6 Reasons Automation Testing Projects Fail

Teams and agencies often get fired up when they listen to the term "automation." It's just like a new tool that everyone wishes a bit of--at first of all. But following a a short while, no-one cares, and we move our concentration to other devices or, in cases like this, other task priorities and trends.

For automation to reach your goals rather than just a flash inside the pan, companies have to treat it with realistic targets, the right approach, and a determination to create it work.

Listed below are six main reasons I've consistently noticed automation projects are unsuccessful. Preserving these pitfalls at heart will help you prevent them and instead develop steady automation frameworks, generating the effort a collaborative feel so the whole team possesses automation.

1. People hardly understand what things to automate (and what never to automate)

It really is important to know very well what to automate and what never to automate.

Say you've got a webpage. It really is very good to automate the various functionalities of this webpage, nonetheless it might be a bad idea to utilize automation to check on rendering concerns or area of elements for the page. It is because it is tough to know the way the screen displays in various form factors because of a wide variety of devices, web browsers, and screen shapes. 

Also, in the event that you begin using x,y coordinates to check element location in the page, the assessments may become flaky when operate on different screen measurements and resolutions. These situations are much better off tested physically by individuals testers.

We always desire to automate a thing that is stable, that's less susceptible to change, which has to be frequent multiple amount of times, or that will assist save valuable assessment effort. 

2. The team does not have technically qualified people

Doing automation the correct way requires testers to truly have a certain degree of technical expertise. That said, getting skilled individuals who have sufficient technical understanding can be costly and time-consuming. Few firms, like start-ups, for instance, can afford to employ automation engineers.

It might be worthwhile to employ a few technological testers who is able to kick-start automation jobs and teach others around the team to obtain mixed up in automation effort. In the event that's not an alternative, you can often choose tool that will help anyone carry out automation, regardless of technical expertise. 

3. There's low awareness around automation

I've often observed groups where two to five folks are responsible for automation no one else has got any idea of the proceedings with regards to the automation attempts. This insufficient visibility units you up for disappointment because nobody will take your projects seriously, particularly if you aren't able to permit people understand how your efforts help solve qa testing issues and provide price.

Fortunately, there are a few easy methods to help to make your automation obvious:

• Create an automation wiki web page with information such as for example what features are increasingly being programmed, what modules are increasingly being covered, and exactly how your automation platform is established
  
• Make the outcomes of one's automation noticeable to the whole workforce via e-mail notifications and dashboards, and go over the advancement in day-to-day stand-ups along with other team meetings
  
• Hold lunch-and-learn consultations covering different developments, good procedures, and tools linked to automation
  
• You should create automation a collaborative energy and involve the complete team in organizing and publishing it.

4. Applications aren't easily testable

Teams usually do not often focus on the testability of these software. What perform After all by that? In the event that you build a credit card applicatoin, you also must make sure it is conveniently testable from the machine level, system stage, integration stage, and acceptance degree.

When you overlook this factor, we find yourself having a credit card applicatoin that is extremely difficult to check from any levels. Then we believe automation isn't doing work for the team, once the real problem will be that a number of the developers are constructing applications which are too complex rather than testable.

Ensure you go over the testability of a tale, an attribute, and prerequisites during backlog grooming along with the sprint planning conference, before the advancement effort begins on an attribute. This will help prevent problems soon after in the enhancement lifecycle.

5. The objectives of automation are usually vague

We focus on the purpose of building a sturdy automation construction that seamlessly combines while using CI/Disc pipeline, will be maintainable, and works in a well balanced and consistent approach, giving quick opinions about the use. All these aims are good in some recoverable format, but to access this degree of maturity, we have to start small.

That's where most automation testing processes are unsuccessful: They get started doing something intricate with automation and find yourself needing to refactor the complete framework once they are not obtaining the necessary value as a result. This results in wasting time, expense, and effort.

Start by discovering several high-level functionalities which are steady, and automate them first of all. Predicated on this, collect responses on what proceeded to go very well and what didn't. Subsequently, once these testing run consistently and so are stable, start figuring out other tests to include.

