Testing processes have always been a sore spot for organizations during the product development cycle. In an organization where a single software bug can cause severe financial losses, quality assurance (QA) testing is on top priority for any software product irrespective of its scale of deployment.

In the traditional test approach, manual testing processes have been used with the understanding that these methods would provide accurate results. However, these processes are quite lengthy and tiring. Manual testing has proved its mettle in many cases undoubtedly; however, it often fails to deliver under the overflow of features, links, buttons, java scripts, and integrations.

There are many other challenges that organizations have to face, some of them are:

• Higher maintenance cost
• Slower execution time
• Indicates inappropriate results
• Extensive and complex procedure
• Takes additional effort to identify the bug
• Negative impact on project delivery

It is not surprising that business leaders are taking note of the challenges they face—and expecting IT leaders to take actions. Most enterprises are striving to work toward fast-tracking software delivery and demand improvement in time it takes to test. And, that's where automated software testing tools have come into the picture with a small augmentation to perform validation on software/applications/web applications.

“ The global test automation market was valued at approximately USD 15.87 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach approximately USD 54.98 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 23.01% between 2017 and 2022.”   — Zion Market Research

In the existing Agile development cycle where the development and release cycles include releasing some set of features and delaying those sets in repeated releases, testing becomes more complex.

When enterprises have no choice but to automate the testing process to assess performance testing and user experience, codeless test automation leads the way.

Here's How Codeless Test Automation Works

There are various methods for codeless testing. The two most widely used methods are:

1) Record manual tests and play it back

2) Create structured test flow diagrams for running tests

The first approach is the most sought after and used method among organizations and specifically preferred by web-based products. It's based on a simple principle — when a tester performs a test inthe traditional way, the tool will record it click by click. The tool then creates scripts to automate the testing itself. Testers will also have freedom to edit the scripts, though they are testers not coders and that's why the Codeless test automation process is best suited for their needs.

The second approach is a graph-based approach which is aimed at reducing the gigantic set of test cases that are often expressive although very helpful. These techniques are not widely used in software testing as much as they are used in software design flow or use case diagrams.

The Benefits of Codeless Testing

1. Compatible With The Speed of The Development Cycle

Codeless test automation is designed with graphical UI workflows, all code is created to make automation easy to learn and implement. The testing process can start automating the use cases as soon as UI development is done without wasting time and going through difficult coding and frameworks. This makes it possible to match the speed of the development cycle with continuous integration and testing in Agile.

2. Lower Maintenance Cost and Scale Automation

Automated flows can be united into reusable parts to use as sub-flows across testing use cases. If changes are made into re-used sub-flows, these changes will go into effect through all testing use cases holding the module. That means for most of the part, it is not necessary to correct the automation flows every time the system under test changes as codeless test automation depends on native identification of the objects of test use cases.

Automating tests fundamentally follows current business rules and best practices. This makes it easy to scale and maintain the test automation cost.

3. Outspread the Scope of Automation

Codeless automation process helps to support various types of applications, such as web, desktop, and virtual applications. More specifically, this means that automated tests can include various interfaces across applications as part or beyond the project. With this flexibility, it is easy to measure the amount of automation from one to several applications, especially, those that include testing automation between projects.

4. Advance Adoption With A Codeless Test Automation

Unlike code-based custom frameworks, the codeless automation testing can be used as a complete solution for automation needs across the organizations. By advancing an automation testing process with a center of excellence setup, it is easy to share knowledge and best practices across projects for collaboration.

5. Effortless Document Processes and Changes

Codeless testing including visual description of a process and a documentation of how that process is executed decreases the testing efforts. Automated tests are documented with video and logs using advanced testing practices. All actions and events can be recorded in audit trails.

In the near future, codeless automation testing would be a tool for automation testers to boost their jobs rather than replace their jobs. Soon, automation tools will become smart enough to eliminate the need for test script coding and allow testing instructions to be passed right away to the system using a complete codeless solution.