Transitioning from Manual to Automation Testing in 2024

Quality Assurance (QA) and testing take up +23% of an organization’s annual IT budget.¹ Software testing, specifically, has been labeled as one of the primary constraints of software development.²

Organizations aim to switch to automation testing because it provides faster and more efficient outcomes than manual testing.³ However, businesses face barriers that block their transition from manual to automated testing, such as:⁴

• Cost of automation tools
• Lack of automation expertise
• Organizational and cultural resistance
• Concerns about the ROI of test automation 

This article provides QA teams with an in-depth explanation and a guide on transitioning from manual to automated testing.  

What is manual testing? 

In manual testing, the testers manually prepare and execute test cases to find software bugs. Manual testing is the oldest and the most exacting testing software technique.⁵

This makes manual testing time-consuming, requiring testers to have specific coding skills, patience, and analytical thinking. 

Why switch to automated testing?

Performing repetitive manual testing on large software applications, or those with extensive dataset coverage, is proven to be challenging.⁶

In fast-paced, agile development environments, test automation is a vital practice because it: 

• Shortens the time it takes to run tests
• Speeds up test execution cycles 

Functional and load/stress testing are examples of automated testing applied to externally or internally developed software or services to aid in the testing process.⁷

What are the benefits of automation testing over manual testing? 

Automated testing’s benefits over manual testing are aplenty:  

1. Faster test case generation: Manual testing is the most time-consuming activity in the testing cycle.

What are the best practices for switching from manual to automated testing?

1. Develop a consistent test automation strategy 

Businesses’ test automation goals depend on the infrastructure of the business in question and the desired outcome. However, we can see that companies generally prioritize automated testing in their software testing practices: 

• Moving to automated testing is the top goal in the software-testing space (figure 1)
• A significant portion of companies (~37%) allocate 30-49% of their QA budget to test automation (See figure 2).

Figure 1: Top priorities in software testing

Source: Perfecto⁸  

The importance of automated testing, both strategically and financially, warrants a goal-oriented, consistent test automation strategy with a clear vision. 

Our advice 

• Calculate the desired outcomes and the budget allocation before advancing. 
• Once you devise a clear plan, don’t make significant changes during the transition from manual to automated testing. A consistent plan will maintain the pre-established objectives and strategies, keeping the team members on the same page.

Figure 2: QA team’s budget allocation for test automation

Kobiton⁹

2. Learn to code, or switch to no-code test automation platforms

In manual testing, the tester needs to be equipped with skills and knowledge about coding. In automated testing, this need decreases; however, using an automation tool still requires the QA team to learn the programming language related to the automation tool that they choose. 

In a survey of 94 IT leaders, 44% answered that the lack of automation expertise on the team was one of the barriers to switching to automated testing for UI/GUI testing.¹⁰  

Our advice 

If the QA team lacks the resources to bring onboard or learn coding skills, they can choose no-code test automation platforms.

Having a basic understanding of coding or programming language could still be a valuable asset in the QA team as it can help them better understand developers.

3. Picking the right test automation tool

Picking the right test automation tool is one of the crucial steps for transitioning from manual to automated testing. 

In the same survey mentioned above, of 94 IT leaders, 61% answered that the cost of test automation tools was one of the primary barriers to automating their UI/GUI testing.¹¹  This can be deceiving because over 200 open-source and paid test automation tools are in the market, each offering different features. You may not need all the exclusive features of an expensive automation tool. 

For example, a business that aims to automate API and mobile testing would benefit from a test automation platform that provides these two testing features. They would not necessarily need a platform that offers desktop and web testing per se. 

Our advice

Prices of the test automation market should not intimate businesses. Some open-source test automation tools offer a decent number of features that may be sufficient for certain businesses. That is why it is important for you to consider which features you’ll need the most before deciding on using a test automation tool.

Sponsored

Testifi offers CAST, a test automation tool. By using a test-first strategy, it seeks to support businesses as they go through the path of providing high-quality software and accelerating release cycles. It is a low-code test automation tool that provides flexibility. 

4. Analyze the outcome

Analyze whether automating each case is beneficial. 

Businesses should pay attention to the fact that despite its intelligence, automated testing lacks cognitive skills and cannot display decision-making intelligence comparable to that of a human.

Considering this factor, there are cases where automation testing would fall short:

• Functionality testing
• User acceptance testing
• Exploratory testing
• User Experience (UX) testing 

These are test cases where manual testing could be a better method than automated testing.

Our advice

It is essential to analyze and not just go for manual or automation testing because there can also be test cases and test coverage where testers could apply both methods. 

For example, regression testing can be both done manually or automated. You should make a decision based on the context of the issue, for example, the number of test cases;

If the number of regression tests is relatively small, testers can handle them manually in less time. However, automated regression testing could be the better option if the number of regression tests is high.

If you need more guidance on quality assurance, reach us:

External Links

• 1. “Proportion of budget allocated to quality assurance and testing as a percentage of IT spend from 2012 to 2019” Statista. February 21, 2022
• 2. Ariola, Wayne “DevOps: Are You Pushing Bugs to Your Clients Faster?” PNSQC. 2015
• 3. C. Klammer and R. Ramler, “A Journey from Manual Testing to Automated Test Generation in an Industry Project,” 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security Companion (QRS-C), 2017, pp. 591-592.
• 4. “How to Transition from Manual to Automated Testing: Idera DevOps Tools Podcast Episode 2.1” Ranorex, January 20, 2022
• 5. V.N. Muayra. “Analytical Study on Manual vs. Automated Testing Using with Simplistic Cost Model”. International Journal of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, January 2012
• 6. R. M. Sharma. “Quantitative Analysis of Automation and Manual Testing” International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT). Volume 4, Issue 1, July 2014.
• 7. “Automated Testing” Gartner Glossary, Retrieved 23 December 2022
• 8. “2022 State of Test Automation” Perfecto, 2022
• 9. “State of Test Automation 2020-2021” Kobiton, 2021
• 10. “How to Transition from Manual to Automated Testing: Idera DevOps Tools Podcast Episode 2.1” Ranorex, January 20, 2022
• 11. “How to Transition from Manual to Automated Testing: Idera DevOps Tools Podcast Episode 2.1” Ranorex, January 20, 2022