How would you decide if an automated testing team is the best in the market? In case you decide to switch to automated testing, is it viable to seek an automated testing team or should you welcome an automation expert to join hands with your manual testers? Here, we will talk about our experience in both the aforementioned cases. Furthermore, we will also narrate our journey to automated testing.
A team is a crucial and deciding factor, the one in the hands of which lies in the future, the one to make the distinction between the high-quality test automation and the inferior one. It is clear; they are the ones who get the job done, so no matter how you frame the strategy or what your target is, it is they, who will proceed to get the work done.
While choosing automated testers, you have two alternatives to choose from: take a look.
Alternative #1 ? TRAIN MANUAL TESTERS
It is a known fact that working with people we already know and trust is highly reliable. They already know about the goals, the project, and are brisk, as they have already dealt with the codes. One more advantage of working with them is they do not ask surplus questions. The important question is; are they reliable or experienced enough to work in automation?
When should you choose this option?
By a long shot when education/training is concerned, it is supposed to take a significant amount of time as well. Hence, it is advisable to look into all the aspects before investing in the matter. From our side of the experience, it is wise and preferable to outsource the in-house team to start with, since you are much likely to derive the benefit from their expertise more often than simply on this case.
In case if it turns out to be a remote team, then your investment is supposedly at a risk. If this case follows, you should hire an alternative, which preferably comes with a pair of well-versed automated testers.
Besides, alternative #1 is a solution in the longer run. Hence, we recommend you to get in touch and hire a team that is professionally dedicated to automation if your projects need urgent attention. Moreover, we would suggest the act of educating a preferable step in the case of long-term investment.
The problem:
To start with, let us suppose you have a great team of manual testers and they can be any out of the two; a group of in-house testers or an outsourcing team with whom you have been dealing for a longer time. It automatically turns out that they all know about the project, the product, the goal, furthermore, they are in a well-planned management cycle and enjoy good communication with you. However, despite this expertise that they hold, what if they still lack an automated testing background? What should you do?
Set a goal:
You need not bother with all your manual testers to get automation skills. Pick a couple of testers and focus on giving them all the necessary training and knowledge.
How to start?
Before getting to invest, set the team. Overall, it is they, who will learn a new skill and it is their career we are discussing. Accordingly, consider the accompanying perspectives:
Complete team commitment: Before starting the process of educating, you will need to check on if the ones to get the training are equally interested and excited in the process of learning as you are. The testers should be eager and excited to learn new skills. For this, you?ll need to have a healthy conversation with them, in which you should explain to them the benefits of learning the skill, make them understand that educating them is a vital and a huge investment from both sides, they should learn the fact that while the company is supporting them with all the knowledge and resources they need, it?s their responsibility, too, to work with their full capacity and deliver for the longer hours.
Evaluate possibilities: You do not have to aim at providing the educational support for developing the automation background to all the manual testers. You can shape a group of volunteers who are happy to write the unit tests and experiment with the frameworks. You need not bother with each tester to be in the league.
Enthusiasm for automation: Commitments, the feeling of responsibility and real passion or interest are different things. If your team of testers is committed to the team, their goals may not necessarily reflect their interest or passion in automation. A few people simply do not have it in them ? and it is all right. Communicate with the project managers and testers. Perhaps, you will discover some of them are cheerful working manually.
Supervisor: The most straightforward and definite approach to drift from manual to automated testing is to welcome an automation expert and have them manage the procedure. Welcome an accomplished automated tester and talk about the accompanying issues:
1. Objectives and planning: No doubt, you are here because you have an in-hand project, which needs automated testing skills. Call upon and welcome your ?supervisor? to investigate and address the problems that need the focus.
2. Required instruments: To change to the automation, an important task to do is to choose the correct tools and systems/frameworks. Rather than exploring about this all alone, better utilize the counsel of an accomplished automated tester (expert).
3. Cost: Changing to automation requires some serious resources, assets, and time (you will need a whole lot of software and hardware to set up the surroundings as well as system/framework and drivers to automate the testing) so talk about it in advance.
