Everything You Need to Know Before Starting Test Automation

Questions that you may have before learning test automation

1. WHAT IS TEST AUTOMATION?

"the meaning of test automation is setting up a test to run autonomously without human intervention.

Using machines to offload recurring tasks, and to leverage economies of scale.

Automation achieves efficiency gains and allows humans to focus on high-value tasks."

"Automation is the use of a tool; specifically to aid a human in their work. For us, as testers, it is using software to support the process of testing other software. Automation is also using a machine to perform specific tasks in a repetitive manner so that we, the human tester, don’t have to."

from Before The Code - First Steps to Automation in TESTING

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2. WHY SHOULD I LEARN TEST AUTOMATION?

Companies are much more demanding these days when hiring testers and qa analysts.

They still require testing, QA and BA skills.

But the majority of them ask also for test automation and programming as well.

The percentage of testing/QA roles that do not require automation/programming is probably less than 10%.

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3. WHY DO COMPANIES PUT SO MUCH FOCUS ON TEST AUTOMATION?

"there is an expectation that automation can achieve efficiency gains and allow

humans to focus on high-value tasks. Using tools in the different parts of the testing process helps to reach that goal. By getting efficiency gains, you can get cost containment and savings.

Also, you can improve the communication and feedback loops on the project. The more efficient you can become and the quicker you can turn around information, the happier other groups, including management, will be. The result ultimately will be delivering software of higher value to the end-user."

from Before The Code - First Steps to Automation in TESTING

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4. IS TEST AUTOMATION A MUST-HAVE SKILL OR AN OPTIONAL ONE?

You should learn it.

There are many benefits that you can get from it.

• it increases your chances of getting a new job.

• it also improves your chances of getting a job faster.

• you become more skilled and will be able to wear multiple "hats".

• you will understand more of what the developers do and how applications are being built.

• you will have better conversations with developers.

• you will get access to more job types than before: testing jobs, qa jobs also sdet jobs

• automation will allow you to focus more on complex testing scenarios

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5. IS IT TOO LATE TO LEARN TEST AUTOMATION?

Is it too late to get in shape?

Is it too late to eat better?

Is it too late to improve yourself?

It is not.

You can start any time, hopefully today.