Reasons to automate software testing [1]

There are quite a few reasons to automate. Manual testing is mundane and laborious task that can lead to human errors. Small but important details of the software to the requirements can easily be forgotten. Automated testing verifies that the developed software matches the requirements and validates that that is what the organisation wants. Automation also helps avoid the defects and failures. Many things can lead up to this, for instance, if the environments are setup incorrectly or the wrong version of software is being deployed than that will cause a bug which will mean the system will malfunction or fail.

Compatibility is also an issue when it comes to deploying a new version of software. It should be compatible with the existing software for it to run smoothly. Automation ensures this.

The other reason to automate is that there are various other non-functional parameters that need to be tested, for instance: performance, usability, security, scalability etc. These parameters are skewed and vary from person to person for the level of tolerance. So Automation would be able to provide the wide range needed.

Types of Automated Tests

The five types of automated tests are code auditing, coverage monitor, functional tests, load tests and test management.

Code Auditing [4]

This test performs automated qualification testing. It checks the compliance of code to specified standards and procedures of coding.

The code auditor verifies that the code is fulfilling code structure instructions and procedures. It looks at the module size, levels of loop nesting and prohibited constructs such as GOTO.

The code auditor checks that the coding style procedures are being followed by the coding style. That is the naming conventions for variables and files and the unreachable code lines of the program.

The auditor looks at the internal program documentation and help support sections to check if they follow the coding style procedures. The code auditor also looks at the format and the size of the comments.

Coverage Monitor [5]

This determines a quantitative measure of code coverage when the tests are run, which is an indirect measure of quality. It finds areas of software that are not using a set of test cases. It also adds more test cases to increase coverage. When implementing a given test file, it produces reports about the line coverage achieved.

It is a vital tool for white-box testing. White box testing, that is also called glass box testing, examines internal calculation paths in order to identify bugs.

Functional Tests

Functional tests are aimed at examining the overall functionality of the product. It replaces the manual black box testing. Blok box testing is a type of testing that does not consider “inner workings” of the software or its code. It only focuses on the externally visible behaviour.

The specification for this test is very detailed as every aspect of the system is being tested. Functional testing tests interfaces thus it involves clients and uses alpha testing.

Alpha tests are tests of a new software package that are performed by customers at the developer’s site.