Its common knowledge at this point to know that software testing and quality assurance are important aspects of a software development lifecycle. With the tides turning more towards automating test cases in issue tracking tools, the ease and flexibility of performing these QA analyses have progressed the practice further than before. Automation provides an easier learning curve with minimal time and effort in testing. So while it serves as having a revolutionary impact in testing, it can often become tricky to perform projects due to difficulty in managing test automation resources and test cases effectively.

How can you ensure the effective management of your test automation projects and get the desired productivity at the same time? Standardizing your practices is one way of going about this.

What is Test Automation?

Test automation is just the act of utilizing programming to test programming. A computerized experiment comprises a progression of orders that execute the means or steps of a test, just as any information required for the test and the normal outcome. For example, rather than an individual physically testing a login interaction by entering a progression of usernames and passwords, an automated experiment presents the usernames and passwords to the application under test (AUT), looks at the normal outcomes to the actual outcomes to decide if the test passed or failed, and makes a report summing up the aftereffects of the test. Mechanization is ideal for experiments that will be run on numerous occasions.

Why use Test Automation?

Test automation is only the demonstration of using programming to test programming. A computerized test includes a movement of orders that execute the methods or steps of a test, similarly to any data needed for the test and the typical result. For example, as opposed to an individual truly testing a login connection by entering a movement of usernames and passwords, a mechanized trial presents the usernames and passwords to the application under test (AUT), takes a gander at the typical results to the real results to choose if the test passed or fizzled, and makes a report summarizing the eventual outcomes of the test. Motorization is ideal for tests that will be run on various events.

Let’s look at 5 ways you can successfully manage your test automation efforts.

1. Plan Test Cases and Test Suites

The primary thing before starting test automation is to plan your test cases and test suites. Beginning test automation without complete planning of test cases may result in uncertainty and unexpected results thanks to the non-availability of correct steps and test scenarios. Planning of test cases and test suites are just as important for managing the test assets for future use. If the test plans are brought to the developers, it also helps in focusing more on the development and testing efforts in the right direction, getting rid of the unnecessary and lesser important processes.

2. Centralize Test Assets

In order to enable effective management of your automated test projects, it's also important that you simply centralize all of your test assets through a standard repository for quicker and smoother access. Centralization of test assets will help remove the overheads of the distributed resources, plus it can assist you to share resources with development teams. With centralization, you'll also organize your test assets to take care of their integrity and reusability for future projects.

3. Differentiate Test Objects

For successful test automation projects, separate the good test objects from the bad ones. This may assist you to run tests faster improve the testing process, reduce costs and time for test designing. On the opposite hand, it'll also assist you to remove the repetitive test execution in order that you'll spend longer on test design, drive repeatability of regression tests and achieve better test coverage.

4. Validate and Remove Outdated Test Cases

With time, applications undergo changes so as to accommodate future requirements, which suggest you would like to validate and alter test cases to suit these requirements. Performing validity checks after every release or software update also will assist you to keep your tests compatible with new changes introduced within the software application.
Along with this, it's also important to get rid of test cases that are not any longer compatible with the software. This may reduce the value of managing outdated and unnecessary test suites and simplify future test executions.

5. Separate Test Architecture

Lastly, separate your test architecture and libraries from your issue tracking tool. This may assist you to manage and document test cases clearly and simply with minimum effort. Separating test architecture from the tool also will ensure their reusability along with different projects, tools, and environments.

Benefits of Test Automation

1. Fast Result-

The critical advantage of automation testing is the capacity to execute more tests in less time, along these lines giving an important input to advancement groups to help decide if programming is prepared for discharge. This input can start from the get-go in the product advancement life cycle through computerized unit tests when the expense to determine an imperfection is moderately low.

2. Time and cost saving-

Automation can extraordinarily reduce the time and cost of programming testing. In constant mix conditions, computerized relapse experiments can be set off naturally for code changes as soon they are looked into the store. Automated interface/API tests and framework level tests can run for the time being and in equal when framework assets are freer. In summary, automation makes it conceivable to run more tests all the more frequently to build code inclusion, expanding certainty that the application is prepared for discharge.

3. Quality-

Automated testing permits more tests to be executed for an application in less time, expanding test inclusion as well as liberating test faculty to perform really testing and exploratory testing. Also, test-first advancement approaches, for example, acknowledgment test-driven turn of events (ATDD) and conduct-driven turn of events (BDD) helps guarantees that an application has the correct usefulness to meet client prerequisites. Prior testing joined with expanded test inclusion improves trust in the nature of programming delivered.