Automated browser testing, simply put, is the use of automation during browser testing. Developers use automation tool sets or frameworks to execute defined tasks to test browsers and check their functionality.
Automation assists developers with time-consuming and repetitive tasks like regression or performance testing. With the advent of data science, automation tests deliver accurate results enabling testers to proactively resolve issues and ship products faster to the market.
The Importance of Automated Browser Testing
Excellent user experience is the best way to ensure your web application’s continuous usage. The best way to provide an ideal user experience is through automated cross-browser testing. However, cross-browser testing becomes challenging when an organization tries doing it manually.
First, setting up a local infrastructure is costly considering the different browsers and devices that are required for testing apps. Second, on-premise infrastructure is not always the ideal choice; thus, to make it work, you will need to invest in a device farm, which is very costly.
Third, specific applications require continuous testing when developers release new application versions. A manual tester may test version 1 of the application and identify bugs. The developers fix the bugs and release version 2 for the testers to check. There is no specific limit to how many upgrades an application may go through. Yet, each time a developer releases a new version of the app, testers need to check its entire code.
Over time this repetitive task can become tedious and can lead to errors. Automated cross-browser testing helps solve these issues while being hassle-free in setup and a cost-effective method. It is scalable, and while running tests, it maintains efficiency and accuracy.
Developers run these tests through automation frameworks to devise test scripts to validate applications. Appium is one such framework that developers should use to automate testing.
Other advantages of automated browser testing include support for parallel test execution – which helps in faster test processing, faster go-to-market, and ease of implementation.
That said, when building an effective test plan, it is always good to ensure a proper mix of manual and automated browser tests.
Seamlessly Shifting from Manual to Automated Browser – How?
Moving to automation is easy; however, start your journey by automating a few test cases, and based on your initial assessment, you can consider moving more test cases and increasing the frequency of browser testing automation. It is always possible to shift back to manual testing if automated browser testing isn’t bringing the desired results.
Additionally, using analytics will help you understand your users better. These insights can help you target specific web application and browser areas that require attention.
What to Automate?
Regression Testing: Regression testing is a repetitive process. It requires testers to repeatedly fill in the same variables to ensure the new features to the web app do not affect the older functions. Manual testers can experience fatigue and make mistakes, so automating regression testing is an excellent call to make.
Performance Testing: Analyzing various performance metrics through manual testing is tedious work. Using automation tools like Appium can help you write comprehensive test cases to analyze every aspect of your web application. The HeadSpin platform leverages Appium capabilities to do just that. Here’s how.
Smoke Testing: Developers perform smoke tests to check for build stability; they act as indicators to the QA team that the build is ready for further formal testing. Automating smoke tests will help developers analyze the results and identify the significant issues in the web application.
Functional Testing: Functional testing involves testing the practical aspects of the web application, mainly around UI, APIs, security, database, and more. As organizations scale up, manually running functional tests becomes impractical. Automation will help improve test speeds, help increase the number of simultaneously running tests, and overall test accuracy.
Data-Driven Testing: Data-driven tests help testers keep data separate from test scripts and bring the data in when there is a need to extend the tests. Automation is the best way forward when dealing with data, as there are usually numerous data sets.
How to Get Started with Automation Browser Testing
Automated browser testing can dramatically speed up your QA process, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. It works best when used strategically for the right types of test cases. Below are scenarios where automation delivers the most value.
When to Use Automated Browser Testing
- For repetitive workflows: Use automation when testing features like login, sign-up, or form submissions that don’t change often and need frequent validation.
- To ensure cross-browser coverage: If your application must function consistently across multiple browsers and versions, automation helps you test all combinations quickly and reliably.
- During frequent regression cycles: Automate regression tests to check existing functionality after each code change or release without exhausting your QA team.
- To run load and performance tests: When you need to simulate hundreds or thousands of users, automation is essential for scaling and gathering reliable performance metrics.
- For smoke and sanity testing: Run fast, automated checks after each build to ensure basic functionality is intact before moving forward.
- As part of your CI/CD pipeline: Integrate automated tests into your deployment process to catch issues early and keep delivery fast and stable.
Here’s What to Consider Before Investing
Before investing in browser testing tools, you must consider your budget first.
Second, you would want to consider the capabilities of your team. Mainly, do they have the skill set to utilize the tool you want to invest in, or will you need to bear additional upskilling costs? Asking this will help you invest in the right tools or, if it is a possibility, to upskill your team.
Third, what do you need from your cross-browser testing online tool? Do you want it to give you access to real devices? Enable parallel testing? Integrate into your CI/CD workflows? Knowing this will help you select the right tool.
Conclusion
Automation has become an integral part of our lives. It has made our work faster, and thus we can take our products out to market much quicker than before. No wonder then that automation is something everyone is after.
HeadSpin offers the much-needed requisite to all enterprises entering the cross-browser testing scenario. For a QA process that is costly and time-consuming for businesses, HeadSpin offers a wide range of solutions that include automated testing in real-time across thousands of combinations of devices, OS, and browsers.
Whatever your need, we have the solution that will ensure that your app is compatible with several web browsers and help you scale your business without any issue. We welcome you to start the free trial and decide for yourself.
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