Embarking on the test automation journey can be exciting, and daunting, at the same time.
It's exciting, because we all know how test automation translates into faster releases, fewer bugs, and most importantly, more bandwidth for QA teams to perform higher-value exploratory tests.
It's daunting, because building a test automation tech-stack is full of unknowns:
We wrote this article to answer those questions for you and simplify the process of embracing test automation.
Before choosing tools, clarify:
What types of testing do you need? (UI, API, performance, security, etc.)
What languages does your dev team use?
What's your CI/CD pipeline?
Do you test web, mobile, or desktop apps?
What's your team’s skill level?
Ultimately, it is not about choosing the best. It is about choosing a tool that fits.
Once you have worked out the test automation goals, decide whether you should build a test automation framework or buy a test automation tool.
Generally speaking:
Build — if it is something that distinguishes your company in the market or advances the intellectual property of the company
Buy — if it is a Line-Of-Business application that is readily available in the market
In this context of QA, both options is possible, depending on the context of your business.
If you go with the Build route, you have a wide range of test automation frameworks to choose from, including Selenium, Cypress, or Playwright.
If you go with the Buy route, you can browse through the automation testing tools available on the market to find one that fits your team's specific needs.
The final decision to choose between buy or build rests upon the QA team’s available resources, expertise, as well as the complexity of infrastructure. They may choose a hybrid option: building a testing solution for sensitive, critical components while buying a solution for other testing needs.
Read More: Katalon vs Selenium: A Comparison Between Buy vs Build
Automation testing opens up the capabilities for CI/CD pipeline integration, so this is an aspect that you must consider.
Regardless of whether you chose the Build or Buy route, make sure that the final solution seamlessly fit into your arsenal of CI/CD tools.
Your test solution should:
Plug directly into tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, or Azure DevOps
Support automated triggers, parallel execution, and reporting pipelines
Fit into your release process without requiring extensive custom workarounds
Test management is the glue that holds the entire testing flow together. Within test management, you have three major activities:
For test case management, many QA teams leverage a spreadsheet with a test case template. More dedicated teams go with XRay, or Katalon TestOps, which is a more dedicated solution. Test creation and execution is synced with a test management dashboard to make the entire process more streamlined.
Similarly, for test data management and test reporting, many QA teams also leverage Google Sheets to manage their data files, or choose a tool with these capabilities built in.
Katalon accompanies your QA team throughout the entire software testing life cycle.
With Katalon, you can write tests in 3 modes (no-code, low-code, full-code), manage tests in a centralized dashboard, schedule test runs, execute tests across environments, and generate detailed reports.
And all of that can be done for web testing, API testing, and mobile application testing. In other words, Katalon is a centralized platform for all of your testing activities.
Feature highlights:
Website: Katalon
Price: Free and flexible paid plans