The Role of Test Automation in Functional Testing

1

The Role of Test Automation in
Functional Testing
2
The Role of Test Automation in Functional
Testing
Per the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software
Test Automation Cloud and digital business
demand a shift toward continuous quality.
Application leaders must support their teams in
integrating and effectively utilizing test
automation tools in their DevOps toolchain, to
enable continuous delivery. In an age of
feverish go-to-market requirements that demands
continuous deployments, test automation comes as
a boon for performing and supporting continuous
testing and delivery especially functional
testing, that requires testing to be performed
continuously in conditions similar to the
clients software development environment. Lets
take a quick look at what is Functional
Testing. Functional Testing helps ensure keeping
the product aligned to the specifications by
testing the functionality of software. It also
ensures that test scenarios including boundary
cases and failure paths are accounted for. It
tests in detail what an application does. In
functional testing, developers need to set
benchmarks that are developer-independent so that
they can identify what they have not achieved. As
users shall ultimately be running the application
on a system along with other applications and the
application must endure different user loads,
developers need to ensure that every function of
the application is crash resistant. To provide
such a wide coverage of software testing, manual
testing requires physical time and the repetitive
nature of testing may become monotonous. Thus, to
work in a fast, agile environment, organizations
must focus on implementing test automation
practices.
3
The Role of Test Automation in Functional
Testing
Implementing Test Automation practices Implementi
ng test automation practices in an organization
requires using software that can control test
execution and compare the actual outcomes with
the predicted outcomes. The process helps to
automate tasks that though critical to the
workflow, are repetitive in nature. Additionally,
test automation can be used to tackle testing
that would be otherwise difficult to perform
manually. Test automation is perfect for large
projects or projects that require testing the
same areas over and over or projects that have
already been through an initial manual testing
process. Test automation enables performing
comprehensive, end-to-end functional tests that
lead to the development of a robust product. As
100 automation is practically impossible to
achieve, it is important to choose the right test
cases for automation with an aim to automate the
critical functionality. Businesses should ensure
that testing automation should not be done as an
afterthought. Within the context of functional
testing, test automation is an integral part of
its strategy. Role of Test Automation Test
automation makes it easier to perform end-to-end,
comprehensive functional tests that help develop
a robust product, ensuring that software is free
of any errors. However, careful and high-level
planning and strategizing is required to ensure
that the test automation implementation is
successful for the organization.
4
The Role of Test Automation in Functional
Testing

• Here are a few key aspects that must be
  considered for adopting test automation for
  enhancing your Functional Testing practices.
• Build a team with the right expertise The
  success of test automation within functional
  testing depends on the right skill mix within the
  team. This means that you need the right
  expertise and the right set of people, including
  stakeholders for driving the right strategy to
  achieve organizational goals, people who
  understand test automation, people who have a
  comprehensive understanding of testing, and
  people who are product experts.
• Select the best test automation tool No tool can
  ensure the success of test automation on its own.
  However, selecting the right tool is one of the
  key decisions that the C-Suite must focus and
  deliberate on to be successful. Here are a few
  aspects that they must keep in mind for choosing
  the best test automation tool to be implemented
• Read Full Blog at
• https//www.cigniti.com/blog/role-of-test-automati
  on-in-functional-testing/

5