Testing tools are increasing daily, and most claim to bring a paradigm shift in automation testing. Traditional test automation is increasingly becoming a challenge, especially with the introduction of the agile approach.
This led to the development of scriptless test automation that allows for the efficient participation of QA analysts and functional testers. Most enterprises are migrating from traditional automation testing tools that rely on written codes to a convenient scriptless automation technique.
However, regardless of the automation testing tool you decide to use, there are crucial features you must be keen on. Let’s look at some essential features testing automation services should have.
1.Control Structures
The older record and playback automation tools lacked the control structures such as conditional and loop clauses, which was a significant limitation. For example, if you need to repeat a script five times, you must record it five times and maintain each script individually.
Additionally, when doing the testing, there was no logic that you wanted to take different actions when conditions were not fulfilled. Nevertheless, a modern test automation platform can offer accelerators control structures and caters to such logistics.
2.Smart Element locators
One of the most challenging things with a test automation platform is when the tester is developed against the application. If there are any changes to the application, those automation scripts are likely to break. This applies to both codeless and coded automation solutions.
Therefore, a better and more advanced element locator is significant, especially during recording. A codeless test automation solution may gather more than one element locator.
3.Conditional Waiting
Test automation platforms that use record-and-playback tools and require pausing between every step are tedious and may lead to test-automation anti-pattern. Therefore, a more advanced method, conditional waiting, is more reliable.
This feature allows the script to pause until the condition is verified and true before proceeding to the next step. This helps to reduce the execution time of the automation suite and prevent any flaky tests.
4.Easy Assertions
Though recording a script is easy, validating some actions without assertions can be challenging. For example, when you take action, the automation platform records those actions. However, if you or any user validates actions not included in the web action, you will be required to do it with your eyes, which is inaccurate.
It’s challenging to enter or manually what is supposed to be validated. On the other hand, adding assertions helps to simplify the process as you only need to add navigational steps during the testing process.
5.Modification without Redo
Some test automation platforms did not allow you to edit the script once it was recorded. For example, after recording your script and realizing that there is a scenario to be changed or a new action must be added, you had to re-record your entire script. That is time-consuming and inconvenient.
Therefore, you must consider modification features in the test automation platform that allow you to edit the recorded script without re-recording the entire script.
6.Reusable Steps
When recording a script in the test automation platform, you will realize that some scenarios require multiple steps. Maintaining these steps in every scenario can be challenging and time-consuming.
Therefore, a test automation platform with features that allow you to update and reuse these steps is ideal and convenient. Such features are time-saving. Test automation platforms should also have features that use variables within scenarios, allowing the reuse of state between steps.
7.Cross-browser Support
Most traditional test automation platforms, such as the record-and-playback, were in the browser extension. This means they may be limited or tied to a certain browser. However, you will need to run your tests across various browsers.
A good test automation platform should allow you to record a script in a given browser and still be able to record the same on another browser.
8.Reporting
Good test automation must have adequate reporting, especially when executing hundreds of tests. In case of failure, you will not have to rerun your test to understand what happened. The reporting feature provides you with information about what happened, a video of the recording, or screenshots, which are helpful in the testing process.
9.Ability To Insert Code
The test automation should allow you to insert codes when testing the scripts. To maximize the points, you shouldn’t limit this to only one UI-specific code, like JavaScript. You can consider models such as the Test automation pyramid that help you to exercise specific actions instead of depending on UI actions only. This will help to increase the speed and reliability of the test scripts.
10.Continuous Integration
Some older Test automation lacked this essential feature. You had to keep on clicking the button to execute any test. However, with modern test automation, a key feature is continuous integration, which allows a constant and convenient deployment.
The Bottom-Line
The above-discussed features are some of the most crucial that you need to consider in a test automation platform. Such features will give you continuous delivery and flow integration. This helps to ensure better quality, shorten software lifecycles, and reduce operational costs. Some scriptless automation testing platforms allow you to schedule for a demo before doing the actual testing.
