Software testing is the process of evaluating the actual software product meets expected requirements and ensuring that the software product is defect-free.

Test automation is using tools to do repetitive testing tasks to reduce human intervention and achieve higher effectiveness.

Benefits of Test Automation

• Speedup test execution
  For example, to test a single API call by a human might take few minutes but with automation, it can be done in seconds likewise it is faster.

• Avoids human errors
  Machines are less error-prone. So we can reach high accuracy with these repetitive tasks.

• Unattended execution
  Large test cases can be run even at night without humans

• Test what manually impossible
  For example, testing a function with 1000 inputs manually is quite impossible. But with automation, we can do it easily.

• Less cost
  Automation tools are cheaper than humans.

Types of Automated Testing

In the software testing process unit testing covers a large portion. So it lies on the bottom of the pyramid. Then automated component tests, automated integration tests, automated API tests, automated e2e tests lie on the pyramid.

Manual exploratory tests cannot be automated. Those tests are done by testers with experience in the system.

Available Tools and Technologies for Test Automation

Test Automation Frameworks

Test Automation framework is a supporting structure with rules, guidelines tools to automate the testing process.

• Linear Automation Framework
• Modular Based Testing Framework
• Library Architecture Testing Framework
• Data-Driven Framework
• Keyword-Driven Framework
• Hybrid Testing Framework

Advantages of Using a Test Automation Framework

• Increase reusability
• Increase maintainability
• Reduce complexity
• Improved reporting
• Improves error handling
• Improved productivity

To gain the maximum benefits of using a test automation framework, we should define the scope of automation and we should select the right automation tool and framework. For this, we should have a better understanding of the testing pyramid. And we should follow standard scripting standards and also we should consider the team's preference based on their experience.