Can Test Automation Replace Human Testers?

The fact that Software testing is integral to the development and overall success of any product in the IT industry, puts Software development managers worldwide in an all too familiar dilemma. What testing strategy they should pursue? Do they hire the services of a professional testing team for their product verification? Or would they be better served using an automated tool. The debate on the use of Manual testing vs. Automated testing has been raging on for quite some time now. Before we judge the utility of either, it wouldn't do any harm to briefly enumerate the pros and cons for both.

Automated testing

Test automation employs specialized software tools which run a set of repetitive tests with a predefined set of instructions, to compare a program's expected and actual responses. If there is a perfect alignment between the two, then it indicates the bug free quality of the product and its readiness for shipping. If not, then the software needs de-bugging and a re-run of tests until all the glitches are rectified. Let's take a look at some of the advantages of this approach:

Pros:

1. Runs quickly off the mark:

One of the biggest factors which give an edge to Automated testing over manual testing is of course, the speed. Best part is the re-usability of these tests, which is a much needed relief for those running regressions on a frequently changing code.

2. Versatility:

Automation testing can be done on different machines and operating system platforms on a concurrent basis.

3. BVT:

It is very effective for Build Verification and Testing.

 4.Project size:

Automated testing is apt for large scale projects.

Cons:-

• Automation testing is not helpful with UI testing
•  High initial cost of tools.
•  When it comes to considerations requiring a human touch such as image contrast or text font size, automated testing cannot be trusted with the most accurate of solutions.