What Can QE 360 Test Automation Services Do for You?

Test Automation Services can help you improve your software’s overall quality, enhance its usability and value, and finally make software development more efficient and effective.

Test Automation Services are necessary in modern software development, not just a trend. It takes care of repetitive and error-prone tasks and accelerates the testing phase as it enables the reuse of automated tests. This speeds up software releases and allows quality engineers to focus on smart and thorough testing. This improves the software’s overall quality.

We shouldn’t forget that Manual Testing is still important. We use it to understand how users experience our product and find problems that automated scripts would not and should not cover, such as usefulness, desirability, accessibility, credibility, findability, usability, and value. These are part of the UX honeycomb.

But as impactful as test automation services are, it’s crucial to know how to leverage them. To choose the best provider, one must understand the pros and cons, and identify which software to automate the tests for. Even the planning stage and the tools used can influence the outcome. So today, we will delve into various facets of test automation services. Let’s talk about why QE 360 might be your top choice. We’ll also look at the advantages and disadvantages of test automation. Additionally, we’ll identify the different types of software you can test. We will also discuss customer testimonials. Lastly, we’ll explore how a well-designed test automation setup can give you the advantages.

Here are some of our Automation Services Types:

Functional Test Automation
Smoke Test Automation
API Test automation
Integration Test Automation
Regression Test Automation
End-to-End Test Automation
UI Test Automation
Performance Test Automation
Load Test Automation
Security Test Automation
Compatibility Test Automation

In the landscape of automated testing, our company, QE 360, stands out. Our services are customized to fit the specific needs of your project. Whether it’s for web, mobile, or APIs, we go beyond the norm. We design our automation frameworks to be flexible and scalable, that can provide seamless integration testing across platforms for the fast-paced tech world. Automation is not only for running tests. Our experienced Quality Engineers strategically use automation to add value to your project as well allowing you to get a bigger market share by releasing high-quality projects faster. When you partner with us, you will optimize automation to the fullest. This will increase productivity and reduce risks, resulting in a higher return on investment.

So, what sets our company, QE 360, apart in the realm of Test Automation? We are the trusted experts and best Quality Engineering company in Asia.

Why Should You Trust Test Automation with QE 360?

When you choose QE 360 for Test Automation, you are partnering with the best Quality Engineering company in Asia. People are familiar with QE 360 because we’ve optimized the use of agile testing and automated testing. This helps make testing more efficient and cost-effective. We test software using modern methods. This ensures it is high-quality and delivers significantly faster than your competitors.

What Are the Benefits of Test Automation?

Test Automation has many benefits for software development. It makes testing faster and reduces mistakes. It helps cover more tests and get feedback faster for reliable releases more often. Automated tests can run all the time, so QE teams can focus on complex testing tasks.

Are There Any Disadvantages to Test Automation?

Test Automation makes testing faster, but it has downsides if not planned well. The process of setting up can cost a lot if not well planned. Automated tests might not find all manual testing problems such as usability issues. Though one can automate a significant amount of tests, it is not necessary to do so. One must consider the priorities of the functional, performance, and security issues, the risks that need to be uncovered, and the costs to automate and execute those tests in their respective environments.

What Types of Software Can QE 360 Test for You?

At QE 360, we’ve got all your software testing needs covered. We can handle all kinds of apps, including web, mobile, including APIs.

Applications / Solutions that QE 360 can help you test automation:

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Business Intelligence (BI)
Human Resource Management (HRM)
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Marketing Automation
Business Process Management (BPM)
Knowledge Management
Content Management System (CMS)
e-commerce platform
Communication platform
Project Management
Online banking
Payment gateway and billing solutions
Business Process Automation

Our team can make sure that the software is of high quality. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the cloud, on-premises, or a mix of both. We have experience automating tests for popular software types like SaaS. With QE 360, you can meet all your software testing needs, no matter how diverse or complex they are.

What Kinds of Automated Testing Does QE 360 Perform?

Whether you need to check your web or mobile app’s functionality, conduct browser, device or OS compatibility, visual validations for content, validate if the system’s performance is at par to your expectations, or examine your application’s security, QE 360 can help you. We have designed our range of automated testing services to meet all your quality needs.

Web testing validates web functionalities and user interface, including cross-browser compatibility.
Mobile Testing specializes in device compatibility for both Android and iOS platforms, including functionality, batter, and security testing.

API Testing verifies that the backbone of your application is up and working.

Database Testing validates data integrity and consistency across your application.

Performance Testing checks how fast your system is to make sure it meets the right standards and identify when it will slow down or stop working.

Security Testing uncovers vulnerabilities in your web and mobile applications, including APIs.

Automation Testing of your web, mobile, and API tests aims to make your tests faster, more reliable, and more efficient. QE 360 Test Automation Services focuses on enhancing the speed and effectiveness of your web, mobile, and API tests, ensuring consistent and dependable results for your testing needs.

There are different tasks we include in our test automation services, these are test automation tool/framework selection, test planning, test environment setup, test data preparation, test script development, test automation maintenance, and test automation reporting. In the succeeding sections, we’ll share what is covered and how we do it.

