While analyzing various automation tools, a comparison of key parameters helps select the right tool for the specific requirements of the project. Created a comparison chart of tools listed above based on the most important parameters for automation projects. Organizations can assign values to these parameters as per their automation requirements. The tool with the highest score can be considered for further investigation.
Criteria for Automation Testing Tool Evaluation
Does your team possess the necessary skills to best utilize the tool? Automation testing is much more technical than manual testing. In many automation tools, especially open-source software, testers must possess a sufficient level of programming knowledge to write and execute test scripts. This technical barrier appears to be the most challenging obstacle in adopting test automation for QA teams with limited IT background.
What is your team budget? Here’s a fact: Test automation is not affordable in many cases. However, it brings out a positive ROI for your team and business in the long run as long as the budget is calculated thoroughly. Depending on the budget, it will be easier for you to pick the appropriate software, an open-source or commercial tool. We will talk about these types of tools further in the following part of this article.
What features to look for? While the requirements vary from team to team, there are some key factors that you should always take in consideration when choosing a suitable automation tool. They include:
Supported platforms
Applied application under tests
Programming languages
CI/CD integration capabilities
Reporting functionality
How difficult is script maintenance and reusability? A significant factor that escalates the total cost for test automation is script maintenance. Pre-written scripts in automation testing are fragile by nature. The ideal automation tool should come with capabilities to reduce such effort, such as eliminating object locator flakiness. On the other hand, script reusability saves you and the team a great deal of time for similar test cases as you can reuse test scripts.
How are the integration capabilities? The selected automation tool must be able to integrate to CI/CD pipelines and external platforms to ensure the testing continuity. Robust and comprehensive integration also allows you to better your test management and team collaboration.
How and where can you get technical support? Another key point to be noticed is the support for your tool. For commercial tools, they should provide users with prompt customer support for all technical issues. Remember to check out their official documentation and website to see what means of support you can get. In terms of open-source software, a large and active user community is what you can lay on whenever encountering problems.
There are many tools with each having several unique good features. Sometimes single tool may not satisfy all project requirements and constraints, resulting in multiple automation tools to be used.