In the agile world of development and testing there is heavy debate on the importance of test automation versus manual testing.

Manual Testing Provides the Stable Environment Needed to Run Test Automation

Because manual testing provides the basis for creating and running the test automation in a stable environment, manual testers must…

• Manage the early stages of product development to assure that all bugs are documented and resolved before automation begins

• Create a test planCreate test cases based off of requirements

• Create UAT documentationMake recommendations to the automation engineer on which sections of the product are candidates for test automation

• Continue to do exploratory/ad hoc testing parallel to the automated testing Review errors thrown by the automated testing suite

Why is Test Automation the Key?

Automation can run test suites in a fraction of the time that it would take a human QA resource - saving time and money!  Here are some examples of the benefits to using automation.

• Automated tests can run in multiple browsers within minutesIt takes only one click to launch a test suite of thousands of tests

• Regression tests are established and run after every product update

• New bugs are quickly identified and delivered in concise reports

• Automated tests can be updated and expanded easily to test over all new functionalities

Capitalizing on The Perfect Balance

As we mentioned early on, the strength of automated and manual testing is in being used together.

• Manual testing kicks off the project to give it a solid foundation and environment where test automation can successfully run without giving off too many errors to count!

• Manual testing is the basis for all the documentation that the QA team and the client need.Test automation is a great long-term solution to ensure continual quality

• Once implemented, Test automation is easy to update, simple to use, and is cost effective

• Manual testing provides all the human work needed to test functionalities of the site that cannot be automated

When combined they ensure quality throughout the lifetime of the project. Heavy manual testing focus during the early stages of development and to provide exploratory testing long-term.  Test automation to maintain long-term quality whenever updates are pushed.