#codeless testing

Dive into the growing adoption of codeless automation testing tools and how they’re reshaping the Quality Assurance landscape. Uncover the key advantages, potential drawbacks, and insights from industry experts as we examine whether these tools are a game-changer or a passing trend. Learn how codeless platforms are influencing testing efficiency, widening accessibility, and redefining the responsibilities of today’s QA professionals.

What is codeless automation testing? 

Codeless automation testing is a type of software testing that allows a test engineer to run test cases by writing any script(coding), Whenever an application is under development. To test a product there, parallel testing is also required to find any bug because we can face financial losses, customer disappointment, etc. To test that type of bug, automation testing comes into the process.  

Automation testing with coding can be complicated, also writing the code for test cases is time-consuming, and high skills are required to code the automation tests. So codeless testing is the easiest way to test all these problems or products. 

Automation testing Vs. codeless testing 

Automation testing:  It Involves writing scripts in programming languages (like Java, Python, or C#) to automate test execution.  Testers need to manually code the test cases, often using testing frameworks like Selenium, JUnit, or TestNG. It requires knowledge of programming languages and testing frameworks. Testers need to understand coding practices, debugging, and script maintenance. It takes more time to develop and maintain test scripts. Requires an initial investment of time in coding and setting up the environment. It requires programming skills, offers high flexibility and customization, and is better suited for complex, large-scale projects. 

Codeless testing: Codeless testing reduces time or solution to this problem. It involves using tools that allow testers to create automated test cases without writing any code. Testers interact with a visual interface, often through drag-and-drop features or record-and-playback functionality, to build tests. It is designed for users with little to no programming knowledge. It is easier for manual testers or business analysts to adopt. There are many tools for codeless testing. It is best for non-programmers, with simple and quick test automation, but limited in flexibility and complexity. 

Why is codeless test automation needed? 

There are two types of testing, one is manual testing and second is automation testing. Manual testers check every functionality as per the feature documentation provided by the client. Whenever there is a deployment of new features, manual testers have to test every single feature again manually, and it takes a lot of time. And On the second side, automation testers write script on bases of required test cases. If developer makes some change in any single feature, the automation tester(SDET)  have to run his script and make change every code which contains the code of that feature. 

1. It is very easy to understand for Manual testers and also easily and due to this, the gap between manual and automation testers can be fulfilled. 

2. Codeless testing makes easy and quick way to automate script. 

3. Automation through code can’t be understandable to every customer, he can see the results of failure or pass test cases, but can’t understand the logic behind it. So in codeless testing, very easy to understand the automation for the clients. 

Codeless Automation Tools: 

Katalon Studio 

Leapwork 

Ranorex Studio 

TestCraft 

BugBug.io 

Selenium IDE 

Cloud QA 

ACCELQ 

Sikuli 

Mabl 

Testim,   

Applitools, etc…. 

Conclusion: 

Introduction to No-Code Automation in QA

Begin by explaining the rise of no-code automation tools, which allow quality assurance teams to create and run automated tests without programming. Highlight how this shift accelerates the testing process and enables non-technical team members to contribute to QA efforts.

Key Benefits of No-Code Automation for QA

Faster Test Creation:

Describe how no code test automation tools, with drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built templates, speed up the creation of test cases, reducing setup time and enabling rapid adaptation to changes.

Reduced Test Maintenance:

Many no-code tools offer self-healing features that adjust tests in response to minor changes in the application, decreasing maintenance time and improving test reliability.

Enhanced Collaboration Across Teams:

With no-code platforms, non-technical stakeholders like product managers and business analysts can actively participate in testing, resulting in a more collaborative QA process.

Lower Entry Barriers and Costs:

Explain how teams without extensive coding expertise can utilize no-code testing, cutting down training costs and making testing accessible to a wider group.

Conclusion

If you have been reading my blogs and bytes of wisdom, which I occasionally post on LinkedIn, you would know how much I enjoy using a good analogy. So here we go — in Greek, today.

In the epic quest of software development, the teams navigate treacherous terrain riddled with unknown, and sometimes known, bugs and errors. With Test Automation as their trusted ally, they brave the coding complexities to ensure the quality of their products.

But are they making the right choices?

1. Need for Programming Skills: Open source platforms demand a higher level of programming proficiency.

2. Time-Consuming: Creating and maintaining tests can be time-consuming, especially for complex applications undergoing frequent changes.

3. Flaky Tests: Instabilities in tests due to synchronization issues, dynamic content, or environmental variations.

4. Resource Intensive: Dedicated resources may be needed for script development, leading to higher costs.

5. Scalability Challenges: Scaling test automation with open source tools becomes challenging as application functionalities increase in complexity.

6. Limited Reusability of Tests: Test scripts in open-source tools may lack reusability.

To overcome these challenges, the shift to Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) platforms proves to be the right choice.

Implementing LCNC technologies can revolutionize work processes, automating tedious tasks and allowing teams to focus on strategic, high-value work. According to McKinsey, “There’s expected to be a 70% growth in the adoption of low-code/no-code by 2025”.

Let’s see what power these platforms hold to help you navigate the challenges faced during software development and testing.

Power of Low-Code/ No-Code Platforms

1. Shorter Time to Market: Code templates and pre-built features reduce development time, resulting in a quicker time to market.

