Manual and automated testing

Manual and automated testing today play an important role in any company. Regardless of the project being developed, code verification is very necessary. In order to help save both time and finances you should have correct and competent design and clearly understand what kind of testing should be applied to what situation.
Before choosing which testing should be used, a detailed plan for the life cycle of the product being developed should be drawn up.

Manual testing.

‍This type of testing often takes much more time, but in the short term, this type of testing can save much more money. The cost is due only to the tester. Manual testing can be seen as the interaction of a flawless tester and software in order to find defects and errors. Thus, during manual testing, there is an opportunity to receive feedback, which is not feasible with automated testing. Working with the application directly, the tester can compare the expected result with the actual and leave feedback.

Benefits:

• Custom feedback. The entire tester report can be viewed as feedback from a potential user;
  
• UI feedback. Nowadays, the user interface plays a huge role, and therefore it can be fully tested only manually;
• Cheapness. In the short term, manual testing is cheaper than automated testing tools;
  
• Testing in the real-time. Minor changes can be investigated immediately, without writing code and its execution;
  
• The possibility of research testing. Its purpose is to test the various features of the application. It is important than not pre-compiled test cases are used.

Disadvantages:

• Human factor. Although the UI can only be tested manually, some errors may go unnoticed;
  
• The complexity of reuse. Carrying out a series of standard automated tests easier than testing a project manually after making even small changes;
  
• Impossibility of load testing. You cannot simulate a large number of users manually.

Automated testing.

Automated testing involves writing code and plays an important role in complex applications with many functions. Using such testing, the expected scenarios are compared with what the user receives, after which the discrepancies are indicated.

Benefits:

• The possibility of load testing by clicking simulating a large number of users;
  
• Save time. Manual testing of large applications is a long and laborious process, while auto test scripts are written once;
  
• Reusability. The test script, written once, can be used in the future with the next update of the project.

Disadvantages:

• High cost. Automated testing tools, as well as training in their use, are not cheap, so you need to carefully evaluate the budget;
  
• UI testing. Automated testing cannot fully cover user interface requirements;
  
• Lack of 'human gaze'. There may be errors that only a person will notice.

Both types of testing have both advantages and disadvantages. A combination of both is an ideal way to get the maximum result from testing. StarNAVI specialists provide web design and development services as well as qa testing services, so don't hesitate and contact our sales representatives to get the solution you need!

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