Agile methodologies have entirely transformed the software development lifecycle, not just in terms of product development. Still, the testing process has also seen a lot of changes in the past few years. Agile development improves the overall SDLC by testing the product early, making it easier to find and fix bugs quickly. The agile methodology brings testers and developers to the same page to work together and fix defects in a product before its release. It eliminates the back-and-forth movement of the software between developers and testers to save time and money.
Automation plays a vital role in agile software testing because carrying out tests manually is not feasible in an effective agile software development cycle. Test automation can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your testing processes carried out correctly. It helps in reducing recurring bugs while increasing test coverage. However, many enterprises still don’t adopt automation in agile testing because they consider it too expensive for small tests.
What is Agile Software Development?
Agile development is new terminology in software development that provides a collaborative and rapid way of building software. It is an umbrella term for multiple frameworks and practices used to develop and test a software product. It follows the process of continuous integration, continuous development, and continuous deployment for software products.
One thing that separates agile from other methodologies like the waterfall model is the iterations of testing and development. In agile development, developers work together with the QAs to bring the best solution for a problem. It enables cross-functional teams in an organization with open communication, adaptation, and trust amongst the team members.
But, an agile methodology is not productive without automation testing, as continuous deployment requires continuous testing, which is only feasible via automation. For instance, if software testing cannot cope with the development cycle, agile methodology won’t work. In simple words, automated tests are the only way to achieve a sufficient high-test coverage in agile development.
Reasons to Automate Agile Methodologies
Most businesses still don’t use automation in their agile development process, but it could lead to late delivery of the product. Multiple reasons prove why it is essential to automate Agile methodologies.
1. Quick Test Execution
Executing tests continuously in any development cycle is one of the crucial components for a product’s success. Manual testing enables you to test every application function, but it cannot execute tests quickly. In contrast, automation improves the overall efficiency of the development. As testing is performed at every stage of agile development, automation helps identify and rectify the bugs quickly. The quicker you found a bug in the process, the easier and cost-effective it becomes to fix it. This also saves time in executing other test scenarios.
When you test an application in the early stages, it also reduces the time-to-market for the product. This time can be utilized to build complex and compelling features for the application.
2. Higher Test Coverage
Another reason to implement automation in agile testing is higher test coverage. When you execute tests quickly in the agile development cycle, you get more time to perform other test cases. Automation testing improves the testing scope and depth. In automation testing, QAs do not need to manually run tasks, enabling them to create a test suite for every application feature, such as data tables, memory contents, internal programs, etc.
Moreover, automation allows you to execute multiple test cases at once while reducing the test execution time. Even if you’re not able to automate all the test cases, you can still cover many test scripts compared to manual testing.
3. Reusability of Test Cases
You cannot reuse every manual test; the frequent changes in the application don’t allow you to do that. However, automated tests are easily reusable, which makes the lives of software developers easier. You can re-run automated tests multiple times in the same manner as earlier or use a different approach.
Whenever a new bug is found in an application, its directory gets updated for the testers. In this situation, automation reduces maintenance costs as well as makes the tests cost-effective. It even eliminates the chances of human error because it doesn’t skip any steps in the process.
4. Accuracy and Reliability
Manual testing is more prone to errors due to the prerequisites involved in running the test cases. Besides, each test might require a different execution sequence. But, manual testers are bound to make mistakes because testing scripts, again and again, is a monotonous task. Sometimes testers even forget a few steps in the process, making the errors expected in the process.
However, an automation testing suite is designed keeping all the scenarios in mind, which is appropriately executed. Automation testing ensures that all the steps are performed at every stage, which improves the quality of the product. Moreover, with automation testing, the test scenarios are recorded at every stage, which allows the testing team to review them and make changes accordingly.
5. Improves Load Testing
In manual testing, load testing is performed after the end of the development cycle to check the load time of an application. But in agile methodologies, load testing is achieved from the beginning of the development cycle. For instance, if a new function is configured in an application, it must analyze how it affects the loading speed. With automation testing, you can perform load testing just after adding the feature.
Automation permits you to run thousands of test cases concurrently, which is not feasible with manual testing. Similarly, it enables you to perform load testing in parallel while reducing the overall testing time and improving time-to-market.
6. Allow Measuring Quality Metrics
Automation testing is implemented with the help of extensions and tools that provide features to measure multiple code quality metrics, including technical debt, code coverage, and semantics. Generally, these metrics are calculated during the continuous integration (CI) setup or DevOps workflow.
Now, with automation testing, these measurements co-exist within the rest of the code. It enables you to measure the quality of a vast code base within a few minutes by praising the source code during an automated build phase. Automation is much more potent than our expectations; if implemented and utilized correctly, it could do wonders for the agile development lifecycle.
7. Reduce Costs of Failure
Cost is an essential factor to consider whenever it comes to any investment in the SDLC. Even being considered an expensive affair, automation testing could bring the most value to your agile methodology. The initial cost of starting with automation is not too costly; as you move further, the costs might go up. These costs are nothing compared to the outcomes that automation offers.
But, the costs of adapting are not as high as you think, mainly if you use open-source automation tools and frameworks. Once it is up and running in your test cycle, it will have reduced costs, as it could be used for multiple products. And if you want to consider automation as a valuable asset to your agile testing, look at the cost of failure that happens with manual testing.
Automation testing can entirely transform the way you execute tests in your agile testing. But, it requires a reliable and cost-efficient automation testing tool that can fulfill all your agile testing requirements. For instance, LambdaTest is an excellent automation tool that works with Selenium and other testing frameworks for continuous integration and product delivery.
What to Automate First?
In agile methodology, automation testing starts with the development phase and works hand-in-hand. That doesn’t mean you can begin testing on anything.
After developing a test automation strategy, most QAs think about automating regression tests. But, that’s not a justified approach. It is not recommended to test everything right away because manual testing also plays a vital role in agile development. Therefore, it’s crucial to determine what to automate first for an efficient, agile methodology.
You can consider the following factors while determining the phases that need to be automated first:
· Functions that will be used frequently by users
· The critical functionality of the business
· Different configurations where tests will run across various configurations
· Test cases where it is easy to get the expected results
· Regression tests that will be executed repeatedly
Wrap Up
Automation is highly beneficial for agile testing because it fills the collaboration gaps between the developers and testers and allows them to work closely on a software product delivery cycle. However, most businesses are still confused about whether they should invest in automation or not. This article talked about seven reasons that define why you should implement automation in the agile testing process.