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Manual And Automation Testing Challenges & How To Overcome Them

Updated: Oct 5, 2023


Kazeem Razaq @K.Razaq / 6:00 PM EDT. July 26, 2022.



problems-facing-automation-testers


Manual and automation testing is a big challenge. Why do I say that? It requires a lot more time and resources than manual testing alone. You need to test just as well, but the actual process of automation can take up to ten times longer than manual testing.


Manual and automation testing is a hit-and-miss affair, which can be both stressful and frustrating. This can be counterproductive to a good automated testing process. Manual testers often find it hard to unearth the problems that prevent successful automation. This article will help you overcome such challenges, and create an effective automated test system for your product.


Manual and automation testing is not an easy job. It takes time, expertise, and skill to perform these tests well.


manual-tester

Manual testing is the most basic and initial form of software testing.


Manual testing is one of the oldest forms of software testing. It involves performing input-based tests manually and observing the output for errors or bugs in the application under test (AUT). Manual testers perform functional testing at various levels, ranging from unit level to system level. This type of testing has been around since the early days of software development, but it is still used widely today due to its great value in identifying defects quickly and efficiently.


Manual testers are responsible for performing exploratory activities on the system under test (SUT). Manual testing involves walking through the SUT and looking for issues that might affect its functionality or reputation.


While this form of testing does have its advantages over automated approaches such as unit testing, it also has its own set of challenges that need to be addressed before manual testers can effectively complete their work.


Automation testing is more advantageous than manual testing, but it also has its own challenges.


Automation testing is a vital part of the software development lifecycle, especially since it helps us to save time, increase productivity and reduce risk. Despite its importance, however, automation testing is not an exclusive realm. As with any complex business process, manual testing is still essential for finding defects when they arise. Outsourcing your manual testing is an effective way to save time and money while also reducing human errors that can result in higher customer satisfaction scores. It's also an excellent opportunity to ensure consistency at every level of your organization across your development lifecycle as well as in testing departments (internal/external). Automation testing has always been a key competitive advantage in this area.


Automation testing is more advantageous than manual testing, but it also has its own challenges.

  • Cost: Automation testing is less expensive than manual testing because it involves fewer people and takes less time to complete. However, automation doesn't always mean that you'll save money on every project you'll need to analyze the cost of each individual project before deciding whether or not automation would be worth it in your situation.

  • Accuracy: When you use automated software like Selenium Web Driver (which we will discuss later), you can create tests that run faster than humans could ever go through all possible combinations of inputs and responses for each page on which they're running their code without getting bored or distracted by other activities during their workday like talking about sports teams with coworkers over a lunch break or playing Solitaire until quitting time arrives at 5 pm to sharp every Monday morning after work because there's nothing else left to do before heading home where we want nothing more than sleep away from our computers so we don't get sucked into another nine-hour marathon session tomorrow evening when everyone else who lives nearby finishes up their day early due t0 exhaustion caused by lack thereof enough hours sleep last night due too busy schedules filled with obligations beyond one's expectation level.


Some of the most common automation testing challenges are as follows:

  • Lack of proper planning.

  • Migration from manual to automation testing is a complex process.

  • Maintaining test scripts is a challenging task, especially in large projects where there are many teams working on different components or modules that need testing at different stages of development, resulting in an unstructured and hard-to-understand set of tests.


challenges-facing-automation-testers

1. Lack of proper planning.


In order to make sure that you have a proper testing strategy, it is important to have a good plan. The test management plan should include all the steps involved in manual and automated testing activities, as well as any other ideas you may have for improving your current process.

It is also important to ensure that each activity within your test cases has been planned out in advance so that they can be executed properly by developers and testers alike. This includes:

  • Test case design - Designing a good test case involves thinking about what kind of functionality needs to be tested and how many tests will be needed per feature/functionality (and how long they should take). It also helps if you know how much time each step will require from developers before they can move on with their work

  • Test Case Execution - Once someone finishes designing their first few tests then they should execute them manually or automatically depending on whether there are any problems during execution or not! This step may take some time depending on how many different steps are involved but don't worry just keep going until everything works perfectly!

2. Migration from manual to automation testing is a complex process.


Migrating from manual to automation testing is a complex process. There are many factors that must be considered, such as:

  • The size and complexity of your codebase.

  • The number and types of tests you need to execute.

  • The availability of resources (e.g., human testers) who can perform manual testing on legacy projects or legacy codebases in order to verify that the results meet specifications prior to migration into software engineering practices such as unit test automation

3. Maintaining test scripts is a challenging task.


Maintaining test scripts is a challenging task. Test scripts are often unstructured and hard to understand, especially when they contain multiple modules and files. They become even more difficult to maintain when test cases change frequently.


4. In large projects, test scripts become unstructured and hard to understand.


In large projects, test scripts become unstructured and hard to understand. This can be attributed to the number of test cases and test data involved in the project. Test data consists of all possible inputs, including those that have been previously tested by other teams or may be unnecessary for your tests. As a result, there are many different ways in which you could write out your tests; each one with its own benefits and drawbacks.

