3 Ways to Successfully Implement Automated Testing

The average business operates on a large volume of devices and software solutions every day. Any upset can create bottlenecks, backlogs, or other barriers that slow the company down. With all this technology, businesses need better ways to ensure all software is up to snuff. Although manual quality assurance testing can do this, and undoubtedly still has a place in software testing, it can take up both time and resources from your tech department. Testing fatigue is real!

Moral of the story: Companies can switch to a third option—automated testing—when looking to record what your system is doing at all times while also documenting its unique specifications. Maintaining a proper automated testing program can save a ton of resources for the business. In fact, one survey found automated testing practices led to faster testing cycles, improved test coverage, and increased awareness of product bugs.

Benefits That Come With Test Automation

Test automation technology can help quality assurance teams in myriad ways. When implemented properly, it can run tests around the clock, reducing the burden on the QA team of routine testing tasks and cutting down test script development efforts. Beyond that, it can run thousands of tests simultaneously, ensuring they’re done consistently every time.

Those automated tests also can increase your team’s confidence in new releases of applications, software, and other technologies by taking human knowledge limitations out of the equation and eliminating human error typically inherent in testing.

The testing group should always be independent of the development group to reduce bias and error. Think about it: Systems of checks and balances aren’t just for the government. The person who inspects your house has to be different from the person who built it. Your QA teams also need unbiased, outside views of your systems; outside or crowdsourced testing can provide those valuable independent views. The quick discovery of defects, bugs, or design flaws ensures customer satisfaction and saves you development money in the long run.

In short, test automation or crowdsourcing can minimize the routine, time-consuming tasks repeated before and after every software release, which frees up developers and testers for higher-value work. Letting your people focus on the right tasks also improves your cost management, as IT teams won’t be wasting hours checking their work and can spend those hours developing new solutions. Many companies know this and are already investing in test automation: The global market for automation testing is expected to reach almost $91 billion by the end of the decade. But although efforts are growing, many are still unsure how best to add increased test automation resources to their arsenals. 

Best Practices for Implementing Test Automation

To create a seamless onboarding process for new test automation software, CTG recommends these three steps:

1. Create a Clear Strategy—And Find the Right Tools to Support It

When devising a test automation strategy, organizational leadership needs to develop clear goals and a realistic road map of what it wants to achieve within a timeline that accounts for all necessary learnings and established prerequisites. CTG can do much of this for you. We evaluate your current test environment to find any risks, obstacles, and gaps. From there, we build a road map as the first step in your long-term automation strategy. This proactively brings in resources to prepare the staff for a future in test automation.

Next, we recommend the right automation tools, which have plug-and-play capabilities for business process testing and record movements throughout applications. This preserves legacy information on how employees are using the software to identify gaps where the applications are underutilized. You might also find you need digital solutions beyond what your in-house developers can build themselves. If so, we can help you develop the information management capabilities necessary to drive innovation through no-code or low-code development and supply you with a partner to co-create with you.

2. Initiate the Right Plan of Attack

To implement test automation software smoothly, your team should take an Agile approach—developing iteratively and reevaluating often—as opposed to trying to do everything all at once. Make sure to include a governance committee and standard policies to enforce the usage of an automation testing program in all projects and deployments. Think about what can be automated to free up resources while keeping in mind that not everything is right for automation testing.

Avoid the urge to automate every business process upfront. By selectively implementing automation, you give employees more time to adjust to the new technology and help the business fiscally. You should prioritize where you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck while focusing on security, access-level permissions, and compliance. Leadership support is key with any project that requires a governance structure to maintain a high level of quality and ROI.

3. Support the Team for Continued Growth

Automation requires constant improvements, and test automation technology continues to learn as it is fed more data. Your team should understand modern tools, technologies, and testing techniques. That’s why CTG provides training to ensure your team can keep up with this evolution. Enlisting a managed service for testing keeps people in their day jobs rather than stretched thin between their job responsibilities and testing duties. When a team adopts test automation technology, it benefits the organization from a cost management perspective because leadership doesn’t have to worry about moving employees over to support testing and detract from software development and innovation.

That helps teams keep up with changing technologies while also keeping employees comfortable and confident in their work. And by developing workflow best practices and documentation, even employees who don’t understand all the business’s ins and outs can still be pulled in with solidified organizational knowledge when needed.

Test automation is the future. It reduces mistakes while increasing productivity and quality. To learn more about how to ensure your organization’s testing capabilities are keeping up with the pace of change, view our webinar on “Essential Testing Strategies to Boost Digital Transformation and Agile Development.”

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