Test Automation is the automated execution of tests using technology to execute a target software product to produce results, and then comparing those results to expected results and finally providing actionable data (errors and passes) for next steps in a workflow.
Test Automation has revolutionized the software development world enabling for example:
- timely large scale regression to provide final validation for complex products, what used to take days manually can now be completed in hours using automation.
- continuous integration and development using automated testing at the unit testing, check-in and system integration steps
- quick what-if modification impacts on overall system integrity as proof of concept before spending significant resources on additional research.
But why should Test Automation be the domain of Software Companies? The business value of Test Automation can be realized in any digital system that produces results that may be impacted by changes to any part of the system. These systems are typically manually tested at the end of each change cycle, the exact original catalyst for the invention of automated testing. Some digital system candidates that come to mind include:
- Audit Systems that test modified integrated system components to validate expected results are still produced by the system.
- Business Process Transformation projects or Digital Transformation where non-digital manual process are replaced with digital processes and usually integrated to produce more optimized processes that product results that run the business.
- Robotic Process Automation where computer software “robots” are configured to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process producing results that may be interpreted, trigger or in some way communicate with other systems in order to perform a larger task.
So where do we go from here?