Automated Testing: Need of the Hour

There are companies that purchase automated testing tools only to realize
that implementing a cost-effective automated testing solution is far more
difficult than it appears. We often hear things like: "It looked so easy
when the vendor did it, but my people couldn't get it to work." or
"We spent 6 months trying to implement this tool, but we still have to do
most of our testing manually."

What is Automated Testing?

Simply put, it is automating the manual testing process that is currently in
use. If a tester is asked to run 100 tests, it is likely that he will eventually
miss something.

Today, developers and testers require a test infrastructure with the
availability of standardized test data, metrics and automated test suites for
functional and performance testing that would make benchmarking tests less
costly to perform. This would enable timely detection of defects in the SDLC by
testing early in life cycle, repeatedly and automatically, says Venkatesh
Chillara, Asst VP, Quality Consulting, Satyam.

Sharad Sharma, general manager- India, Veritas Software believes that there
is an increasing shift towards automated software testing in India. "As the
economies in the West struggle, automated testing is one way of keeping
operational costs low.

Says T Srinivasan, managing director, Mercury India. Beyond a point, however,
one cannot do manual testing, especially when there are 1000 odd users involved.

Testing Challenges

Automation almost always pays rich dividends. It is a very powerful tool and
this makes it potent, declares Arindum Basu, VP and head of Independent Testing
Practice, Kanbay. But he is quick to point out that while automated testing will
definitely be on the rise and is in fact already a major trend in embedded
testing, it is not the panacea that most people are often led to believe in.

Vipul Kocher of Pure Testing has an interesting point of view. "Most
companies do not do even manual testing properly. Automation in such
environments is not going to yield the expected benefits," he argues.

Case for Automated Testing

Two segments-end users and product companies, would have a repetitive
requirement of testing of their applications at periodic intervals. These two
constituents are taking to automated testing now.

Is there an increasing trend towards automated testing? R Chandrashekaran,
managing director, Cognizant. "In recent times, automated testing has been
fine-tuned and perfected, and hence we believe it is here to stay."

The increasingly integrated nature of IT systems is another factor pushing
companies towards automated testing. There is definitely a greater focus on
automated testing today. But there is a shortage of good quality skills in this
area, says Subramaniam, director, Maveric. At the same time, organizations are
still maturing their processes in testing and would be more ready for automated
testing in the years to come, he feels.

Nanda Kasabe With inputs from sunitha natti in Hyderabad and Priya
Padmanabhan in Bangalore.