Software testing is now a pre-requisite for every enterprise that wants to shelve out first-class software applications, as the entire process allows you to get rid of all the defects and bugs in your software application.
Making them more user-friendly, thus increasing your goodwill in the market.
That being said, software testing itself can be further bifurcated into automation testing and manual testing. Both having their respective pros and cons.
This article will enumerate all the advantages that automation testing holds over manual testing.
Let’s analyze both of them to understand why automation testing is superior to its counterpart.
What is Manual Testing?
Manual testing is the process where a tester puts himself in the shoes of an end-user and manually checks whether the functionalities of the software are fully functional or not. In this type of testing, a tester will execute different test cases and generate reports without using any automation tools.
What is Automation Testing?
In software testing, automation testing is regarded as a process where a tester takes the help of different automation testing tools such as Selenium Webdriver, Ranorex Studio, to find defects in the software application. Here, all the test execution and report generation are performed by automation tools.
What’s the difference between them?
As the tester cannot use any tools or scripts in manual testing, he has to describe several scenarios and edge cases that need to be checked.
A test engineer prepares a data set that is used to trigger the right inputs or actions to test the described scenario.
In automated testing, all of these issues are automated. Automation testing tools are used to prepare the data set and scenarios. These scenarios are then executed step-by-step by AI.
Disadvantages of Manual Testing over Automation Testing
Manual testing is a more time-consuming process when compared to automation testing. The testing engineer has to perform a wide array of tasks which include preparing test data, preparing the right testing environment for the application, and execution of tests. The process of Manual testing is a slow one and susceptible to human-errors as well. One error can ruin all the hard work of a testing engineer as the engineer will have to start the setup from scratch.
Many players in the industry believe that using automation testing tools is expensive than manual testing, but they’re wrong. Using automation testing is way cheaper than hiring multiple reliable test engineers to perform the tasks that can be easily completed using automation testing.
Performing multiple tests such as stress testing become an arduous task with manual testing. Stress testing requires the creation of multiple requests in a short time frame. In some cases, multiple users connect to the software application at the same moment, making it impossible for a test engineer to recreate this scenario manually.
Complex scenarios are often avoided during manual testing or are only tested sporadically, leaving gaps in the application. Automation, on the other hand, allows the user to simulate complex cases.
Does Manual Testing hold any advantages over Automated Testing?
One of the biggest advantages that manual testing has over automation testing is the ability to focus attention on specific areas. Manual testing allows the tester to have full control over testing scenarios. This control allows the tester to find issues easily during the testing process.
Although automated testing has advanced dramatically over the last few years, it’s still not as conducive as manual testing in certain situations.
For situations that require small changes, it is more sensible to quickly verify a function by manually testing it instead of running the entire test-cycle again.
When to use Automation Testing over Manual Testing?
Automation testing is better than Manual testing in the scenarios mentioned below:
- To speed up repetitive tasks in a test cycle
- To perform non-functional testing such as performance, stress, and load testing
- To circumvent human errors
- When there is a need for parallel testing
Conclusion
Testing has become a pivotal part of software development. Many things such as the size of the project and your company’s budget should be kept into account while creating the perfect software testing strategy. Creating a strategy that involves both manual testing and automated testing is the best way to go.
Over-reliance on manual testing delays the entire process because it doesn’t fit in today’s agile framework. The benefits of automated testing outweigh the benefits of manual testing. That is the reason why your company should invest in test automation services to speed-up the testing process.
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