How to Select the Right Automation Testing Tool

Automation testing is one of the most important practices in the field of high-quality software delivery. In today's agile development methods, almost every software development process needs to be tested automatically at some point in the development stage to accelerate the work of regression testing. Automated testing tools can help testers and the whole team focus on their respective tasks that automated tools can't handle, but the difficult part about automation testing is choosing automated tools. The most common problem for testers is how to select the right automated testing tool.

In this article, we will discuss in detail how to select an automation testing tool. But before we continue, let's emphasize the importance of automation testing tools.

I. The Importance of Automated Testing Tool Selection

If you want to carry out successful automated testing for your project, it is essential to identify the right tool for automation. Selecting the right testing tool for your project is one of the best ways to achieve the project target. Let's take the example of web application development to understand the importance of automated testing tools better.

Let's suppose that you are developing a website for your business. You don't need any automated testing if you are starting a business at a low level, and all tests can be completed manually. However, as your business starts to grow and begins to gain acceptance from a wide audience, then you may need to automate some processes, such as cross-browser testing of web applications, to ensure that they provide a similar experience for all users.

In addition, if you need regression testing, you also need to perform automated testing. This is why selecting an automated tool that can provide all these functions is necessary.

II. Types of Automation Testing Tools

There are usually three types of automated testing tools to choose from. The following is a brief description of each type:

1. Open-Source Automation Testing Tools

Open source tools are free platforms that allow users to access and use their source code and modify its original design. There is no cost or expense in using open source tools. In addition, open-source tools are available for almost every phase of the testing process, such as test case management, bug tracking, and debugging. Of course, compared to commercial tools, open source tools may have fewer features.

2. Commercial Automation Testing Tools

Commercial testing tools are specially designed and produced for commercial purposes. Commercial tools have more support from many large enterprises because of their extensibility and support from technical teams.

3. Custom Automation Testing Tools

In some testing projects, the testing environment and the testing process have special characteristics. No open-source or commercial tool can meet the requirements. Therefore, the test manager has to consider the development of the custom tool. Some organizations rarely use these types of tools because the development of such a tool must meet some specific requirements of the project.

III. Factors to Consider When Selecting an Automation Testing Tool

Selecting the right automated testing setup depends on multiple factors. Each testing setup is unique at the beginning and may evolve into something novel as the project grows. Selecting the right setup that expands with your project scale is as important as selecting the right technology stack for developing applications. The following are several factors that affect the decision:

• Whether the tool supports your testing activities？ And if it is available in the market？
• Which automation testing tool best fits your project requirements and your budget?
• Does the team have the required skills to use the tool? If not, who will use the test tool after you purchase it?
• Whether the automation tools are accurate for the project environment and technology that you are using.
• Is there a free trial version of the tool so that you can analyze its performance before purchasing it?
• What are both the cost and development efforts involved in expanding the testing platform as your project grows?
• How difficult is it to maintain and manage old tests so they work and update the project?

Although there are many factors included in selecting an automation tool, we believe these are the essential factors that you need to consider before looking for automation testing tools. Let's explore the concept of choosing the best-automated testing tool in more depth.

IV. Selection Criteria for the Right Automation Tool

Whatever your project's requirements are for the automation testing tool, there is always a simple and effective way to select the best automation testing tool for your project.

1. Thoroughly examine your project requirements

It is crucial to maintain the quality of your project by delivering a bug-free product for the success of your project. Automation testing is the best way to improve the quality of every project as well as to increase the depth and scope of the tests. However, please clearly understand your project requirements before implementing automated testing, such as:

• What is the project type? Is it a web/desktop/mobile application or any other project?
• What is the scope of the project after its release?
• Before beginning the process, assess the strength of your testing team in terms of code language.

Generally, there are no such automation tools that are entirely good or bad, but if you expect a good ROI from the tool, then it depends on your project needs, such as what needs to be automated and how many test cases need to be automated.

For most projects, it is considered that both manual and automated testing are indispensable for the testing of web, mobile, and desktop applications. Thus, you can choose a tool that integrates seamlessly with the project planning and test management tools, as well as one that is quick to learn and easy to use.

2. Using Your Current Automation Tool as a Benchmark

If you are using an open source automation tool such as Selenium test automation, you can consider it as a benchmark to evaluate and determine the best-automated testing tool for your project. Therefore, you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using Selenium automation tools.

For example, Selenium is an open-source and free tool that allows users to test their web applications and websites. It also offers unique features for automated testing, such as record playback to create record playback test scripts and language support for multiple languages. However, you don’t get good customer support with Selenium WebDriver.

Selenium is the first choice for testers who are familiar with coding technology and testing their websites through the user interface. In addition, the maintenance of the Selenium suite is not easy, especially for testers who often supervise manual and automated testing. Another challenge you may face with Selenium is the browser compatibility testing of web applications because it is impossible to automate cross-browser testing across multiple combinations of browsers, operating systems, and devices.

Therefore, it is crucial to select the current testing tool as a benchmark and compare it with the tool that you decide to purchase for automated testing.

3. Verifying project-specific key standards

The following points need to be considered before determining the best automation tool for your project:

• For every project member, test execution must be simple so that they can run tests efficiently when needed. In addition, it should also be easy for non-technical users with little technical knowledge.
• The test report generated by the tool must be intuitive and simple for the management team so that they can understand the test process.
• The automation testing tool must support all three platforms, including web, desktop, and mobile applications.
• The development and maintenance of test scripts must reduce workforce and time-resource management.
• The automation tool must support a wide variety of browsers and platforms when it comes to cross-browser testing of web applications.
• We should support keyword-driven testing because it acts as an extension of the data-driven testing framework.
• The automation tool must support the languages required for the project so that testers can easily write code.
• Technical support and assistance are the top priorities when it comes to selecting an automation testing tool, so make sure you get continuous technical support for your tool.
• It would be better to include other functions, such as screenshot tests, visual appearance tests, real-time tests, etc.

You can compare these critical factors for different automation tools and then select the best one from them.

4. Before Purchasing a Tool, Consider Your Budget

After comparing different automation tools according to the above standards, the last thing you need to check is your budget. Budget is one of the key issues because no matter how satisfactory the tool is chosen based on the above, it cannot be achieved if it exceeds the organizational budget.

If the organization has finalized plans to purchase the tool, then it is recommended to download and use the trial version of the tool to analyze its performance and whether it’s worth investing so much money. If you find any issues with the tool, then don’t spend much time on it and instead look for another automation testing tool. So you should buy the tool only when you are sure about its functionality and performance.

By following the above various criteria, you will avoid the trouble of selecting automation testing tools, and we will directly recommend the ZenTao automation testing solution for you. The solution consists of ZenTao project management software + ZTF automation testing framework + ZenData universal data generator, which solves test management problems in terms of the testing framework, test data, and testing environment.