Automated Software Testing QA
Automate and augment your company existing QA and software development operations
Engineering outcomes
Investing in automation
Quality assurance is a critical part of a technology product’s success, and automated software testing tools are a highly effective way to increase testing coverage on a custom software product. The software that conducts automated testing not only runs programmed tests, which are highly efficient, but also compares the actual results with expected results and generates detailed reports about tests and key metrics, and allows development teams to understand if parts of an application are not working properly.
Advantages and strengths of automated software testing
Through the use of outsourced automated QA development, quality assurance teams can conduct software tests quickly and shorten software development lifecycles. Software releases become faster, and end up being of higher quality as a result of the implementation of automated testing. However, while automation testing can be highly useful, it is not a replacement for manual testing. Certain types of tests and applications need to be QA’d manually, and even the tests that can benefit from automation can still require human intervention in certain ways.
Ideal use cases
Tasks that require automation testing
A critical part of efficient quality assurance processes is leveraging the right type of testing for the appropriate use case and scenario. Automation testing should be used and matched accurately to the tasks that require automation and manual testing should run in parallel for the operations and tasks that aren’t easily automated. A good example of something that can be automated would be validations for certain fields in a form or payment processing process, while something that should remain manually tested would be responsive designs across device size for a web or native application.
Why Companies Need Outsourced Automated QA Development
Companies that come to our development team for help with automation testing or outsourced QA services usually have one or more of the following needs they hope to remedy
Inconsistent software quality
Bugs, gaps, and unreliable systems that cause inefficiencies.
Inadequate testing coverage
A resource gap resulting in insufficient testing coverage.
Scarce experience
Lack of experience with automated testing and an understanding of its benefits.
Resource optimization
Reduce QA overhead with outsourcing
Quality assurance can take significant time, and companies that regularly develop software products need to reduce the time spent fixing bugs and releasing new features that cause painful functionality regressions. Having an experienced outsourced team solely dedicated to quality can help reduce the time and overhead needed to release new applications, versions and features. For example, regression testing takes up a large percentage of the overall testing time for a development team, and this is an area of QA that we often see outsourced to a specialized QA team.
Leverage our resources
Efficiency at scale
Because outsourced software testing can greatly reduce the time taken by a development team that also needs to also fill QA responsibilities, products are able to get to production much faster. Additionally, more tests can be run overall, and run during off-hours when human employees are not present resulting in overall increased quality control.
Structuring success
Choosing the right team of professionals
Adequately experienced QA professionals can be hard to find and they can require large salaries. And with that being said, the cost of not hiring adequate QA staff for an application can be even higher, in terms of mistakes and bugs that lead to poor quality software releases and dissatisfied and churning customers. If companies outsource automated QA development, once properly set up, it can run large batches of tests with little risk, thus saving companies time and resources of payroll, ultimately resulting in benefits such as higher customer retention, increased team specialization, and organizational efficiencies. Higher quality software products with fewer bugs are the result.
Partner with us
Schedule a call to know how our automated testing process allows increased efficiencies and more reliable software version releases for your company
What is the Automated Software Testing Process?
An overview into the process of setting up automated testing solutions
Diverse applications
Automated testing range of possibilities
Most types of custom software applications can utilize automated testing in various ways. Different test cases require different types of tests, often requiring different testing frameworks, but generally most automated testing processes have the same structure and patterns that are used to set up and execute automated tests on a given project. These are the key stages in the testing process:
A methodical process
The before and after of automated software testing
The testing process always begins with identifying the testing subjects, fields, and operations, and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the application at hand. Once we have a good understanding of the project and its architecture, we can start researching designing the appropriate tests for the parts of the application that needs to be tested. There are several different types of automated testing solutions so, this part of the project and set up includes defining and benchmarking quality goals and objectives.
Moving forward
QA strategy and implementation
Once we’ve completed the first step of understanding, researching, and outlining the goals for improved software quality assurance, we can move on to developing and implementing the test scripts. Test tasks and objectives are broken up into those that should be automated and those that should be handled manually by a QA engineer. This process also includes defining success and failure cases, and the deliverables of each respective test. Once these concepts are defined, the right tool can be selected for each test.
Automated Test Types to Meet Requirements
Types of quality assurance tools that help us with manual and automated software testing
Modular testing tools
Tools with a modular testing framework use test scripts that reduce redundancy by performing many independent, short tests.
Data-driven tools
Tools with data-driven testing frameworks use test scripts that function with multiple datasets and offer wide, in-depth coverage with relatively few tests.
Keyword-driven tools
Tools with keyword-driven frameworks use tables to define keywords for execution methods and test functions.
Linear scripting tools
Tools with linear scripting run simple tasks in linear fashions, and are best suited for simple applications.
What happens after testing
Performance review
The development framework will therefore determine which tool is often best for the project at hand. After testing, qualified QA developers can review the process to see that everything worked as intended. Test scripts can be saved and reused in the future, often at recurring intervals to ensure constant performance and functionality.
Automation Testing Within a QA Strategy
Defining when automation testing should and should not be used:
Intentional strategy
When companies outsource automated QA development, they should understand the thought process that goes into designing and strategizing the automation for different applications. Different test tools are suited better to some kinds of tests than for others.
| Tedious and/or lengthy test cases | Newly designed test cases |
| Repeatedly executed test cases | Test cases that have requirements that are subject to frequent change |
| - | Ad hoc test cases |
Why Hire Asymm for Outsource Automated QA Development?
For companies seeking to outsource automated QA development services
Exceeding expectations
Extensive experience setting up and conducting automated tests
We focus on the client’s overarching product strategy and understand how to fit quality standards into their roadmap and organizational goals. We have the expertise to understand and advise our clients on comprehensive testing strategies and develop them accordingly. If you want to learn more about Outsourced automated QA development, schedule a call with us today.
