Pros and Cons of Codeless Test Automation
In order to create automated tests for software applications, testers have historically needed to understand and be able to code in programming languages. But in the agile world, where software is released in smaller iterations rather than all at once, the development and testing processes have to be quick as well as accurate in order to maintain pace. Scripting from scratch every time takes awhile and may cause a delay in the release.
One solution is codeless testing. Codeless testing is a type of automation testing that helps in the quick creation of automated test scripts. This is accomplished either with record-and-playback tools and minimal coding, or sometimes without writing any code.
Most of the tools for codeless automation provide a graphical user interface with a built-in testing framework where users can record desired actions using smart element locators, resulting in seamless, easy, fast test automation suite development.
Codeless testing can eliminate the need for any prior scripting. This allows testers to focus on testing activities rather than putting a lot of effort into creating test scripts and maintaining them for each minor or major change.
In addition to helping testers, codeless testing offers advantages for the entire agile team.
Less training for testers: When testers need to code their tests, they usually undergo specialized training to master programming. With the introduction of codeless automation, it is easy to train a number of testers in creating automated tests, without any need for scripting skills.
Favorable for agile developers: In agile’s rapid release cycles, testing is integrated into the development step of each iteration, so codeless automation saves a lot of time and effort by offering reusable automated scripts.
Speeds up the testing process: Compared to traditional automated testing where testers had to manually create complicated scripts, codeless automation brings down the time to a large extent because the scripting is done automatically without any effort from the tester.
However, there are also disadvantages to codeless automation, including bottlenecks.
No scope for customization: When everything is done in the background automatically, there is no room for the testers to customize the scripts, leaving the entire testing outcome up to the automation tools.
Your product is made public: Most codeless testing tools are available on the internet only, so in order to get products tested with these tools, the developer has to share the file through a common IP address and make the product accessible to the public.
It’s not 100% codeless: Though the scripts are created automatically, there may be requirements for manual coding at some points, so some testers will probably still have to know the basics of scripting.
Codeless automation can be considered the “automation of automation.” Despite its drawbacks, it’s a major timesaver for agile teams, particularly developers and testers.
The codeless revolution is still in its infancy, but due to its multi-dimensioned advantages, codeless automation will likely see increased adoption this year.
About the Author
He is the founder of ArtOfTesting, a software testing tutorial blog. He is a QA professional with a demonstrated history of working in the e-commerce, education and technology domain. He is skilled in test automation, performance testing, big data, and CI-CD.