Blogger Kyle McMeekin writing for QAsymphony.com in his post “Test Automation vs. Automation Testing” explains the definition and distinction between automated testing and test automation, and also goes into their roles in continuous testing and why this type of testing is important to understand.
McMeekin begins by defining automation as using technology to complete a task. When applied to the field of software quality assurance, there are two different types of automation: automated testing and test automation. While the terms sound interchangeable, the author differentiates them by explaining how the scope of each is different.
Automated testing is concerned with the automation of executing particular test cases, while test automation is concerned with automating the management of the test cases as an aggregate. While automated testing is actually carrying out the tests we are interested in, testing automation manages the pipeline of all of the automated tests. So the scope of automated testing is more local compared to the more global scope of test automation.
After differentiating between these two types of automation, McMeekin describes how they apply to continuous testing, and explains the importance of this strategy in today’s economic climate. While most software testing is done after development is finished, today more tech companies are using models where the software is constantly in development constantly updated even after it becomes released. In this case, testing must be conducted as soon as something is changed. This technique is known as continuous testing.
However, keeping track of every test suite constantly is a huge task itself. This is where test automation comes in. If we are able to automate the process of managing the processes of this ever-growing list of test suites, a massive amount of work is saved on the tester’s part, freeing up time to create effective test cases.
Automation is at the heart of computer science, as saving work by taking advantage of computer’s abilities to handle processes is integral to being a good developer. So learning how to apply automation in the context of software testing is definitely advantageous. Especially since it is so common nowadays for programs to be constantly added to after release, the amount of tests to keep track of increases steadily. By taking advantage of test automation and keeping track of all the testing processes, we don’t need to worry about the timing of the tests, we can spend more time testing and analyzing the behavior of software.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Bit by Bit by rdentremont58 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.