Additionally it is important to isolate your automation collection into smoke assessments and regression testing. Smoke tests will be the tests that follow every program code check-in. They ought to typically finish operating within 5 minutes to get speedy feedback on brand-new code improvements.

A regression test out suite can operate on a daily schedule and covers several functionalities of the application form. Your needs can vary greatly in line with the context in the project, but that is one approach which has worked well for me personally.

6. The team does not have good processes to take care of automation tasks

This is probably one of the most common issues with test automation: There is absolutely no proper process set up to take care of automation duties. Each team associate has their very own interpretation of the procedure, resulting in chaos and malfunction on the automation project.

Automated Software Testing Requirement

If there are various software applications being developed, there are some phases for those applications to pass through. Software testing is really mandatory in order of analyzing the standard and proper functioning of the software.

Of course, when there is a software application built, it will surely have some task to do. There will be various stages of the test carried for ensuring that the expected results are produced by the software application.

Embedded software testing is being carried out even for simple applications nowadays. There are various things that will stop the software from giving the result for which they have been built.

Some of those are like coding mistakes and errors. In most of the cases, although the software has not given any sorts of error during the compiling process, it will give rise to one or the other types of errors during the runtime.

Automated Software Testing Requirement

The company requires saving money. Cost-cutting measures have been performed to cut back on expenses. Capital expenditures and operational expenditures are being analyzed to ensure that all the departments have done all means to save. All means are being implemented to save and that involves the Information Technology department.

But, there are some expenses that the organization cannot do without. One of these is software testing because let us face it in order to move forward, we need technology. Organizations cannot do without it or they get left behind. What does it mean to get left behind?

·         Extract the maximum ROI out of the test automation solution.

·         Address the complexities that make it hard to test modern digital systems.

·         Simple adoption of test automation solution.

It means that the clients and the customers will start to look for the same services from other organizations. The right technology indicates that the services will be achieved with better quality and with faster turn-around-time.

Manpower can even be rationalized because of automation. Therefore, there is a possibility of a decrease in manpower cost. Overtime can be extinguished or some workers can be declared as redundant which can result in manpower reduction.

Most important pros and cons of automated testing:

Pros

The first main benefit is greater efficiency & productivity. Automated testing makes the process more efficient. Usually, everything performed manually takes more time, particularly when compared with the advantages of software automation testing services.

Automated testing software takes less time and allows employees to get more done. Because automated software testing is not that time consuming, productivity is increased, and resource hours are limited. The latter is especially significant because labor costs are not cheap. The end result is more profit for the company.

The second main advantage is more accurate tests. People make errors. That's a fact of life, and by using appropriate software testing tools the opportunities of manual mistakes causing issues are reduced or eliminated altogether.

Although it is true that software is only as good as the people who wrote the code, in the final analysis, automating the process of software testing creates fewer errors, resulting in better products.

Cons

One of the major drawbacks is that automated software testing tools can be expensive to deploy. And the cost increases with the complexity of the deployment. For example, big companies typically have various enterprise systems and interfaces in place, the sum of which increases the level of complexity connected with implementing any new tool.

Another downside is that there is normally a fairly substantial learning curve. "Plug and play" software testing tools haven't been created yet. As a result, automated software testing services take time to learn how to use.

10 Things To Take into Consideration When Deciding Independent Software Testing Services For Outsourcing

This article is written to help you pick a software testing company. If you are looking for independent software testing services, in manual or automation field, this article will help you out.

Practically every software development project comprises software testing. Various companies outsource software testing work. Outsourcing implies going for a work agreement or abroad to another company. The trend of outsourcing testing services is prevalent in the IT world.

Things To Consider When Evaluating Independent Software Testing Services

Classify all the actions of the company into initial & subsequent tasks. If software testing falls into the following task section, then, in that case, you should go with outsourcing the testing services.



