Manual or Automated Testing: Which One Should You Choose?
When your software is on a quality assurance stage, testing should start from two main choices: specialists and testing types. These decisions define the efficiency of task completion. First of all, you can outsource software testing to cover QA with fewer efforts and spendings, but A-quality.
The primary purpose of software testing is to find bugs and fix them. The proper testing allows effective bug fixing for a better user experience. So it is better to know how to choose the suitable test execution method.
For example, TestFort.com a software testing services company, provides two main testing types: manual and automated. Each of these methods is suitable for different cases. So we will help you to find out which one to choose depending on the kind of task. Let’s dig in!
Manual Testing Features
Manual testing is all about hands-on work. The testing process implies test suite verification and reporting by a QA engineer. Testers perform test scenarios step-by-step as an end-user, making sure expected results match actual results.
This method is time-consuming because testers can perform only one test at a time. Thus, the process requires many human resources to complete tests productively.
Automated Testing Features
The testing process implies test suite verification and reporting by test script written by automation QA. The automated program imitates an end-user according to a written testing script. Therefore, it takes to use Java, JS, Python, or any other programming language.
These scripts verify test suite scenarios automatically. This method is time-saving as tests can run in a parallel way. Moreover, all the reports are created automatically.
Which Testing Method to Choose
Manual and automated testing cannot be compared or divided into the best and the worst method. There are various cases when it is better to use one over another. Testing services company chooses testing method according to a software development stage and specific of a task. Let’s discover some of them:
- Early stages of development. Manual testing can solve critical problems in a short period. For example, when software is under development, and it’s time to release it soon. Then it is more important to be on time with a release than to fix all the bugs software may have. It is time for quality assurance outsourcing in such cases, as it does not take a team hiring process. In addition, manual QA does not require creating testing infrastructure and writing testing scripts as for automated ones.
- Business expanding stage. Manual testing cannot be enough when a company extends, and software goes further. Also, human resources are limited, while automated testing can handle much more tasks at one time. Automated testing can perform several tests in a row. This speeds up the testing process and minimizes human errors while testing.
- Non-functional UI/UX testing. There are specific test cases that automated testing may not recognize. This is about the visual part of software testing or mobile application software testing. Automated programs can miss the bugs of animation, color, text readability, and more. In this case, manual testing is indispensable. QA engineers have to handle such tasks manually. Read this blog to learn more about UI/UX testing.
Pros and Cons in Applying
Sometimes you do not know which method of solving a problem would be better in certain circumstances. When you doubt, it is helpful to explore each method’s pros and cons and decide if it is suitable for you now.
The pros and cons for manual testing:
+ short-time perspective solution
+ easy to set up the testing process
+ ability to handle specific tasks
– time-consuming activity
– low productivity of performing
– manual report creation
The pros and cons for automated testing:
+ can be executed in parallel
+ less human resources needed
+ can be reused many times
+ automated report generation
+ high productivity of performing
– specific skills for script creation and support
– unable to verify some UI/UX bugs
To Sum Up: Main Points for Choice
The conclusion is each testing type is specific and suitable for different circumstances. Manual testing is more time-consuming, but it can solve short-time perspective issues. It is also better for visual pieces (UI/UX) testing that automation cannot recognize.
It is better to use automated testing for test cases that take time and accumulate from deployment to deployment. It takes programmatic language knowledge to automate testing activity. QA company can provide specialists of both types to save time on the hiring process and execute tasks with A-quality.
