When it comes to software testing, most folks think they can’t have inexpensive, fast, and high quality all at once. And while that may be true for traditional testing, there is a way to have it all: test automation.
Image courtesy of Jed Schmidt (Creative Commons – modified)
| If your testing need is great enough, test automation won’t just let you test faster and more accurately, it’ll also cost a lot less than you’d be paying for dedicated testers to do the same work. |
Good. Fast. Cheap.
If you know anything about software testing, you know that it’s mighty hard (and, in fact, darn near impossible) to get all three. Can you get two? Sure. But all three at once? Fat chance. Software testing is never cheap, fast, and high quality, right?
Well, it depends.
If we’re talking about traditional, manual software testing, then what I said above is completely true. In most cases, if you want a team of testers that does high-quality work in short order you’re going to pay through the nose for it (a notable exception to this is our own Rural Software Testing, which is specifically designed to offer high quality testing without any compromises). Conversely, you’ll wind up paying a lot less for some offshore work, but chances are it’ll take longer and/or yield lower-quality results.
Compromises like that can be the name of the game for a lot of companies, who can decide on what kinds of trade-offs they want to make on a per-project basis. For example, you’ll need a lot higher defect-removal efficiency (DRE) for health care software than you’d ever need for something that runs a vending machine. And so long as the vast majority of said testing is ad-hoc—where the testers are simply “trying to break the program”—this is a smart way to handle it.
But what about testing that isn’t ad hoc? Is there a better way to perform regression testing, load/performance testing, and other tests that need to be run for every patch, release, and upgrade?
Yes there is, and it doesn’t require any of those pesky compromises, either.
If your testing need is great enough, test automation won’t just let you test faster and more accurately, it’ll also cost a lot less than you’d be paying for dedicated testers to do the same work. After the initial investment of acquiring a license and automating your testing scripts (or perhaps outsourcing that work to an expert third party), you’re essentially home free—and, outside of a little maintenance here and there, well on your way to a quick ROI.
Granted, automation isn’t for everyone. If you don’t often repeat the same test cases, then a return will be much harder to come by. But provided you do have enough test cases, automation is the ideal solution—offering better, faster, and cheaper testing while freeing up hours for your SMEs (who would otherwise be stuck testing) at the same time.
Oh, what’s that? You’re not sure if automation would work for you? Well, it just so happens that we’ve got you covered. If you can spare thirty seconds, you’ll have a lot better idea of how much test automation can do for you and your organization.
Just remember, it’s a new year. And while you might be locked into your current budget, there’s nothing wrong with preparing yourself for the next one—it’ll be here before you know it!
After all, time flies, doesn’t it?
Cheers,
Mike Hodge
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc
Software Testing | Quality Assurance Consulting | Oracle EBS Consulting
