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These days, producing software of the highest caliber is insufficient. These days, speed is a vital priority and a key differentiator. Gaining a competitive edge involves introducing new features and products—that are of high quality fast. Teams must therefore search for creative ways to reduce the amount of time needed to complete test automation. This blog will cover some tips to reduce Test Automation execution times.
Automated Test Execution: What is It?
Using an automated testing tool, software applications are tested to see if they satisfy customer or end-user requirements and expectations. This process is known as automated test execution. It entails double-checking that the software program can function in the same manner as intended. While functional and regression tests can be completed manually, there are many benefits to using automated testing.
Moreover, by giving developers and testers a platform where they can create and run test cases without any manual support, automation testing in software testing helps close the gap between the two groups. With automated testing tools such as Selenium, developers and testers can write tests in the programming language of their choice.
The Simian army was established in 2011. By adding a few failure injection modes to Chaos Monkey, this army was able to test a comprehensive set of failures and strengthen the suite's resilience. The challenge was to create a cloud architecture that allowed for the failure of individual, disjointed components without affecting the availability of the entire system.
Strategies To Cut Down On Test Automation Runtimes
Leverage Parallel Testing
One excellent method to increase speed-to-market is to enable parallel testing for test automation. Teams can use modern automated testing tools to spin up and execute multiple test cases at once, saving time compared to running separate tests at different times.
Teams can get faster feedback on the quality of their products by running various test kinds in various environments or configurations. They can significantly reduce testing time while simultaneously increasing test coverage, reliability, and efficiency. More scalability is also made possible by parallel testing, which expedites the testing procedure as needed.
Define A Target Test Execution Time
Setting a target test execution time is one of the most crucial steps in the planning and management of test automation. Teams can determine which set of test cases should ideally be completed when executed by explicitly stating the target test execution time.
Effective management of testing schedules can also be achieved by teams by setting a target test execution time. They can also allocate resources more effectively and provide stakeholders with feedback on time.
Use A Tool For Codeless Test Automation
Let's be honest. It is a backbreaking exercise to write new test suites to satisfy different testing requirements. It takes a lot of time, and it's also very repetitive and routine. Testing teams can create and run automated test cases without writing a single line of code by utilizing low-code/no-code automation testing tools.
With the aid of codeless automated testing tools, test automation can be easily carried out by people with little to no experience in programming or coding. They can accelerate cross-browser and cross-platform testing by incorporating eye-catching visuals and user-friendly interfaces.
Also Read: Test Automation Mastery: 7 Framework Best Practices - Unleash 10x Efficiency!
Handle Test Setup And Teardown
Effectively
Test automation can lead to a variety of issues. Teams must, therefore, use databases, custom functions, APIs, and other test strategies to control test setup and reduce teardown. The speed of different tests can be positively impacted by efficiently managing test setups.
For example, developing the ideal test scenarios can help teams understand the environments, users, and data needed to effectively test the functionality of the software. Teams must also invest time in eliminating or tidying up actions so that they don't interfere with other tests or degrade their quality.
Use Caching To Decrease Wait Times
A workable method for reducing test automation execution times is caching. Test cases can be made to run without repeatedly executing database or API queries by caching data. Teams can increase testing efficiency and speed by storing and reusing previously computed or fetched data, results, or resources.
When handling large volumes of test data, caching expedites the automation process and shortens call response wait times. Teams can minimize resource load and ensure consistent data for test cases by caching information to prevent repeating the same requests.
Leverage Headless Browser Execution
Accelerating the test automation process can also be achieved by utilizing headless browser execution. Without the Graphical User Interface (GUI), teams can run a browser's full version through a command-line interface.
The browser functions exactly like a standard browser because it runs in the background, saving the user from seeing the web page. Teams can enable high-speed testing while using fewer resources and improving test execution performance by simulating multiple browsers on a single system.
Skip Features In The Beta Phase
Testing teams frequently have a strong desire to use automated testing tools to test every feature. This method may, however, cause test execution times to increase. Automated or end-to-end testing is not yet appropriate for features that are in the beta stage. When developers make changes to the product during the beta phase, creating automated end-to-end tests may result in tests breaking frequently.
Thus, teams' focus must be restricted to automating tests that have progressed past the beta stage. It is only after the features have been put into use in the production environment that they need to perform automated end-to-end testing.
Get Rid Of Obsolete Code
Software applications are updated frequently, which increases the quantity of unused or dead code. It is a complete waste of time to test suites on this code. Teams need to remove unused code because it makes it more difficult for them to read and analyze the code base.
Teams need to get rid of unused code as soon as they are comfortable with it. Limiting the amount of code makes it easier to read, maintain, and keep track of.
Enable Real-Time Notifications Into Build Status
Teams can also set up real-time alerting, monitoring, and bug-tracking if they want to shorten the time it takes for test automation to execute. Teams can be informed when a test or build fails by the alerts generated by such tracking. Such instantaneous build status notifications can facilitate more effective debugging and testing.
Stakeholders can be kept up to date on the status and results of testing activities through these notifications. They can also make it possible for important decision-makers to react fast to problems or breakdowns that might occur during testing.
Enable Parallel Testing
Teams can spin up several machines on a local laptop by using Docker. They can now swiftly verify scenarios and run tests in parallel thanks to this. Making sure that additional tests are independent and devoid of dependencies is crucial, though.
Teams can pull data from a database server using APIs to handle data in parallel. By doing this, you can be sure that every Docker is using the same data.
The advantages of concurrent testing:
- Shorter test run times
- Enhanced coverage of tests
- Enhanced stability during testing
Remove Obsolete Code
When working with a large number of scripts, teams frequently overlook code that is not relevant. They review the scripts every quarter or at other regular intervals to make sure the functionality is working and to get rid of any outdated code in order to address this. Time is saved, and the codebase is kept current thanks to this procedure.
Several pointers for clearing out outdated code:
- Regularly go over your scripts
- Determine which codes are no longer in use
- Remove or comment out the outdated code
- Please make a backup of your scripts before modifying them
Although some people may be reluctant to remove code, it's crucial to do so securely
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Conclusion
Achieving faster and more effective test data execution in automation testing requires reducing waiting times. Teams can optimize their testing workflows and reduce needless delays by putting different strategies into practice. Testers can increase their productivity by using these tactics. Finally, maximize the general efficacy and efficiency of your test automation plan.