Test Automation Framework / Tool Selection

Test automation framework/tool selection is the process of analyzing and selecting the right test automation tool or framework for the project.

QE 360 understands that the test automation framework provides organization, maintenance, reusability, and scalability for your test automation.

Here are 15 Test Automation Framework Selection Considerations:

Open-source libraries/tools/framework, paid or proprietary tools/framework
Skillset of intended users
Capabilities and limitations of the tool/framework, including scalability, traceability, maintainability, and reusability
Supports the test automation approach that is efficient for the project, eg. data-driven and keyword-driven approaches
Documentation and frequency of updates on documentation
Frequency of upgrades and fixes
User-defined logs for error analysis
Test tagging and selective test runs
Parallel test execution
Ease of visual and content validation
Screenshot capture upon failing of test
Reporting capability including result presentation
Integration and compatibility with other tools
Ease of Use. Understand the learning curve needed by the client if internal resources would like to contribute or continue the work in the future
Integration with CI/CD

Why Is Test Automation Framework Selection Important?

It is critical to conduct deep research on test automation frameworks before settling for one. It would save time, money, and effort for the project if properly selected. Once a test automation framework is selected and used for a project, different project teams can learn and leverage it.

At QE 360, we make sure that we have explored and tried different automation frameworks before spending time optimizing the selected framework. We don’t shy away from moving to a different framework if we’ve identified that the said framework is not going to meet the test automation needs of a specific project. A test automation framework is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Once we hit a dead-end for that framework and project combination, after we’ve tried everything to make it work, we start the selection process based on other research and experiences.

Test Automation Planning, The QE 360 Way

What is a test automation plan?

A test automation plan is a process of documenting the test automation scope and limitations, objectives, goals, test automation approach, test automation framework/tool to be used, test automation resources and estimates to automate the entire or parts of the project, test automation design, test automation execution, defect management, test automation reporting, and test automation maintenance.

Though test automation comes with its pros and cons, of course, for QE 360 practices, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. As mentioned earlier, a significant amount of tests can be automated, but test automation, just like manual testing, comes with a cost – test script development time, running on different test environments, and even the servers and tools it requires to run them. It is best to have a test automation strategy that will optimize your resources, ensure proper test coverage, remove as many test automation limitations and product risks, and maximize the automation framework for your Continuous Integration/Continuous Integration (CI/CD).

With QE 360, you can be assured that the test automation framework we’ll be using supports the test automation requirements and the risks of the application to be tested, considers the testing timeline, the skills of the resources to potentially run the test scripts in the future, and estimates the cost. These factors allow for efficient test automation that is easier to maintain and is budget-friendly.

Why Is Planning Crucial in Test Automation?

To succeed in Test Automation projects, it’s important to plan with experts like QE 360. If you don’t plan, you might waste time and resources on the wrong tests or miss important metrics. During the planning phase, we choose automation tests and decide which tools to use. This ensures effective and maintainable test scripts. We focus on tests based on what you need, whether to save time and costs in testing, improve software quality, deliver ahead of your competition, or all of the above. This targeted approach ensures that you get the most ROI from your automation efforts.

How Can The QE 360 Test Automation Setup Benefit You?

Part of the QE 360 Test Automation services is the test automation setup, it will greatly improve your software test automation and development processes. With our focus on test automation, we know what’s the efficient test automation structure for web, mobile, and API test automation. We utilize test automation practices that are reusable through the use of test templates, maintainable by, and integrate test automation into your development cycle. This leads to faster releases without sacrificing quality. When you automate repetitive test scenarios, you can then focus on more complex development tasks. This frees up valuable manpower for creative aspects. This means you’re not only saving time but also reducing costs. We have extensive experience in agile testing and automated testing. This helps us customize your test automation framework and process to meet your project’s unique requirements, making the process more efficient.

What is a Test Automation Environment Setup?

A Test Environment is a dedicated environment that QAs and QEs can test in – where manual tests and automated tests get executed. A Test Environment is a combination of the software to be tested, hardware including the servers that it requires to support the system, network and system configurations, test data necessary to run the tests and database. Test Environment is also known as Test Bed. Some companies can have a Test or QA environment, and a Staging Environment, which is a mirror of the production environment that allows the QAs / QEs to conduct final checks.

How Important Is the Test Environment Setup?

Having a good test environment setup is important for making sure automated testing is reliable and accurate. With QE 360, we will not just execute the tests in the test environment and prepare the necessary test data, we will also be able to identify if the test environment is properly set by identifying if the database is properly configured, if the servers being used is adequate to support the functionalities at the performance that is acceptable to the stakeholders. This would be a good indicator of what the Production Environment should be at a minimum. This reduces the chance of environment-specific bugs slipping through. When you deploy your software, it ensures that it performs as expected, saving you from costly post-launch fixes.

Test Data Preparation

Test data is the input used to perform the tests. It facilitates defect finding by utilizing an array of different data that produce different outcomes. Test data preparation is critical for both manual and automated tests.

