Why has Oracle test automation changed from “nice to have” to “must to have”
Published: 2022-11-14 10:57:27

Oracle has been at the forefront of innovation, rolling out quarterly updates for its “Oracle Cloud” customers. Oracle customers get new features and functionalities to manage their business every three months efficiently. 

## Oracle Cloud quarterly updates include

- Bug fixes, security alerts, data fixes, critical patch updates
- The new tax, legal, and regulatory updates
- New upgrade scripts

Although Oracle rolls out these updates after thorough testing yet, it recommends testing since there’s a possibility that you’ve customized your instance or have integrated with third-party applications. Oracle Cloud updates can affect various functionalities, your existing configurations, key workflow approvals, custom reports, and critical integrations with other applications. So, it is recommended that you should perform regression testing to ensure business continuity.

Each Oracle Cloud quarterly update requires at least 2 rounds, making it infeasible to test it manually. Two rounds of regression testing with each update means that you must test Oracle Cloud apps at least 8X a year. Doing this manually can be very time-consuming and exposes your business to huge risks, as manual testing is plagued with inadequate test coverage.

To overcome this, you need to bring in [Oracle test automation](https://www.opkey.com/oracle). Using test automation, you can automate some of the repetitive but necessary tasks used in regression testing. It will help you keep pace with the frequency and breadth of Oracle Cloud quarterly updates. With test automation, you can easily handle frequent Oracle application changes due to updates, patching activities, and constant business process improvements.

## Benefits of Oracle test automation

- **Accelerate testing**: Unlike the case of manual testing, which is time-consuming as a single scenario requires multiple clicks, data entry and navigation through multiple screens, automated testing saves your time thanks to quick test execution and the repeatable nature of tests. Most of the steps get automated, eliminating the exhaustive involvement of users in the testing cycles. 

- **Adequate risk coverage**: In the case of manual testing, regressions are executed as per the experience of test engineers or guesses are made, exposing the business to unnecessary risks. However, Oracle test automation tools leverage AI to offer the minimum test cases that need to be executed based on the impact of the quarterly updates. It significantly reduces manual efforts of QA teams in identifying the smoke/regression tests to be run for every quarterly release. As smart regressions are based on impacted areas and risks, their execution also ensures adequate coverage.

- **Cost saving**: Automated testing helps in saving a lot of money for the company in the longer run. Not only does it reduces the amount of time required for executing tests, but it also incorporates continuous testing. As you must be aware that continuous testing is all about testing quickly, comprehensively and often, it ensures faster feedback, thus speeding up the whole development cycle. Moreover, as bugs are detected early, they can be fixed quickly. Fixing bugs in production is 15X costlier than fixing them in the initial design phase. 

- **More accuracy**: Test automation ensures error-free releases as it limits human intervention. Human testers can make mistakes during evaluation. However, automated [testing](https://www.bestinfohub.com/improve-the-quality-of-software-testing-by-using-evolutionary-testing-techniques) tools cannot as AI is used during the signing process. Additionally, automated tools consider more parameters than human testers while recommending test cases. 

## Conclusion:
Organizations should bring in test automation to keep pace with the Oracle quarterly update release cycle. Although the initial investment towards [test automation](https://www.opkey.com/) appears very high, it will save you money in the long run by freeing up business users for more critical tasks, ensuring adequate coverage, and incorporating continuous testing into your CI/CD pipeline.