Codeless Test Automation in Software Development — Is it the Future of Software testing?

Introduction

With the ever-expanding evolution of software development and advancement in development technologies, the application development industry is undergoing a massive boom with new paradigms. The advent of DevOps and Agile development brings in new software development and software testing approaches. With the cut-throat competitive market, rapid prototyping and development of software, and quick testing of these products, companies have shifted towards automated testing solutions.

From manual software testing to legacy to automated testing to codeless software testing — the software testing industry has travelled a long path of evolution. According to the latest industry trends, the latest codeless test automation is the future of the software testing industry. This comprehension will take you on the journey of how codeless test automation is bringing a revolutionary change in the software market.

What is Test Automation in Software Development?

Automation testing is one of the latest techniques of software testing, where the majority of the testing modules and dependencies get performed by automation app testing tools. Rather than manually sitting in front of the computer and checking the software execution, it leverages automated modules and scripts to validate all the software components. Some standard automated testing types are regression testing, integration testing, smoke testing, etc. Today’s modern agile development methodology requires automation testing. In other words, it automates the quality assurance technique of the software, increasing efficiency and reducing time-to-market.

What is Codeless Test Automation?

Codeless test automation or codeless automation technique is an automated software testing methodology that embraces testing the application without writing a single line of code. In this methodology, the testing team does not have to be a hard-core programmer rather they record user-like behaviour to automate the testing processes. Codeless automation allows the team to automate different testing processes by creating test scenarios that come with codeless testing tools. Through code automation, companies can scale the potential for automation, reduce the time-to-market the product, lower the learning curve, and reduce maintenance costs & manual testing efforts. Some widely-accepted codeless automation tools are:

· Katalon Studio: It is a well-known tool for codeless automated software testing. This powerful automation tool got released in January 2015 on top of a Selenium-based engine. Its main goal is script reusability. Testers can easily reuse test scripts without having the proper coding knowledge required to check the performance and functionality of the UI.

· Rapise: It is the next-generation automation testing tool, which caters to an open and scalable architecture. Testing through Rapise becomes flexible and rapid as it follows the principle of the “Learn and Go” testing method. Hence, testing with this tool makes it more time-efficient, rather than record-and-playback processes performed through legacy testing tools.

· CloudQA: CloudQA is another automation testing tool that allows users to sign up and use this testing tool. It helps automate web testing smartly, maintaining a steady pace with the changes done during the development. It has built-in scripts that help test various product components; plus offers a high volume parallel, scalable, and collaborative testing ecosystem through the cloud. Any tester (beginner, intermediate, or expert) can make their hands dirty on this tool. It is easy to learn and implement.

· Ranorex: It is a GUI-based testing automation framework that can accelerate the testing process for mobile, web, and desktop applications. Ranorex Studio entrusts testers with a comprehensive toolkit for end-to-end testing of different products under a single license. Testers can also leverage codeless testing, executing them locally or remotely. It allows testing the app on diverse platforms like iOS and android plus running tests in parallel and accelerating cross-browser testing for different browsing platforms like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and many more.

· Testing Whiz: It is another codeless automation testing tool designed for database, mobile apps, cloud, web, and API testing. This tool is built with a robust architecture integrated with an intuitive automation engine that can help curate the testing process with a minimum learning curve. It promises to elevate the testing process and codeless automation to the next level.

· LeapWork: LeapWork is a well-known visual testing tool that supports no-code automation to make businesses and application development firms automate repetitive testing processes so that companies can adopt and deliver the product and quickly market it. It helps reduce app risk and bugs to a significant level and improves the quality of the software. With the fastest learning curve, this enterprise-testing tool can profit from codeless automation & scale more quickly.

· TestCraft: It is another AI-driven, codeless automated testing tool that can test and deliver web apps at a faster rate, maintaining a high standard of quality. It is well-known for its fast delivery of testing metrics as the software development market is too competitive. The QA team can generate test cases without coding and is a potent tool for Selenium-based automated testing.

