Use Automation to Assist—Not Replace—Manual Testing
Automation is a powerful tool to help testing but too often it is used to replicate existing manual tests. This leads organizations to spend large amounts of time and money constantly updating flaky automated tests and test teams to suffer frustration from having to focus on activities that are not truly testing. This cost and frustration can be avoided by using automation as a tool to assist testing—not to replace tests. Jeffrey Martin shares some real-world examples of using automation to supplement testing by leveraging its true value—the replication and repetition of tasks instead of tests. Examples are drawn from several testing teams, as well as his own. Jeffrey explores what kinds of tasks are the best fit for automation, identifies which tasks are better left to testers, and provides examples of melding task automation and manual tests together. Jeffrey discusses how organizations have introduced these concepts to maximize adoption and team buy-in. Leave with a different view of automation and ideas on how to best use this powerful tool to supplement actual tests seamlessly in your own team.
Working with companies and testing teams of all sizes and skills, Jeffrey Martin is product owner of SmartBear Software’s test management solution QAComplete. With more than fifteen years of experience in product management, quality, regulatory, sales, engineering, and marketing, Jeffrey brings his broad, cross-discipline skill set to uncover unique insights into obstacles facing his own teams and the QA teams of his customers. With a practical, results-first, focus on the problems facing the modern software development team, Jeffrey has helped organizations deliver better software more quickly, while making it easier to consume by the end-user.