Understanding Test Automation for Web Applications
Most, software applications these days are written as web-based applications to be run in an Internet browser. Such that the effectiveness of testing these applications varies widely among companies and organizations. Today many organizations are using some form of Agile methodology, test automation is frequently becoming a requirement for software projects. We can define test automation as using a software tool to run repeatable tests against the application to be tested.
There are many advantages to test automation – Repeatability of the tests and speed at which the tests can be executed. Various commercial and open-source tools available for assisting with the development of test automation. Selenium is possibly the most widely-used open-source solution. Test automation has specific advantages for improving the long-term efficiency of a software team’s testing processes. Such that, test automation supports:
- Frequent regression testing
- Rapid feedback to developers
- Virtually unlimited iterations of test case execution
- Support for Agile and extreme development methodologies
- Disciplined documentation of test cases
- Customized defect reporting
- Finding defects missed by manual testing