4. Management details: Substantially, you cannot solidify every one of your undertakings and errands just so testers can learn. Regardless you need to deal with many problems that need to be addressed and holding up is not a choice. That is the reason we prescribe to begin the switching procedure with a couple of analyzers then gradually adding more to the number of educated testers.
Build up the right metrics: At this stage, you have successfully switched to automation and the testers are well updated by automated testing skills. However, the tenure of planning does not end here. Now you need to ask yourselves some vital questions and plan accordingly.
How would you register that the group is going the correct way? In what way will you decide whether every one of these endeavors and investments truly improves the procedure? You can surely answer this without a doubt by building test metrics.
At this stage, you have successfully switched to automation and the testers are well updated by automated testing skills.
1. Metric ? Test count
The most important and best benefit of automation is that it provides the privilege of writing a larger number of tests in a smaller time. The least complex approach to evaluate if this is extremely the situation is to tally the number of tests written on each level: Regression, GUI, Smoke testing and so forth.
2. Metric ? Test efficiency
More often, quantity and quality do not come as a package. The quantity is significant however, it does not represent the quality.
3. Metric ? Time and resource management
Weighing up the outcomes is a good thing; however, remember to compare them with the expense. The amount you picked up contrasted with what was spent. Is the evaluated number higher? Is there an opportunity if it will increment after some time? If it turns out that the response to this inquiry is true, you. A proven example: Microsoft Azure Automated Testing Strategy
Alternative #2 ? FIND AN TEST AUTOMATION TEAM
In alternative #1 we discussed switching to automation by educating the in-house manual testers with required automation skills. However, there are times when this alternative is not reasonable. In case you are working on a project, which you would anticipate to automate, it will be reliable to use an accomplished automated testing team or say a ?ready-to-use? team. Moreover, if in the past case you participate with testers you know and trust, here you have the whole becoming more acquainted with one another voyage ahead. That is the reason it is pivotal to put a great deal of thought before picking to an automated testing team.
Now we are going to share some major takeaways for picking an automated testing team that we proudly learned and claim to have proven by our cases and experiences. To avoid the mistakes we made and failures we faced, we learn from our lessons.
These are five takeaways for selecting an automated testing team:
1 ? HIRE A TEAM HAVING AN AUTOMATION ARCHITECT
Every team that has committed to fulfilling a common goal needs direction and control; this requires the availability of automation architects. Automation architects are the ones managing the process, putting up the strategy and assessing the results. For this, get a team with at least 1-2 architects, does not matter if the team is small, but having an accomplished architect in the team pays off.
2 ? CHOOSE A TEAM WITH EXPERTISE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The most common and core difference between automated testing and manual testing is that automation is software development. For getting the best out of automation, you need to follow best automation practices, consisting of systematic code reviews, pattern design, constant support, and maintenance to design tools and frameworks. Thus making sure that the team comes with knowledge of some of the best automation practices will certainly help yield good results.
3 ? IMPORTANCE OF TEAM
When discussing software automation, we mostly focus on the significance of the correct instruments. In reality, there is no immaculate tool; they have glitches and miss bugs. Moreover, tools do not understand your goals and your project scenario. The team is the one that deals with selecting the perfect tool specifically employed for the task. The whole idea sums up the point that investing in the right team of testers is more crucial than tools and frameworks.
4 ? KEEP THE ABILITIES OF TESTERS AND PROJECT REQUIREMENTS IN MIND BEFORE CHOOSING A TOOL
On the off chance that your group knows Java, they?ll be progressively open to working with a device that offers Java to write scripts. In any case, if C++ controls your task, better pick a group that knows C++.
5 ? PRODUCT ALWAYS COMES FIRST
The primary precedence in automated testing is project ? team ?tools. The first step you need to take is analyzing your product, following which arrives the team selection, the one that can get the work done and finally comes the selection of tools that testers are OK with. We often share our views and experience of working with the tools with the clients so that it is easier for them to select the tool.
Everything starts with an idea of a product. If your conscience is clear, only then you can aim at the right goal, search for capable testers for your team and choose the tools. If you are working on an app or a web page, you should better know the browsers you want it to support. The same thing goes with an application, think about its functions and operating system. The crucial fact is the more you know about technologies used for development; the easier it would be to devise a testing strategy.