Test data may be in any of these forms:

System test data – used for functional tests
Database test data – used to validate records in the database
Performance test data – used to conduct performance and load tests
Files for uploading and importing – used for functionalities that require files to be uploaded or imported

It is important to note that a robust test data set should include both valid data and invalid data. At QE 360, we pride ourselves in utilizing different test data types such as:

Acceptable and non-acceptable characters
Boundary value test data
Equivalence partition data set
Decision table data set
No data (empty)
Null data
Path / Files
Time and date
Typical values
Convenient values
Best representatives
Different number formats
Follows and violates domain-specific rules (IP, mobile number, email address, age, etc)
Follows and violates uniqueness constraints (username, email address)
Syntax

Why Do You Need to Prepare Test Data?

Preparing test data is pivotal for realistic and effective automated testing. QE 360 helps you create data sets that mimic real-world scenarios and edge cases for thorough testing. If you’re testing an online store, you’ll need data that imitates real user actions, like adding items to a cart and making payments. On the other hand, test data sets should also include unexpected values to test if the system can detect it and see how it will handle the incorrect input. This ensures that your application is robust and ready for end-users.

A well-prepared test data set would allow minimal tests created but optimum tests executed and discover more defects than more tests with minimal test data.

Test Script Development

Test scripts are line-by-line descriptions containing the information about the system’s functionality to be performed to validate that the system under test works as expected. Test script development happens by converting the selected manual tests into code that contains the prerequisites, steps including the test data, and the expected result.

The Quality Engineers of QE 360 are not just trained and certified to design an automation framework from scratch, we also pride ourselves in creating efficient test scripts. We utilize both keyword-driven and data-driven approaches to maximize the test scripts that we develop. Our QEs are technical resources, we don’t rely on record-and-play tools that would create brittle tests, once a new element is introduced, or even when a change in the attribute of the element is applied, it would require re-recording if the resource does not know how to code.

Our test scripts are developed within the same sprint and are part of the definition of done for the user stories. This allows us to deliver the regression tests when needed – within the sprint. This allows us to regress any changes coming from new features, bug fixes, and change requests.

To ensure that test scripts are worth the effort, we make sure that they align with the sprint’s context or even the project milestone, and that the identified risks for the product are well incorporated within the test automation.

What Can Automated Testing Achieve?

Automated testing helps software companies be more efficient, improve quality, and work faster. This matches QE 360’s goals. You can run tests over and over. This helps you find errors faster and get good results. You can run automated regression tests whenever needed. When making new changes, this ensures that existing features remain intact. This builds confidence in the product. It also frees up human resources for creative and critical tasks. Using QE 360 for automated testing gives you an advantage in a competitive landscape. It ensures software strength and fast delivery.

What are Test Automation Maintenance best practices?

Test automation maintenance is the inevitable task of keeping the test scripts up to date. This requires a good balancing act between testing tests that should be done manually and those that should be automated. Every time there’s a new feature, a new or reopened bug, or a change on existing functionalities or UI/UX, we need to update the tests, the question is if it’s for manual or automation.

Here are some best practices in test automation maintenance:

Assess and prioritize changes that would impact testing
UX tests are best done manually, do not include them in test automation
Write a few tests but maximize the value of test data
Develop test templates or other techniques that make tests reusable
Avoid hard coding
Utilize POM and variables
For locators, utilize ID, class, and name first before XPath and CSS, etc
Run the test scripts whenever a change is introduced for early detection of bugs and failing test scripts
Incorporate documentation and logs
High-severity bugs that are not found from test automation should be included in the test scripts

Why Is Test Automation Maintenance Important?

Test automation maintenance is important to ensure that the resources invested in developing the test scripts are maximized to reduce testing time, which allows you to deliver new functionalities and bug fixes faster, and get a better user experience and review as you get a bigger market share. An up-to-date test script will utilize the test and production environments well. Running failing test scripts due to unmaintained test scripts will be futile.

What is Test Automation Reporting?

Test automation reporting is a process of generating a detailed report on the results of the test automation run to effectively analyze the quality of the system under test.

After test automation scripts are run, regardless if it’s for automated smoke testing, integration testing, or regression testing, an automated test report would show how many tests passed, failed, blocked, and not executed.

What are the components of a good test automation report?

Project name
Test run timestamp
An environment where the tests were ran
Testing types covered (smoke testing, regression testing, visual validations, etc)
Test Summary – counts for passed, failed, blocked, and not executed tests
Details of the tests that failed including the corresponding screenshots

Why Is Test Automation Report Important?

Test automation report is important to help the project team make an informed decision. When a smoke test fails, the test team is blocked in testing, and the developers need to fix the bug where the test failed, if it passes, then the test team can proceed to the detailed testing. If there’s no automated test report, the test team would need to check the individual test results. This would be easy if there were only a handful of tests, but what if a regression test suite is run, like hundreds of tests? That would be not just time-consuming, but it can also be prone to human error. Every test automation run should produce a test automation report.

At QE 360, we ensure that after every test automation run, regardless of smoke testing to validate the builds and deployments, regression testing to see if the bugs are fixed and didn’t introduce new bugs, or API validation to validate that the backbone of the system is stable, we make sure that the relevant team members receive the test automation report to help decide better if there’s a needed action, or if it’s a success.