UI automation testing is like manual testing, but instead of the user clicking on the application to visually view the data. You have to create a script for each test case you want to test.
What is an Automated UI Test?
Automated UI testing refers to using specific tools or frameworks to automate the manual testing process of validating UI functionality.
Broadly speaking, UI test automation allows teams to:
- Use the application’s user interface to simulate end-customer collaboration
- Automate end-user information sources and test the usefulness of each part
- Integrate UI tests according to progress level
- Generate and evaluate test results
Advantages of Automated UI Testing
Mechanised testing offers several advantages in advancing agile programming. Some have been recorded:
- Allows groups to build test inclusions essentially
- More test inclusion makes troubleshooting faster
- Once created, the test script can be reused. This makes the test more versatile effectively.
- Tests run much faster, as opposed to manual tests
- Efficient test scripts convey accurate experimental results
UI Test Automation Best Practices
Top 5 Best Practices for Building UI Test Automation Frameworks:
1. Don’t just rely on UI test automation
One of the best practices to consider first is not relying solely on UI test automation. Ideally, you should be confident that if you remove all QA automation from your test cycle, you can fix up to 90% of the existing bugs in your release. It’s always important to remember that high-level testing is just a third defensive shield to catch the remaining issues that weren’t captured in the first two levels.
2. Good manual test cases are just as important as a good automation
We recommend that you identify the prerequisites and create a manual test case first, with the goal of creating a test case that is less dependent on other test cases. Automation engineers should run these test cases at least once. Experts find more errors in the actual execution phase than in the development phase of test automation.
3. Before testing the application, first understand the application
Before testing your application, it is important to understand your application and its dependencies. The choice of tool depends on the technology used in the software. For web applications, it’s important to know which browsers are supported. For desktop applications, it’s important to know the language used.
4. Hire a dedicated automation engineer
Test automation is a full-time job in itself. The manual tester cannot complete both tasks. Therefore, it is recommended that one person be an automation engineer like a team leader and the other members create an automation team that is used only for test automation.
5. Select the automation tool according to the resource
Language learning is a time-consuming process. Development time is unnecessarily long. It is always wise to buy an automated tool that can minimise this learning curve. For example, if you develop your project in Java and are familiar with Java, but C ++, but C # is a brand new language, it doesn’t make sense to choose a tool that doesn’t provide a known language. Create a script.
Why is Automation Testing significant?
Suppose the software receives a new version and bug fixes. So how can you be sure that the new software, including the bug fix, hasn’t introduced a new bug into the functionality of the previous job? Therefore, it is advisable to test the software even with older features. It is difficult to test all software features as some bug fixes manually and new features are added. Therefore, we recommend that you test your software efficiently and effectively each time with an automated testing technique that uses automated tools.
Run automated tests for many regression tasks. A web application with thousands of users accessing the application makes it hard to think of how to test it and manually create many of these users simultaneously. Next, we recommend that you proceed to automated testing.
Automate the testing process if the GUI is the same, but the functionality is often changed. This means testing this application where the code/functionality of a particular GUI changes frequently. Further feature changes will increase the testing effort.
Challenges in UI automation testing
Every QA analyst team faces certain challenges during test automation. Needless to say, these challenges can adversely affect the test process and may hinder the overall project delivery timelines.
Below are some of the most common challenges teams face during test automation.
1. Identify suitable automation tools for extensive testing
There are numerous tools on the Internet (both paid and open-source). Each tool is specially designed to address a specific issue. Needless to say, all tools have compatibility standards, and QA automation training requires familiarity with a particular language. With this in mind, it can be very difficult to evaluate the ideal tool to meet all your business and technical needs.
2. Diversity of test environment
The web is very fragmented, and the various combinations of devices and operating systems used to access applications are constantly increasing. In such a fragmented environment, it is very difficult to test and optimise the user interface of all platforms. Furthermore, comprehensive testing requires extensive testing infrastructure. This means that the onsite team needs to set up an equipment lab that requires a huge investment. That drives us to the next challenge.
3. Test automation requires a huge investment
It may not be possible for small businesses to make a huge investment in establishing an onsite equipment laboratory. The effort involved in setting up the required test infrastructure is rewarding in the long run, but the effort involved in the early integration of automation is considerable.
4. Automation requires technical know-how
Test automation is a technically complex task that requires knowledge of a particular programming language and personal framework. Without the necessary skills, the team will not be able to achieve the required level of test automation.
Benefits With UI Test Automation
Automated testing offers many advantages in agile software development. Below are some:
- Allow teams to improve test coverage rate significantly
- Increased test coverage speeds up debugging
- Once created, the test script can be reused. This makes testing easily scalable
- Running tests is much faster than manual tests
- Efficient test script provides accurate test results
- Unlike manual testing, automated testing is prone to human error
- Automated testing is time and cost-efficient
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