If you spend even a little time around the app development arena, you would have heard about automation testing. But, is it really as necessary as we’re lead to believe? Today we examine the facts.
What Is Automation Testing?
Automation testing allows you to repeat test procedures automatically, which means you can check the results of actions within the app. There is a range of these tools available, both open source and heavily paid apps.
Market studies suggest that a large number of android app developers and their iPhone counterparts, who now rely on automation testing during the app development process and many will sell the end user on the essential nature of such testing. Many stand firmly by this belief, encouraging you, the client, to believe they will only reap benefits from the procedure and that it absolutely cannot be missed.
What Does Automation Testing Do within the App Development Process?
The primary aim of automation testing, within the app development process, is to make things cheaper and faster. Let’s examine each promise regarding automation testing and see how it stacks up.
Better Accuracy
Manual testing is, to put it bluntly, boring. And, a lack of human attention during the test process is how errors creep in. Automating this process ensures that the same degree of attention is paid throughout the whole process, while nothing is missed. This makes an automated procedure a great choice.
Keeps Costs Down
The better you can produce an app, without impacting the costs, the better your end product will be. Software tests are a time-and-resource consuming part of the app development process, but are still critical. Automating the testing process means you will save some time and expenses on this cycle, ensuring that the costs stay lower and time is not wasted by repeating the same tests every time there is any source code modifications.
A Better Testing Process
Automated testing allows you to check the code once in-depth, while still reaping the benefits multiple times. Internal programming, memory contents, files and tables can all be set to be checked every time, with no urge to cut corners to speed up the process. This allows for better coverage every time.
It also allows the app development process to have more flexibility. This is achieved since the tools are generally developed by people who have been in the industry since its start, meaning that they are developed with the utmost capability.
Provided you choose well, you should get a lot of future-proofing from the automated tester you choose. Likewise, a one-time investment can be reused over and over again for each project, withminor tweaks, making the products reuseable over time.
Early Recognition of Bugs
Not having to manually test means that the developer has a lot of incentive to test more, since it is easier and quicker to implement. This means that you are very likely to catch potentially crippling bugs much sooner in the app development process and avoid costly rewrites down the line. You can also boost the volume of testing you do very simply; tests can even be run on multiple machines, not just the development machine, without the chance of errors creeping in.
Reduced Man Hours
Automation obviously reduces the man-hours involved in a project, allowing you to better use the manpower you have and not tie up someone who is experienced in app development in simplistic testing routines.
Likewise, tests can be run at “inconvenient” times, such as when you otherwise would have been off the clock for development (i.e., overnight). This both helps the developers make better use of their development time and makes accessing results with international clients simpler and easier.
Also, the elimination of boring, repetitive work was the crux of the industrial revolution. So, there should be very little surprise that it plays such a strong and vital role in the digital age too.
Using automated testing in your app development process helps streamline and improve the app development process, while cutting down costs. It just makes sense to use it.
Do you use automated testing procedures in the apps you have developed? Does it sway your choice of app developers? Let us chat about it below.
Raymond Bilger 
Clare Louise