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If you’re considering automation testing for your organization, you’re probably sick of having your employees waste time manually testing the same processes over and over again. But aside from its namesake, automation, there are many benefits of test automation besides the simple reduction of manual work.
In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 benefits of automation testing.
Let’s get started.
1. Automation testing saves time
Automation testing speeds up the testing process significantly through a few key ways:
- Tests can be conducted more rapidly with automation since they can be done in parallel and with little assistance from humans.
- Tests can be run more frequently, as machines don’t need sleep
- Automated tests require less time to maintain and fix bugs, because they’re usually more reliable than manual tests.
- Automation also facilitates shift-left and continuous testing, which helps testers find bugs earlier in the development process, preventing bottlenecks and keeping testing timelines on track
2. Automation testing improves employee morale & retention
Because automation reduces the amount of time employees spend doing tedious, repetitive tasks and frees them to focus on more important aspects of their job, it improves morale. By removing unnecessary job stressors and mindless work, organizations that embrace automation are rewarded with happier employees and higher retention rates.
Read more: Automated Software Testing: Why Do You Need It?
3. Automation testing improves efficiency
Another one of the benefits of test automation is improved efficiency. Automation enables you to test around the clock without the need for human intervention. This makes testing more efficient and effective for software development teams by streamlining processes and allowing them to focus on higher value activities. Automation testing tools also deliver more reliable results than manual testing, as they reduce the chance of human error.
4. Automation testing helps in risk reduction
Automation to more quickly identify security vulnerabilities, making it easier to address them before they become a problem. Additionally, with test automation, organizations can test all their critical business applications quickly–no trade-off needs to be made between quality and speed. With manual testing processes, organizations can test quickly—and risk low test coverage, which exposes them to risk—or test slowly and be slow to adapt.
5. Automation testing helps you stay compliant
Automation testing can help with compliance in a number of ways:
- Automated tests can be run on a regular basis to ensure that systems are functioning correctly and are in compliance with relevant regulations and standards.
- Automated tests can be used to validate that systems are configured correctly and meet required security standards.
- Automated tests can be used to verify that systems are functioning correctly and producing accurate results, which is important for compliance with regulations related to data accuracy and integrity.
- Automated tests can be used to ensure that systems are tested consistently and thoroughly, which is important for compliance with quality standards and regulations.
- Automated tests can be used to document the testing process and results, which can be helpful for demonstrating compliance to auditors and regulatory bodies.
Read more: Automation Testing Tools: Which One Is Right for You?
6. Automation testing saves money
Automated testing helps organizations save money in several ways:
- Less labor is needed to run automated tests than manual tests. Once an automated test is created, it can be run over and over again without human intervention, unlike manual testing processes.
- Automated tests can be run more frequently than manual tests, which can help to identify and fix defects early in the development process. This can help to reduce the cost of fixing defects that are discovered later in the development cycle.
- Higher productivity: Because these tests can run repeatedly on their own, software developers, QAs, and business users can spend less time on testing, and more time on critical tasks.
Read our E-Book: How to Save Money with Test Automation
Test automation also helps testers find and fix bugs earlier in the process. Fixing bugs earlier in the software development process can be up to 15X less expensive than fixing them later in the process, according to IBM.
7. Automation testing gives you a competitive advantage
Automated testing allows you to test applications much faster than manual testing, giving you an advantage over competitors who are still testing manually. Automation also helps improve code quality and reduce development costs, which can give you an edge in today's competitive market.
8. Automation testing makes reporting easier
Because automated tests can be set up to run automatically at regular intervals, automation testing helps ensure that reports are generated consistently and on schedule. Additionally, automated testing largely eliminates the need for manual data entry and documentation, which can save time and reduce the risk of errors in the reporting process. Finally, automated testing can also help to reduce the complexity of the reporting process, as it eliminates the need to create and maintain complex Excel spreadsheets or other manual reporting tools.
9. Automation testing speeds up time to market
Test automation enables a large number of tests in a short period of time, rather than having to manually perform each test. This can help identify and fix problems more quickly, allowing the product to be released to the market sooner.
Read more: Automation Testing for Oracle: The Basics
10. Automation testing increases the overall quality of the application
Automated UI testing allows developers to catch bugs sooner in the development process, which helps prevent larger issues down the line that are more expensive and time consuming to fix. Additionally, the cost savings garnered by test automation gives developers the ability to spend more time on improving the actual quality of their applications. Another one of the benefits of automation testing over manual testing is consistency: automated tests can be run consistently and repeatedly, ensuring that the software is tested under the same conditions each time. This can help identify issues that might not be caught by manual testing.
Read More: Automation Testing vs Manual Testing
Conclusion
Automation testing eliminates repetitive and tedious tasks and helps companies focus their resources on more important business activities. The benefits of automation testing are numerous but at a high level, automated testing is less expensive, faster, and provides more risk reduction than manual testing.
