The tool supports multiple plug in
It provides flexible test configuration

C – Features of Mockito

Mockito is helpful in making annotation feature.
While using Mockito, the user doesn’t need to write mocks object on their own
The tools provide methods like mock(), verify (), when (), which are helpful in test java applications

D – PHPUnit

It provides logging and code coverage analysis
The development is hosted on GitHub
It utilizes the assertions to to validate the performance

2. Integration test

This testing is the 2^nd level of the software testing process and involves checking units of a software project, in order to analyze defects. A practical example of the integration testing is as follows-

While a car company making a car, it includes braking, ignition, exhaust, engine, and fuel system in the car. These part when tested individually would be called unit testing but when these systems tested in combined way, then it will be called integration testing.

Let us now discuss the tools in integration testing-

A – Features of Citrus

The citrus is both a licensed and open source tool and provide a low cost solution.
It is used to receive and send messages.
It has a feature of error replication.
The citrus provides the test plan and also documents the coverage of test.

B – Features of FitNesse

It is utilized to verify the needs of actual software applications for the software project
The tool helps in the using wiki web server
It also render support to agile style of black box testing and regression.

C – Features of Tessy

Tessy has floating license applications rights
It also supports C ++ and C programming language
The Tessy create test report to witness the test execution results

D – Features of Protractor

With the help of this tool one can execute the instance of application
It performs tests from the point of view of end users
The protractor is used to write down the end to end tests.
The protractor is also used for executing dynamic webapplications.

E – Features of Rational Integration Tester

The tool allows to perform functional, integration, and regression testing.
The tool is used for implementing constant integration in the software lifecycle.
The testing continues even if some modules are missing and generates code and reusable stubs.
With the help of this tool, user can build the test from the given requirements and generate the virtual services

3. Automated accepted tests

The AAT are just similar to the various BDD (behavior driven development) and AATDD (automated acceptance test driven development). The acceptance test is fabricated before a new feature is developed. The test sets a precedent for the feature to meet and it is generally written by the developers.

4. Smoke test

This kind of test is utilized to check whether the product is stable or not. If it is not stable, it gets again to the developers by giving a mark as an unstable build. The test run further if it is required in order to identify the cause of the problem. The best tools for the smoke testing are written as follows with its features-

A – Features of the Selenium

This is used widely in the software testing industry as an automation tool. The features of the selenium are-

Allows the user to record the tests which are carried out through the browser
It renders support to multiple web browsers such as Safari, Chrome etc.
It has multi language compatibility
It offers easy identification and use of web elements

B – Features of Phantom JS

PhantomJS is preferred automated smoke testing tool for the web appliactions. Some of its features are as follows-

The tool has a feature page automation
The phantom JS helps in capturing the screen of specified page in various formats such as PNG, PDF, and GIF.
Network monitoring is also an important feature of the Phantom JS where it permits the inspection of network traffic.

Automation Testing Market Synopsis

The automation testing market size was valued approximately USD 24.8 billion in the year 2022 and is anticipated to reach USD 55 billion by the year 2030 by growing at CAGR of 17% during the forecast period.

The reason for the growth are scalable and adaptable delivery models. Since the testing is an imperative element of the software development life cycle process. The dynamic distribution is important for on demand testing resources. Due to changes in the client demographics and demand, the automation testing platform has highly scalable flexibility.

Although, the automation requires a remarkable significant investment in terms of the equipment, infrastructure, and human capital. Hence, the high upfront investment cost is acting as a restraint in the growth of the market. Once the system gets established it a high yielding domain to invest. The increased use of mobile and online application is rendering the opportunities. The prominent market players in the domain are-

Accenture
AFour Technologies
Applitools
Astegic
Broadcom
Capgemini
Cigniti Technologies
Codoid
Quality Infotech

In a nutshell,

The automation testing market domain is a huge platform holding numerous growth opportunities. Although, it is always advisable to understand the intricacies of the market. The parameters such as market constraints, regional analysis, growth opportunities etc. are imperative to understand so that user is able to make sound decisions.

Automation Testing Market- A Domain of Myriad of Opportunities