Before we learn any Test Automation Challenges, there are some things you need to know. Right now, we are living in a whole new digital world that’s rapidly changing yet significantly bettering; none can deny this fact. Thanks to the efforts of developers, testers, and all the tech innovators. Speaking about the betterment, the apparent testing mainstream called ‘Automation’ is actually seeing an all-time high.

In the year 2020, around 44% of the IT industry shifted 50% of its testing operations to automation and, in some other cases, even more. All is due to the efficiency and competence that an automation system brings to an organization. However, you should be aware of the snares that come your way. Worry not; we give the way to fight them too. Let’s get started!

6 Test Automation Challenges that you need to know:

1. Absence of Prioritization

When you add more and more tests to your automation testing framework, it certainly becomes burdensome. Meanwhile, the tests get delayed, and soon they stock up. At the same time, there is a good possibility that most tests fail. Further, you’ll just miss all the deadlines grinding the release cycles. Well, there are solutions to this problem, and here are the two ways to fix it.

Prioritization, we mean you decide which test to automate. Doing this can stop the piling up of the tests, which is one way of handling this. Another way, get answers to these questions.

• Which tests are to be performed each day?
• What are the tests that can be run only once a week or less often?
• Are there any tests that can be executed quickly?

If you look at it, they take your precious time and effort if there are so many tests in the system. Moreover, the testers have to perform manual testing, and on the whole, the prioritization helps lower the stress on the team.

2. Not Having Continuous Collaboration and Communication

Indeed, no matter how many techniques, tools, and trends come and go in Testing if you don’t collaborate and communicate, they are going in vain. The same would happen in Automation. Anyways, why and how is this a problem? First, let’s understand that Automation in Testing is a huge investment for any organization (and the return on investment is too satisfying as well). Therefore, you have to be extra careful with it; otherwise, you are dumping all the money.

Well, communication is unavoidable in Automation; everything begins with it. But, there is a difference between communicating and effectively communicating. Many teams miss that. Hence, strategies are mostly not or not at all understood by the team. The team would include some key people like developers, business analysts, project managers, technical architects, and more.

The team has to be very specific about things like the plan, scope, and timeframe of the test strategy. Continuous communication and effective communication is all cool; how can you make everyone work? Communication helps drive good coordination and collaboration among the team, but that’s not enough.

First, you need everyone to agree to have a common goal. Then teams need a true understanding of automation objectives. In addition to that, developers and testers need to cast their to gather evidence of effectiveness and create a proof of concept. This process should begin as soon as you start anything; that’s the key.

3. Finding your perfect tool

Automation is not possible without the right tool. Unfortunately, today there are so many tools available out there in the marketplace. So, decision-making becomes undoubtedly difficult. How to deal with this? Let’s understand the market first. You have several options ranging from open-source like Selenium to partially open to strictly paid tools. To be very specific, each tool is best suited for a particular scenario, and in such a case, is the phrase ‘the perfect tool’ just a myth? No, absolutely not.

It all depends on you what you want and what the requirements are. And the team has to work and research into the needs first accordingly. Then, see the budget. Next, you have to plan to get a tool that comes at your set price point. You can’t hurry your decision seeing others or just getting tricked by some marketing. It just backfires if you don’t consider all these factors mentioned above. Finally, you choose a tool after looking into the requirements of the application under test (AUT).

Once you find an enticing option, you need to read through the expert testimonials and reviews. Roll your keen eyes on their site, see if they have everything explained without a demo. If you are still not convinced enough, request a demo. If what the tool is offering is matching your needs, you found your perfect tool.

Tip: If you can integrate your all your tool you save some extra time.

4. Find the right skills

‘It’s Automation, not automagic.’ – Jim Hazen.

Your perfect tool can’t operate on its own. It needs the right people with the right set of skills to drive the optimum benefit out of it. As test automation varies in terms of features and operability, in short, they require a person who can quickly handle all the design aspects and implementation protocols.

You need separate people who can appropriately design and maintain these huge test automation frameworks, develop solutions, and write test scripts. In addition, they should be well trained to fix any immediate technical issues. As discussed earlier, test automation is an investment; you also need to invest in people with the right skills.

However, this is not possible for every organization, some other organizations also invest in training their employees in automation. All we can say is that it all boils down to the willingness of the organization.

5. Huge investment, so some really hesitate

So, we talked a lot about automation and investment in the blog so much, and there are more things you need to know about it. Yeah, it’s surely a huge investment in the beginning. There are certain unusual costs you need to prepare to bare like the licensing cost and hidden costs alongside the usual operational costs.

Then you need to develop automation frameworks, libraries, reusable functions, and more. Okay, let’s understand the story behind the open-source tools. If you are using them like the Selenium or Appium, you’ll have the device grid setup expenses. Despite all this, you’ll get so much in return; in the long run, it’s a matter of time and the right effort.

6. Not knowing the core values of automation

Testers, developers, and organizations miss learning the core values of automation. Automation isn’t just a tool or skill; it’s more than that. And leaning the values of automation gives you a proper understanding of everything in automation. What can be done via automation and what can’t be accomplished. The core values of automation teach what you can expect and what you can’t, and a lot more. Here is a whole session explaining the core values of automation by the expert Katya Aronov (Automation Developer at Trax).

Conclusion…

So, go get your right education, tool, and team. You’ll only then can achieve effective test automation. And if you like the type of content we publish, do subscribe to our blog, and we’ll keep you updated with the trends, techniques in the most simple way possible.

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