Following are the reasons why you should outsource:

• Reap cost benefits
• Reduced in-house efforts
• Independent QA
• Access to an efficient & highly proficient team
• Get a team whose primary focus is testing
• Increased application quality
• Quick deliverables/ Boosts up software testing efficiency
• Thoroughly-tested final products
• Aspects To Consider Before Outsourcing Testing Services
• Outsourcing Testing Services

 Let’s discuss these aspects one by one:

1) The Engagement Models

This is one of the important steps in outsourcing. You have to understand the business plan and business model, as well as select the geographic area and choose which type of outsourcing you are interested in. You can go with either incremental outsourcing or total outsourcing.

2) Team Location

One of the most significant issues to answer is whether to pick an offshore testing company or a company in the same country?

Offshoring can perform high-quality at a lower cost. However, incurring the work in a different country (i.e. relocation) often possess a more significant risk due to communication barriers, cultural variations, and language difficulty.


 3) Service Level Agreement (SLAs)

It is the agreement signed between the service provider and the client that determines the output required from the service provider. Describing SLAs upfront is very crucial to ensure a 100% association of goals between the service provider and the client. SLAs should be related to the action model, KPIs, and the type of testing.

4) Mobilization

In the mobilization phase, the companies come together for outsourcing to take place. The agreement, statement of work, and service level arrangements should be settled and communicated to the preferred service provider. The authentic interests of both vendors & clients should be protected. Moreover, building a productive long-term relationship between the concerned parties is critical.

5) Flexibility & Scalability

Outsourcing contracts demand a degree of flexibility to assure that the timescale variations are met. Flexibility should be determined by considering factors like robustness, modifiability, new capacity, and efficiency.


6) Quality Improvement

One of the main goals of the client is to gain a vital quality improvement through outsourcing. As the contract matures, the means and working techniques should be tried to improve continually. The final target should be an overall increase in the end product.

7) Change Management

There might be frequent demand changes from the client end, which affects the testing cycle, if not handled properly. To overcome the additional cost, time and efforts of managing the requirement changes, service providers should maintain a secure change management system.

8) Intellectual Property Protection

IPR protection is one of the essential aspects to examine while outsourcing testing assistance. One of the most significant hurdles is to protect the businesses’ intellectual property when it is outsourced. The service provider should protect the Personally identifiable data(PII) provided by the client and not to be used for any other meaning apart from the meant business.

9) Communication

Seldom communication barriers between client & service providers create a roadblock in the work to be done. So, it is essential to discover a proper communication channel between the two parties. The list of POCs for each area of action should be exchanged between client & vendor.

10) Security

Protecting data is very significant from a business viewpoint. Outsourcing providers have data security policies & standards. Many service providers get their dedicated team to work in an ODC (Offshore Development Center) where only the team for a particular client project sites.

Ten Steps To Better Application Security Testing Strategies

Most software and test professionals believe security must be addressed after, not at the time of app development process, according to industry professionals. While software developers and test professionals are known with application testing and security thought, most work for companies that lack all-inclusive app security techniques.

Software Testing experts asked application security professionals to recognize and address security concerns at each stage of the app lifecycle and to propose tools and method to aid security. Here is the advice they offered.

1. Conduct threat modeling at the outset on an app development project. Threat modeling mention to the procedure of figuring out how many different methods an attacker could harm an application before that application is actually developed, said Wendy Nather, research director for the enterprise security practice at 451 Research LLC, a research firm based in New York. "Can you break into it, commit fraud, steal from it? That is what you are trying to answer," she said.

The best threat models graphically depict things such as how data will flow and how it will be stored, said Dan Cornell, a principal at security consultancy Denim Group Ltd. in San Antonio. "The idea is to proactively determine what kinds of security things can go wrong." It's crucial to understand these issues at the outset of the development process because it's cheaper to address security concerns when an app is "just a drawing on a whiteboard," he said.

2. Define basic requirements that address security. Developers today -- even those without specialized security testing training -- do a decent job of dealing with the rudimentary aspects of application security: role management, authentication, password-based access control. But there are still things to watch out for, Beaver said.

