Introduction
When the users thought about doing the testing in their project, they were confused with manual or automation. Both are the right testing approaches, but which one you need to use will depend on the project scope, requirement, and need. So, after reading this blog I am sure you can select the right testing approach for your project.
What is Manual testing?
Manual testing is that type of software testing in which the testing of software or evaluation of software is done manually without using any type of automation tool. In manual testing, testers manually explore the application functionality without taking support from any automatic tool. The application can be caught with the help of a very good approach by manual testing.
Key Features of Manual Testing:
- Human Interaction: In manual testing, direct humans are used. So, there is a human interaction in manual testing, humans are more productive to find bugs because they directly interact with applications.
- Exploratory Testing: Testers directly start exploratory testing without using any test cases or any kind of approach. It is done for exploring and testing every single functionality of the application for better user experience.
- Cost-Effective: There is no tool used in the manual testing; hence it is cost-effective.
Advantages of Manual Testing:
- Flexibility: No tool is needed that’s why testers easily move to test any functionality.
- Human Intuition: Manual testing improves the bugs found as compared to automated.
- Cost-Effective: No need to use automation tools in small projects.
- Usability Testing: Better for evaluating user experience.
Disadvantages of Manual Testing:
- Time-Consuming: Testers need to do regression testing after each build release, it is very time-consuming.
- Less Accurate: Human errors may occur while doing testing.
- Not Scalable: Difficult to run large numbers of test cases when repetitive tasks are required in big projects.
- Reusability is mostly limited: Test cases have to be run manually every time.
What is Automation Testing?
Automation testing utilizes the use of software tools and scripts to automatically test the application. It is extremely helpful in the testing of repetitive tasks, especially regression testing where automation scripts are run, in order to test the various versions of the same application.
Key Features of Automation Testing:
- Speed and Efficiency: Automation helps in executing a large number of test cases, thus enhancing speed and efficiency.
- Reusability: Once the test script is written then the same test automation scripts can be reused multiple times by the testers, thereby saving future testing time of subsequent releases.
- Heavy Initial Investment: Automation investment in toolsets, scripting skills need to write test scripts, so only suited for projects with a longer duration.
Advantages of Automation Testing:
- Faster Execution: Since automation hurries up the testing faster since the manual efforts are less.
- High Accuracy: Human intervention is lesser than in the case of the manual and this is the reason it reduces human errors.
- Reusable Test Scripts: It is possible to reuse test scripts of the projects.
- Better for Large Projects: Good for large applications and projects since you do not have to have the application checked manually every time.
- Continuous Testing: Using CI/CD we could quicken the automation execution
Disadvantages of Automation Testing
- Higher Initial Expense: Involves investment in tools and scripting prior to commencing the automation.
- Restricted to Predetermined Situations: The testing scope is confined strictly to the written script, if the users want to explore more then they must again write the script.
- Needs Skilled Employees: It involves programming knowledge and a coding approach.
- Maintenance Overhead: test scripts need to be modified over time because the software is being developed.
When to Choose Manual or Automation Testing
Manual Testing
- Exploratory Testing: Like it is one new app that needs to be explored for unknown bugs, manual testing is better since human intuition may find unexpected issues
- Usability Testing: In case a new website design is to be launched, manual testing helps gather feedback on how easy it is to use. We get a good idea how the users experience the website functionality
Automation Testing
- Regression Testing: For example, after any update, automated tests can instantly test all the old features whether they are working or not and we get fast response of testing.
- Performance Testing: for example, if there is any e-commerce site that requires load testing to check functionality of the upcoming sale feature then, By automating this test, the ability of a website to handle heavy loads can be tested fast and accurately without having actual users.
Which Should You Choose?
The preference of manual or automation testing depends on the project in hand. If it is a short-term, tiny project with a fewer number of test cases, manual testing can be preferred. But if it’s a large, complex system requiring many regression tests, you will save much time and ensure consistency with automation.
A hybrid approach usually works well for most projects. For exploratory and usability testing, one has to resort to manual while automation can be used for the repeats like regression and performance testing.