Automated testing is an extension of the testing idea, which provides a "tentacle" for test engineers, and its situation can be regarded as a special tool, but in essence, automated testing is still a kind of idea.
By the way, in a narrow sense, automated testing refers to automated testing based on GUI, while unit testing and API testing, have you ever thought about how to do it manually without any special tools? So they are born into the category of test automation.
Are you looking for automated testing tools for Web applications or mobile applications? If it's a mobile application, is it hybrid, native, or PWA? Scripting languages are also an important factor in many cases because mobile automated testing tools do not support all languages. Therefore, if you use JavaScript to develop applications, it is not recommended to use UFT for test automation. In this case, use flexible tools for scripting languages such as Selenium.
Many automation tools for testing support free software frameworks such as Selenium and Appium. Framework integration helps reduce testing efforts and increase collaboration between teams. Tool integration forms an ecosystem of collaborative efforts that helps with object identification, error logging, test case management, report sharing, and shared repositories.
The ease of adoption can be measured by the skills and learning curve required to use the tool. This is a bonus point if there are resources available on the Internet to easily learn the functionality of the tool. In addition, community support should be good, which would be an advantage if an active community had a general understanding of the complexity of the tool. We have observed that the installation and learning process of some tools and frameworks is also very long. But in general, teams should be able to use the tool easily with their own skills or experience.
Most automation tools for testing provide flexible scripting options. It allows the test team to write test scripts in the preferred language. Good test automation tools help improve the reusability of test components and provide the flexibility of scripts that can be reused between projects. Scripting time with an object identity, script execution speed, and support for CI/CD tools such as Jenkins are usually considered before selecting a tool.
If the test team is using test cases or management tools, the team will prefer automated tools that can be easily integrated into these tools. It helps to properly manage the application development lifecycle. Keyword-driven or data-driven automation frameworks should be easily integrated into any data source. It is very convenient if the tool easily provides connections to different data sources.
The analysis report forms the basis of test automation because it provides traceability to the process. automation tools for testing must provide customizable dashboards to view different types of reports shared among teams. The traceability of real-time reports ensures functional verification and effective test coverage. Quality metrics such as test progress, defect density, and test execution status allow you to maintain quality at every stage of continuous testing. It is very convenient to use good automation tools to analyze the results to identify errors and to conduct root cause analysis.
It's best to choose open source tools, but not every open source automation tool has all the features you might need. Even if you choose a proprietary licensing tool, you need to figure out how much you need to spend on maintenance. Some companies provide real-time support and training for quality programs. Therefore, you may need to upgrade to take advantage of these services. If you only want to perform automation on different computers, there is also something called a runtime license. In addition, there are options for node locking licenses for a single computer and concurrent floating licenses for using the tool on multiple systems.