Difference between code-based and codeless test

With the decrease in the time-to-market of a software development project, development companies also had to decrease the testing time. For that reason, most testing departments adopted automation, especially, codeless automation, rather than code-based and manual testing approaches. Here is a list of contrasts between code-based and codeless test automation.

Benefits of Codeless test automation

There are a lot of benefits that codeless test automation caters to for the testing team.

i. Saves operational or development time: The preliminary benefit that testers can get from codeless test automation is time-saving. In this type of testing, the tester does not have to write large-sized code for performing the automation. Again the tester team does not have to learn the coding skills to do specific testing. That increases the overall productivity of the testing life cycle by decreasing the delivery time.

ii. Easy to learn and understand: Codeless automation tools are user-friendly, and testers find them easy to comprehend. There is no need for hard-core programming skills. These tools are rich in GUI interfaces, which means the tester can start automating the testing processes right from the day they sign up for those tools. Testers can also enjoy a quick tour of the tool, configure it, and start testing. Also, various free tutorials and community support sites are available; that make codeless automation tools easy to learn.

iii. Rapid time-to-market: One of the most compelling benefits of codeless test automation is the speed or quick delivery of the product. In this cut-throat competitive market, slow product delivery lowers the reputation. Rapid prototyping of the software & fast deployment is possible not just through agile software development methodology but requires quick testing approaches. That is where codeless test automation comes in to reduce the time-to-market yet deliver a quality product.

iv. Real-time information, reports, and error updates: Almost all codeless automation tools provide features like real-time error detection, test report generation, and real-time updates. That makes it easy for testers to check for product health, test run reports on multiple devices, bugs, etc. These tools also cater to actionable insights and recommendations on creating and executing tests for both hybrid & native applications. Through codeless automation, testers also receive feasible solutions that can ultimately benefit the application or product.

v. Compatible with sturdy data-driven tests: Codeless test automation works with all types of tests, whether be it regression test or a data-driven test. In lots of situations, such data-driven tests break down. But it is effortless to rebind those broken elements and rerun the tests seamlessly again with codeless automated testing.

vi. Faster feedback cycles: Codeless test automation leverages tools and automated scripts that make testing faster. It also adds up an additional benefit by providing faster feedback cycles so that, the development team can figure out the problem quickly based on the feedback & responses. The development team can work on the solution & quickly market the product. Since the QA team will carry out the testing rapidly under a controlled environment through scripts, the development team can get faster feedback, which will reduce errors and bugs in the product.

vii. Scalability: Updating any automated testing tool is a troublesome task. A tester who is not a professional programmer cannot perform this. Also, it becomes even more challenging to outsource such an already existing tool for updating. That eventually reduces the scalability to test new types of projects. But having a codeless test automation tool in place will make it easy to test diverse projects. In case the project size increases, codeless test automation are cloud-based. That means the QA team can scale up and down the size of the testing requirement as per the project requirements, processing, and storage.

viii. AI and ML save unnecessary work: As per 2021’s software testing trends, all codeless test automation docks combined with AI or ML technology. Around 38 percent of global codeless testing tools come with artificial intelligence & machine learning, which reduces massive testing efforts. AI-driven codeless test automation exerts high outcomes during testing. It is because, such testing combines AI & ML technologies — together with human intelligence for accelerating development, minimizing errors, and handling processes automatically.

ix. Empowers Agile and DevOps methodology: Codeless test automation techniques require little to no programming skills. That makes the development faster, providing multiple iterations on the suggestions and error updations. Again, through codeless testing tools, the accessibility of all team members having different skill sets can collaborate. That makes the project transparent, maintaining a combined workflow within the team.

Conclusion

The importance of codeless automated testing has increased to a significant level; and will continue to rise. It is the future of testing as no quality assurance team wants to deliver manual efforts where automation through pre-existing scripts or tools can make the testing more effective. However, companies should remain aware of which tools & scripts they are leveraging for the testing.

Organizations should ensure their codeless testing tools leverage cloud-based services, and that the automation tool vendor supports regular updates. Other factors like supported languages and integration capabilities are the significant factors that drive the value of codeless automation tools in the market.

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