What are the advantages and disadvantages of automation testing?
Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation Testing
Advantages:
1. Reduces Time and Cost:
Automated tests are quicker to execute and require less time as compared to manual testing because human intervention is not required for execution and also no interpretation or analysis is required for reporting results which can be automated as well.
2.Enables Repeatability:
Automated tests are repeatable. For example, they can be run any number of times with the same results thereby reducing the chances of human error while executing tests again and again manually which otherwise can lead to different results every time due to human errors like wrong execution, misreading, or misunderstanding the requirement, etc.
3.Enables Parallelization:
Automated tests can be run in parallel thereby reducing total execution time as compared to manual testing where results have to be monitored individually which takes more time as compared to automated testing.
4.Enables Consistent Results:
Automated tests are consistent i.e. they will always produce the same results for the given input thereby keeping the result reporting consistent and eliminating the chances of human errors like wrong interpretation, misreading, or misunderstanding the requirements.
Also, less time is necessary for analyzing the results and preparing reports as there is no human involvement in interpreting or analyzing the results.
Disadvantages:
1. Automated tests need maintenance:
Automation tests need to have maintenance at regular intervals to keep them up-to-date with the latest changes in code and application. Also, it requires a team of experienced resources to maintain the automated tests and execute them regularly to make sure that they are in good working condition.
2. Automated tests require appropriate tools:
Automation tests need an appropriate tool like Selenium IDE, Selenium Server, etc. Which have to have configuration appropriately. Perhaps before execution and these tools also have a limited scope of testing as they only help in automating web application testing and are not capable of automating desktop applications, mobile applications, etc.
Also setting up these tools needs a team of experienced resources which can lead to an overall increase in maintenance cost as well as operational cost.
3. Automated tests might not find certain defects:
Automated tests are not able to find certain bugs like rendering defects, JavaScript exceptions, etc. because these types of defects require human intervention for their discovery which automated testing tools cannot provide. You can discover these defects only by manual testing. Therefore automation testing cannot replace manual testing completely; because manual testing is still necessary after automation testing to ensure defect-free software delivery.
Automated testing tools are not capable of handling all types of testing like load and performance testing, stress testing, security testing, etc.
So these tests need to be in execution manually. Maybe because automation testing is not capable of handling these tests where human intervention is necessary for their execution. Also these types of tests have to depend on the infrastructure and configuration which needs to be handled manually.
4. It might not be able to handle complex test cases:
Automated tests cannot be useful to execute complex test cases. Perhaps because they might fail to handle them; or might not be capable of fully covering them. Another reason is the execution of some test cases can take a lot of time due to which they might fail or might not execute properly. Therefore, these test cases need to be in execution manually after automation testing; if there are no alternative automation testing tools available for execution.
