Codeless Automation – It’s not just a technology but a Paradigm Shift in Test Automation Approach

We all want a different Automation outcome which is faster, easier and more agile but are we open to change our old approaches, toolsets and frameworks?

Long back in the very early stage of my career once, our test manager corrected one of us by saying never ever use the word Automation Testing, you are not testing any type of Automation but you are Automating your test Cases & it should be called Test Automation. A very simple logical correction but even today when I look back, I can still feel that the impact of these two words can create a paradigm shift in your Automation approach - knowingly or without even realising it.

First of all lets agree that test execution is an activity by professional testers which can be done Manually or it can also be done in an Automated fashion but It doesn’t mean that these two functions have to be done by two different persons or groups of people - that’s an absolute waste of money as well as a very old fashioned way of operation. From several years’ IT organizations are managing Test Automation considering it as an additional delivery item by a different set of people or team. This way you can never achieve the expected ROI and will always wonder why your Automation investments didn’t give you expected results.

If a test team member spends too much time on coding and writing a script that’s an absolute waste of his energy because the test teams primary focus should be on testing the product and find defects not writing complex codes. The motto of Automation is simple “Automat the test execution” to save time not to create additional complexity in the operation

I can understand in the past decades, Automation tools were highly code intensive and for automation we require an additional skill & knowledge of coding which forces you in keeping an additional team. With the evolution of the fifth-generation automation frameworks with codeless tools it’s no longer a bottleneck. Codeless testing solutions address the age-old challenge of automated testing: testers no longer have to learn extensive coding, and businesses don’t need to outsource it to a set of developers to ensure the automation outcomes.

Even when we are talking about the 5th generation Codeless tools - at present it has moved forward, it became more intelligent in nature with the adoption of AI and ML.

In today’s world of CI/CD and Agile environment product development is focused on to delivering more and delivering faster hence the testing should also be more faster & tests should be executed more frequently. That means automation is the key but that doesn’t mean that the automation has to be done by Non-Testers. Today’s test automation solutions should enable EACH TESTER’s and BA’s in the team to automate and it should no longer be limited to a set of people who can code.

The above picture may create a lot of discomfort in our thought process as well as a lot of people suddenly can find themselves in an uneasy situation. The fact is that we need the scripters (Who writes long codes for Automation) also but that will be more to develop themselves as SDET’s (Software Development Engineers in Test) – The approach has to be changed, the role will require some new learning and then the same set of people can significantly transform an entire testing organization into a Quality engineering Organization.

In the contrary when we enable the testers with easy automation capability and save their time, they will be able to focus more on exploratory testing, more on testing the usability aspects (A must in this Digital Era) and different functional perspective. The dimension of UAT will take a paradigm shift when business users can also contribute in automation, they don’t need to code hence they will make much improved end to end business flows in automated manner. The outcome will be absolutely different.

People may differ in opinions but it’s true that if we need to adopt continuous testing, continuous regression (in a functional testing perspective) it can’t be done without adopting these technologies. Here we are talking about automating an end to end business flow right from the moment when the development is done. Codeless approach gives us the option of automating from day one not waiting for weeks to generate Automated test cases. The advantages are endless

- Match the Pace of the Development Cycle

- Lower Maintenance and scale Automation

- Free up resources for better testing and lower costs

- Extend the scope of automation

- Increase adoption across organization with shared Automation solution

- Ease of use and greater scalability

- Effortless integration with CI Tools

Conclusion: -

We all know that the world of software development and testing has moved to a new generation. We all want a different outcome which is faster, easier and more agile but that can’t be achieved with our old approaches, toolsets and frameworks which are even two or three years old. It can’t be achieved unless and until we take a different approach, an improved Automation strategy, a different framework as well as we need to change our mindset. The Codeless Automation is surely adding a new dimension aligned with current time. The world is changing rapidly are we changing at the same pace? 😊