4 Questions to Ask Before Automating Your Testing Process

Automation testing has taken the software testing world by storm and today we have the most comprehensive test automation tools in the market that are powerful enough to meet every requirement – from the basic to advanced – of software development firms. It comes as little surprise that software development firms across the globe have embraced this technology in order to experience the multiple benefits it has to offer. Given below are some of them.

• Reduced regression testing time
• Less time and effort required
• Increased efficiency and productivity
• Faster time to market
• Increased ROI
• Reduced cost

However, before an organization goes ahead and implements automation into their QA process, there are certain points that need to be considered. After all, it’s all about understanding the organization’s need for it, the extent of implementation required, and so on. Here are 4 key questions to be reflected upon and sought answers to, in order to ensure that the implementation turns out to be a well-informed decision that benefits the company in the long run.

Question1: How will it help you?

It’s a fact that implementation of automation calls for significant initial investment. So, it is important to know how much your organization stands to gain by implementing it. Analyze its benefits and how it is going to affect the results of your QA process. Will it be worth the investment? Will it fetch you a ROI that you aim for? This is important before you make the switch.

Question 2: Do you have skilled resources?

The tool you choose for your organization should depend on the skill set of the resources working in your QA team. If most of them are manual testers, then you should opt for test automation tools with a short learning curve. QARA Enterprise is a good example of such a tool as it offers a zero-coding framework that makes learning automation easy.

Question 3: What is Your Budget?

Automation can be expensive as it involves not just getting a test automation tool but also investing in a team of skilled resources. Before you go ahead and implement it, it is important to sit with the management of the organization and fix on a budget. Only when you have the budget fixed, can you plan the implementation process accordingly.

Question 4: To what extent would you need to implement it?

The cost of implementing automation in your QA process depends on the extent of implementation you choose to implement, which is again determined by the budget you set off with. It’s important to remember that not every scenario needs automation. It’s only certain types of test cases that call for it. The rest can be managed quite well manually. Regression testing, testing with multiple data sets, and version testing are some examples of test scenarios that are difficult to execute manually.

Once you have the answers to these questions, it becomes easy for you to choose a test automation tool that works for you. It also ensures that you don’t go overboard and implement it even where it is not that necessary, resulting in a skyrocketing budget.