One approach is using what's called a "test matrix."


A test matrix is simply an Excel spreadsheet where you list all possible combinations of values for each input field (e.g., text boxes) and then record how many times each value occurred during the successful execution of any given scenario (e..g., clicking on a button). For example: If I had three fields with the names “Name”, “Email Address” & “Phone Number", then my spreadsheet would look something like this:


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5. Script maintenance becomes difficult when test cases change frequently.


The challenge of script maintenance becomes most apparent when test cases change frequently. It is difficult to maintain the scripts when you have to add new test cases or delete existing ones. In addition, maintaining multiple versions of your scripts becomes very difficult.

To overcome these challenges, we recommend that you create a separate folder for your test scripts and keep them in there as much as possible so that it becomes easy for you to manage them effectively and efficiently. You can also use automation tools such as Selenium IDE or BrowserDriver (for web testing) which will help you run tests without having any knowledge about how those tests are written by other developers/testers who have worked on them previously.


6. It takes too much time to write a fresh script for changes in a test case or software application under test (AUT).


It takes too much time to write a fresh script for changes in a test case or software application under test (AUT). This is because of the following reasons:

  • Manual testing requires you to manually enter each step in the script and make sure that it works properly. If there’s any change, then you have to manually update your existing scripts.

  • Automation testing involves using automation tools like Selenium WebDriver which allows developers/testers to automate their tests without writing any code by themselves. Instead, they just need to provide a few inputs as per requirements and let these tools do all the work for them.

  • When a new requirement comes up, developers need not write new scripts but can easily reuse existing ones based on their previous experience instead of starting afresh with no knowledge about current requirements


How can you overcome these automation testing challenges?


In order to overcome these automation testing challenges, you must first use the right tools. You have to make sure that your programming language is one that can handle large-scale testing and that it can be used in an automated fashion. You also need to divide test scripts into smaller pieces so they're more manageable and less prone to error. Finally, you should create robust and reliable automated tests that are easy for developers to understand (and therefore write themselves).


1. Create robust and reliable automated tests by using the right tools.


As a developer, you should use the right tools for automation testing. Use a tool that can help you create test scripts quickly and maintain them in a structured manner. Also, make sure that your automated tests are able to execute against different platforms and browsers as well as perform regression testing and performance testing (if applicable).


2. Automation testers should be well versed with the programming language that they are using to create test scripts.


If you are a manual tester, then it is important that your programming language of choice is the same as the application language. This means that if your test script is written in Python and the application is written in Java, for example, then there will be a lot of translation when writing tests for both languages.


However, if you are using automation tools like Selenium WebDriver or Protractor (which we'll talk about later), these tools can be used with any programming language that can run on top of its API — so long as this API has been created by someone else (like Google).

3. Divide test scripts so that different teams can work on them in parallel.



The next step is to divide test scripts so that different teams can work on them in parallel. This ensures that the entire testing process does not get delayed due to any issue with any one team's work.


Test scripts should be divided into smaller chunks and each chunk should be assigned to a particular team for execution. Each team should have its own set of tests for which it has been given an individual task list by the Test Manager or QA Manager, as per their requirements and priorities.


There are various ways in which test scripts can be divided:

  • Test cases - A test case is a single unit of functionality under test (FUD). It is usually used when describing how something works rather than actually doing it yourself! It means you’re writing code or creating some UI elements that make up your FUD – but don't worry about getting this right just yet! You'll learn more about what makes up good software design later on.

  • Test suites - A suite contains multiple related FUDs together as one unit; they're often used because they allow us to reuse parts of code between different projects without having duplicate effort spent on each project

Each type of testing has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your project requirements and budget limitations.


If you want to test your software application, but don't have the budget or resources for a full-on manual or automation test, it's important that you understand the differences between these two types of tests.


Manual testing is the most basic form of software testing. The most obvious difference between manual and automated approaches is how much time it takes to complete each phase of a project (i.e., from start to finish). Manual tests typically take longer than automated ones because they require more hands-on involvement from testers who have to interact with the product during each step along its lifecycle cycle.


Automation testing can be used when there are already prerequisites in place such as scripts written by developers prior to beginning any type of work on an application; however, if these scripts aren't properly integrated within your source code then this will limit how effective automation becomes over time due largely due lack thereof proper planning by developers themselves first before making any changes at all!


Now that we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of both manual and automated testing, it is time to make a decision about which type of testing you want to adopt for your next project. In short, if cost is not an issue for you, then manual testing might be the best option. However, if you are looking at increasing productivity or saving time by automating more tasks, then automated testing may be more suitable than manual testing in this scenario.


If you would like to start a career in software testing to become a manual or automation tester, BusyQA can help you make that happen. We make it simple for you to learn, with our highly experienced instructors and our PAID internship programs, you are just one click away from becoming the most in-demand programmer. Click here to see our course outlines.

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