Looking Beyond Record And Playback For Automation Testing
Tags: automationtesting, testing
Published: 2019-10-16 12:33:04

With the modern technology bringing changes in almost every major industry that matters, the IT industry is bitten by the test automation bug as every task is being evaluated to see how they can be ‘automated’ in a better way to reduce the running cost, time, also the effort.

The scriptless coding approach has the ability to speed up the software development process and help testers to participate more on automation testing and maximize the reusability of the code. Scriptless automation testing solves the coding/scripting related problems that are generally faced by manual testers. Test script development demands a lot of time in automation testing which is one of the biggest challenges for QA teams. Hence it is better to opt for a scriptless framework for automation as it makes the test automation less complex.

<b> Why Scriptless Automation Testing? </b>

<b><i>It Reduces the Time Spent on Automation</b></i>
Using scriptless automation testing can help QA teams increase their automation speed for large test suites by as much as 1.5 times. As the delivery speed increases, the “go-to market” time decreases which help release major software releases. With scriptless automation testing, the automation time gets reduced by 40% which can be utilized in maximizing the test coverage and release better products.

<b><i>Eliminates Coding</b></i>
Scriptless automation helps the manual tester to build script with the use of actions and objects which gives an option to change the technologies anytime as per the need. A well-designed scriptless automation testing tool can hide the complexities related to the tool and language.

<b><i>Offers Easy Maintenance and Reliability</b></i>
One of the best benefits of using scriptless automation testing is that it allows maintaining scriptless test suites easily. Automation tests built using scripts often fail at the maintenance phase. Reusing and maintaining code is a tedious task when it comes to Script-based automation testing tools unlike scriptless automation tests built with well-designed scriptless testing tools offer easy maintenance and has self-healing features that automatically takes care of changing UI attributes.

<b><i>Gives the Ability to Insert Code</b></i>
Scriptless tools give access to incorporate all the possible test scenarios. A few scriptless automation testing tools that I have checked help create custom functions which allow us to make custom test steps customized as per the needs.

<b><i>Ensures Repeated Testing of Product</b></i>
Going scriptless open the gates for business analysts and subject matter experts to comment on automated testing environments, who stayed away from it due to complex coding. It ensures that the product is being tested repeatedly.

<b><i>Saves Money</b></i>
Generally, companies have to spend a lot of money on training resources on scripting skills. By going scriptless, they can easily save this money and time spent on training by automation experts. Also, the scriptless automation testing can be easily used by the manual testers which ensure high capacity utilization of their knowledge.

Does opting scriptless automation testing become a problem for skilled automation engineers? No, it doesn’t. The expertise of automation engineers can be used in white box testing, integration and unit testing and designing of the test suits.
So, we have already seen how scriptless test automation is proving its worth by making automation much faster and more usable.

<b>Look Beyond Just Record and Playback</b>
As we know that record and playback is an easy way to automate the manual testing processes as it requires no programming knowledge. With the record and playback, we can perform manual testing without writing long scripts as record feature can record those actions. Record and playback feature is critical for the software development cycle as it accelerates the testing process and makes it more efficient. But it is important to understand that a scriptless automation framework is not just about record and playback. Record and playback just give a working script with a hardcoded value of inputs to the user which has to be customized later. You may read this guide that explains in detail as to <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-is-record-and-playback-not-suitable-for-enterprise-class-test-automation/">Why Record and Playback is not enough for test automation</a>. With scriptless automation testing, you can auto-generate test scripts based on the user cases on the application undergoing tests which is an advanced version of the traditional record and playback feature.

<b><i><iScriptless test automation is a more organized model wherein due to the reusable scripts, users can easily automate a majority of test cases. </b></i>

<b>How to Select the Right Scriptless Automation Tool? </b>
Keep these things in mind while adopting a scriptless automation tool –

1. The test automation tool should be simple, flexible and allow everyone to participate in the test automation.

2. The automation testing tool should have the ability to find an alternative element locator in case a particular element goes missing. A good scriptless automation testing tool allows you to bring more than one element locator as it reduces the effort in maintaining large scripts.

3. In some cases, we need to create similar steps for each of the test cases, hence the scriptless automation tools should have the reusable steps feature to avoid the redundant effort required in creating the same steps for each test cases.

4. The tool should have the “assertion” feature which ensures that the test fails if the result doesn’t match with the expected outcome. With this feature, you can easily find whether the test is successful or not once you are done writing the code.

5. A good scriptless automation testing tool needs to provide easy modifications such as adding, deleting or editing an existing action in a scenario so that you don’t have to re-write the entire scenario as it affects your turnaround time and quality of software.

Before the product/software release, tests need to be run across multiple browsers. Testing different scenarios on multiple browsers is a time-taking process and it takes a toll on the script authors. A good scriptless automation testing tool should also allow test authors to reuse the tests on multiple browsers and device permutations.

There are cross browser testing tools like <a href="https://saucelabs.com/">Sauce Labs</a>, <a href="https://www.browserstack.com/">BrowserStack</a> that offer dedicated testing cloud solutions. And, scriptless testing solutions like <a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma</a>, <a href="https://www.tricentis.com/">TOSCA<a/>, <a href="https://www.eggplantsoftware.com">Eggplant<a/>, etc that makes the test authoring process easy while also allowing the tests to be run on numerous device combinations on the cloud. A few tools among these allow executing tests on real devices as well. 

AI and ML are a few popular trends in Scriptless Automation Testing. NLP is a relatively new concept and is being applied in Testing as well. Testsigma is using NLP and allows automating tests in natural language which is quite easy to use and seemingly reliable.

So, if you are looking for a scriptless automation testing tool, check what type of application you are automating and what features you need. Today, Agile teams need more than just Traditional Testing Tools. It is important to look at <a href="https://dzone.com/articles/top-5-alternatives-to-selenium"> alternatives </a> to help shorten your software lifecycle and only you would know what works best for your workplace. Opt in for trial versions of both Scriptless Testing Tools and Record and Playback Tools or Selenium and understand what works best for your team!