3. Come up with abuse cases. Abuse cases, or possible attack scenarios, are at the heart of the requirements phase, and yet many companies today overlook this step. "Teams are accustomed to coming up with a list of functions an app should carry out, but a key aspect of security is specifying what an app should not do," Cornell said. To compile a list of abuse cases, he advised companies to think about how an attacker could misuse functionality.

4. Define rules for input validation. Nather views this process as figuring out the trust zones in your application. "What you want to know is which parts of the system trust each other, and should they trust each other?" Once you figure that out, you can define rules such as the following:

Don't trust data that is coming in from the Internet.

If you pass data inward to a second tier of architecture -- from the Web server to a database, for example -- check the data before accepting it.

Validate all data moving in both directions, in and out of the application.

4. Use source code analyzers. Source code analyzers scan apps as code is written, looking for vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to steal data. The idea behind them is to help developers write apps that are inherently more secure at the outset, in addition to addressing security concerns later in the application lifecycle.

5. Guide developers to write secure code. Another way to boost application security testing at the coding stage is to provide pre-existing libraries that implement common tasks in a secure fashion, Cornell said. Essentially, you are supplying code templates that model "here's how we do database access; here's how we build webpages that avoid cross-site scripting errors," he said, referring to a well-known vulnerability attackers use to steal data.

7. Use dynamic scanners to simulate attacks during the QA cycle. Also known as black box testing tools, dynamic scanners "attack" an application in much the same way a hacker would, in order to pinpoint code that could be exploited. Commercial software vendors, as well as open source projects, offer these tools, which are designed to identify code that is vulnerable to SQL injections and other known security vulnerabilities, Cornell said.

8. Test the application against the deployment environment. The test environment should mirror the environment in which the app will be deployed as closely as possible, Nather said. A key thing to look at here is whether access to data sources is secure.

9. Test for general resiliency. Can the app recover easily when the connection is disrupted? Or when part of your cloud goes down? Or a batch job fails? These are things you need to look at, Nather said. "Things will go wrong, so make sure the system can recover."

10. Retest apps in production on a regular basis. Even when an app gets the go-ahead from security experts, keep on testing, Nather said. "New security vulnerabilities come up all the time." In addition, older components of an application can get redeployed as part of a build, potentially introducing vulnerable code, she said.

Performance Testing Tools Trending in 2019

It is significant for the present organizations to picture Performance testing shapes a vital piece of value affirmation. Application Performance Testing is the way to infer high performing E-business applications, versatile applications, and other client confronting applications.

Execution tried applications to guarantee that discharged programming meets the concurred Service Level Agreements (SLA's) and basically conveys higher client fulfilment levels. Such well-tried frameworks perform consistently even under differing burden conditions with simultaneous clients.

Factually, just applications which perform well notwithstanding when the simultaneous client's entrance it with no glitches will in general draw in and hold client base.

Such applications help to push up their separate brands. Consequently, it is fundamental for undertakings to take up compelling execution testing technique to keep up and ensure their brands.

There are sure execution testing devices that can be utilized to convey successful execution to internet business, portable applications, and different frameworks. A portion of these devices are accessible as open source and as paid instruments, which are utilized to perform different kinds of performance testing, for example, Load, Stress, Spike, Volume, Capacity and Soak testing.

1. LoadRunner:

Apparatus Overview: It is the most generally utilized device to test applications, measure framework conduct and their presentation under changing burdens. The device is utilized to recreate a huge number of simultaneous clients and record the varieties in framework execution.

A short time later, utilizing those outcomes, the exhibition of key parts of the application can be broken down. This instrument bolsters every cutting edge innovation like Ajax, Flex, HTML5.0, Java, SOAP, Citrix alongside all other heritage advances.

It supports testing of a wide scope of utilization alongside performance testing. The device adequately distinguishes execution bottlenecks and shows the main driver investigation.

2. Apache JMeter:

It is a significant open source apparatus used to test the exhibition of both static and dynamic applications. It is a Java-based the application utilized for burden and execution testing, which is utilized to test Web applications, SOAP and REST web administrations, FTP, databases and that's just the beginning. Curiously, JMeter is additionally generally utilized execution testing apparatus, which is adequately used to load test web and portable applications and measure their presentation.

