In the accelerated agile way of working, each firm demands a
highly-skilled automation expert. Slowly, automation testing is replacement
manual testing (though it can't be carried out completely).
Using automation,
you can expand your business to a greater audience saving both time and effort.
For example an automation tester, it is quite essential to
get certain skills that help in analyzing the application better.
Let's
understand in the article, the automation testing abilities needed to
become an efficient and successful automation tester in the software testing
market.
How does test automation advantage the software testing
market?
·
Replacing manual testing procedures with
automation testing has assisted in the rapid adoption of agile methodology
across software development industries
·
Automated testing benefits big scale projects
that undergo regular changes by speeding up the testing process and making
deliveries within the stipulated timeline.
·
Manual testing in agile requires a lot of human
intervention and the total testing effort gets monotonous, automation testing
helps resolve this problem by automating the repetitive jobs.
·
Usually, for repetitive tasks, test scripts need
to be created once and these may be reused whenever the identical situation has
to be executed.
·
With each feature improvement, the scripts can
be updated as per the requirement and then can be redeemed.
·
Automated testing expedites the overall testing
process. Automation testing can reduce the time to run repetitive evaluations
from days to hours saving money and time.
·
Automation testing raises the depth and scope of
tests that improve the software quality and also raises the evaluation coverage
of the program modules.
·
The automated test scripts can be reused
multiple times for any regular shift in the computer software.
·
Automation testing helps the DevOps staff to
ship the applications to the marketplace at the earliest.
What are the skills necessary for an automation tester?
Let us look at the top must-have skills for an automation
tester:
I. Focus on analytical thinking:
For an automation tester, an urge for analytics and logical
application of theories is important. Once the business team provides the
company requirement document, the automation testing staff should focus on
understanding every element of the feature quite well from an automation
perspective.
ii. Knowing of programming languages:
The automation tester needs to be proficient in these
programming languages. The thought process of this automation tester needs to
be to identify and cover all the probable modules which demand automation.
iii. Good operational testing abilities:
To excel as a automation tester, the tester must have solid
knowledge and expertise of operational testing done manually.
It will be beneficial if the tester in addition to the
application knowledge also comprehends the domain very well. For e.g., if a
banking program requires payments domain knowledge to design automated test
scripts of any given functionality, then it will be an added advantage when the
tester along with good scripting skills also is well versed using
domain-specific knowledge.
iv. Experience in creation of test scripts:
In the market, there is a vast range of automation
frameworks, out of which some will expect the tester to have enough programming
knowledge in regards to writing automated test scripts whereas for some tools
the exam scripts are written in plain English language and don't demand an
comprehension of backend coding and logic.
V. Possess good knowledge on Automated testing tools:
The automation testers should be well-equipped with
considerable knowledge about the automatic testing tools present in the market
that finally help to maximize the overall testing procedure.
There's a vast selection of automation in testing
tools available on the marketplace which provide extremely superior benefits to
a venture. To excel in the automation testing field, the tester must have great
understanding and vulnerability of the automation test tools.
vi. Clear Comprehension of business requirements:
An automation tester needs to have a very clear
comprehension of the company requirements.
Let's know this with an illustration that all people must
have encountered. If you are unwell and you pay a visit to a physician, the
doctor while examining you, also wants to understand your medical history
whether you've suffered from any type of disease or ailment previously.
Depending upon the general past and present medical condition he can
subsequently suggest certain medicines for recovery.
vii. Well versed with agile, DevOps and constant
delivery:
Automation testing demand in the marketplace is rising with
new-age nimble and DevOps methodology replacing the waterfall model.
As agile methodology entails frequent changes, it is
essential to have an automation testing process in place for exactly the same.
Automation testers can automate the test scripts for a module to have the
ability to react to regular customer induced demand changes.
viii. Keep good communication and interaction with
stakeholders:
Having good communication skills and collaboration is
crucial for automation testers. This is most important before and during the
testing period as automation testers have to interact with programmers,
business analysts, attribute engineers (owning excellent domain-specific
understanding ) along with the other stakeholders.
Also, once the automatic test scripts were created, the
automation testers will need to provide a walkthrough to the developers,
business and the other stakeholders.
ix. Curious to find out new technologies and tendencies:
Being an automation tester you should be willing and curious
to learn new technologies in the area of automation.
Taking into consideration the history of automation tools
being extensively utilized in the organizations, earlier firms preferred using
QTP (Quick Test Professional) tools for automation testing for a on-line
application whereas now Selenium WebDriver is in huge demand.
X. Able to evaluate and mitigate the risk:
Though test automation looks like a strategic measure in the
agile world, there is always a risk connected with the test automation process.
If there are changes in the interfaces, after the automation
test scripts were prepared, it can cause a problem during the test execution a process as irrelevant test results will be generated because of these interfaces changes. Similar issues might happen in case of changes in business logic. This
incurs additional cost to encourage the modifications, and it can involve
modification of test data and impact other test cases as well.