Originally it was intended for testing web applications, however, later on, it has been extended to test other test capacities. It is additionally utilized for mimicking an overwhelming burden on a server or a gathering of servers and basically checks application execution under changed burden conditions.

3. WebLOAD:

Instrument Overview: This is a generally utilized device by ventures for testing web and portable applications. It is a successful device as it joins execution, versatility, and respectability as a solitary procedure for testing applications. It is a substitute for LoadRunner.

This device is utilized to make versatile burden tests either by chronicle local portable applications or program based applications, straightforwardly from the versatile handset. The simplicity of the apparatus is; the client can alter any contents, include parameters and perform approval checks. In the wake of making portable contents, it executes the versatile burden tests and this apparatus incorporates with a genuine cell phone.

4. LoadView:

Apparatus Overview: It is utilized for the cloud-based burden testing and enables DevOps groups to productively test sites, web applications, and application programming interfaces (API's) with a large number of simultaneous clients.

The dexterous and DevOps groups can test their site's UX under the burden, check execution and recognize different bottlenecks inside applications. This instrument reproduces API calls, approves API reactions and checks the most significant SLA necessities.

LoadView utilizes the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create simultaneous clients load over the cloud during the heap tests. The light-footed groups can test most complex applications by planning various test situations to test for. This apparatus tests and decides whether the site (under testing) can deal with spikes in rush hour gridlock by producing load with a set number of simultaneous clients. Additionally, it tests the breaking points of the framework, each time by altering the heap progressively. The test outcomes can be found in LoadView's web interface and reports can be acquired either in CSV or PDF groups.

5. LoadUI Pro:

Instrument Overview: This apparatus is utilized for the burden testing REST, SOAP API's, databases and smaller scale administrations. The straightforwardness of this instrument is, it doesn't require a particular range of abilities in burden testing and any client can make and execute tests. It is utilized to manage in structure reasonable execution test situations.

LoadUI PRO, there is adaptability to reuse every practical Apus tests based on the business' best open source apparatuses. It decreases the time taken to convey REST and SOAP web administrations. It gives key experiences that help to fix any exhibition bottlenecks. Its amazing and instinctive abilities help to convey adaptable API's. This apparatus is utilized to test the speed and versatility of new changes to the APIs in a limited capacity to focus time. Clients can pick up bits of knowledge from continuous API burden tests and guarantee that the API will deal with any interest successfully.

6. VSTS:

VSTS represents Visual Studio Team Services; is an expansion of Microsoft Visual Studio. It is an incorporated improvement condition (IDE) and is generally kept running in the cloud (Azure). The instrument is utilized to load test portable applications or site's presentation before their dispatch to check any exhibition bottlenecks even before it achieves the clients.

This device is utilized to run URL-based burden tests with Azure DevOps and sets all the expected parameters to run the test. At the point when the test is finished, the outcomes show the general application execution in a different synopsis page. This page shows significant measurements, for example, normal reaction time, client load, demands every second, bombed solicitations, and other interceding blunders alongside test utilization.

7. CloudTest:

This device stresses test condition to guarantee the site or an application is steady even under the spikes or in overwhelming rush hour gridlock. It produces noteworthy bits of knowledge that help plunge into the live information and successfully realize any presentation issues while burden testing is in advancement. It empowers persistent testing in the cloud (whenever without stressing over any equipment), takes out conventional expenses and gives more an incentive to it.

This apparatus is a helpful worldwide burden testing stage that is adaptable and used to run tests to get noteworthy bits of knowledge from the outcomes.

By and large Benefits with Performance Testing Tools:

– Helps in testing current scale and copy ongoing utilization at pinnacle burdens to approve the exhibition

– Gives the adaptability to test applications with a huge number of clients and checks framework execution

– Helps improve and modify the productivity of an application

– Evaluates rapidly and successfully the exhibition issues of programming

– Protects brand notoriety as the application stacks in immediately even in overwhelming client loads

– Improves application's streamlining and burden limit

– Enable sites and versatile applications to stack rapidly with no presentation issues