2. Reduced Learning Curve: Minimal coding experience is required, enabling easy use of visual interfaces and pre-built components.

3. Accelerated Test Creation and Maintenance: Drag-and-drop functionality and reusable components speed up the test creation and maintenance process.

4. No more Flaky Tests: LCNC platforms minimize reliance on intricate coding, addressing issues related to dynamic elements and reducing flaky tests.

5. Enhanced Collaboration: Encourages collaboration between business analysts and testers, making development and testing cycles more agile.

6. Reduced Costs: Less dependency on developers for UI tests, allowing testers to contribute to automation and reducing associated costs.

7. Scalability: Handles complex test scenarios and scales according to changing testing process needs.

8. Increased Productivity: Developers can focus on more critical business problems instead of spending hours coding.

9. Reusability: Emphasizes modular designs, allowing for the creation of reusable components and test flows.

The power of LCNC platforms is nothing short of a divine revelation. Businesses are harnessing the power of these platforms to elevate their testing rituals and hasten the delivery of their digital progeny. Yet, in this quest for excellence, it is prudent to acknowledge that specialized guardians are still needed to navigate the labyrinths of software development and perform feats beyond the reach of automated tools.

Much like Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Webomates CQ provides codeless test automation services, seamlessly integrating with various automation frameworks. It bestows the ability to modify test cases effortlessly, ensuring a harmonious coexistence between mortal testers and the divine automation realm.

If you want to discover how codeless testing can help you in achieving excellence, reach out to us at [email protected].

Most applications today are designed with a service-oriented architecture structure. So the application is interconnected with many subsystems that can be outside of the application environment.

If there’s a failure in any of the subsystems, it can cause the entire application to crash.

So to make sure everything is working fine, we need to test the entire flow of an application from start to finish (or end-to-end).

E2E testing mainly serves two purposes:

To test the entire application for major business components such as communicating with the other systems, interfaces, databases, networks, and other applications.

To create a complete production-like scenario and test happy flow, so that we can simulate real-time settings and environment and avoid any application crash.

Why do we need End-to-End testing in Agile?

In each sprint, both the dev and test teams focus on a single service out of all the integrated services used in an application. But there are chances that they missed out on the sub-systems or services that could potentially break.

Therefore, the QA team must make sure that specific changes in a single service don’t affect the entire workflow.

How is E2E testing different from traditional testing?

Traditional testing comprises Unit, Integration, System, and UAT. But End-to-end testing is started after System testing.

Sometimes we get confused between System/Unit/Integration testing and end-to-end testing. But these are quite different.

Here’s a short example for some clarity — let’s assume we have an application with three subsystems:

Search

Order

Payment

In the current sprint, requirement specification changes in the payment subsystem are: Adding new payment options should be visible to the customers.

So as per the requirement, System testing will take care of the functionality related only to the newly added payments option.

But end-to-end testing will have the scenarios starting from Search to Payment (with newly added payment option) with the Order confirmation.

The scope, complexity, and maintenance of E2E testing are higher than that of the Unit and Integration testings.

So while preparing test cases and automation scripts, it’s always better to first understand the application architecture with the complete happy flow so that it will be easy to define the coverage.

Who can perform E2E Testing?

E2E testing should be performed by someone who has in-depth knowledge of application and aware of the product architecture. So apart from QA, a business analyst, client, product owner or even technical manager are good candidates to perform E2E testing.

End-to-end Testing Methods:

Horizontal E2E testing

It works through every phase of business workflow and ensures that the functional requirement document maps with the developed application.

A horizontal end-to-end test verifies each and every workflow through individual applications from start to finish ensuring that each interrelated process works correctly. In general, this type of testing takes place at the end of the release cycle and in a stable environment setup. So with this approach, we can get more coverage on the functional part but it cannot be performed until all release changes are fully implemented.

Vertical E2E testing

This method refers to testing in layers, tests happen in sequential, hierarchical order. Vertical testing used to test each component separately and thoroughly, and it is more part of SDLC. The most common approach to performing this is BDD, TDD, and CI-CD.

The best way to achieve it by performing unit tests for each component and then perform testing on network infrastructure, API integration, and UI layers. So by using this we can get high coverage of testing for the core code. As it can be implemented in stages so easy to find defects respective to each stage.

Steps for End to End Testing Process

These are the steps essential to E2E testing:

Requirements Analysis: Analyze the requirement thoroughly and cover major business components in the E2E workflow.

Environment Set-Up: Set up a test environment keeping the production environment details in mind. Try to make it as similar to the production in terms of software and hardware requirements.

Sub-Systems: Make sure that all the sub-systems are part of E2E flow.

TestCase Design: Design test cases with maximum coverage and add test data to test common user scenarios. Focus on functionality of high priority, and design more elaborate test cases to verify it.

Execution: Execute the entire E2E test suite and then analyze the results. Never forget to run a suite in the proper sequence. If required, execute the E2E scenario in multiple browsers.

Maintain Order: Since E2E testing comprises the entire application, test cases are more complex than functional test cases. Each component of the system has to be tested, which increases failure percentage. Structure and sequence of execution are very crucial in E2E testing. Conduct unit tests and integration tests first to resolve the initial level of errors. Once end to end testing begins, simultaneously run the smoke and sanity tests with high-risk user scenarios.

How to make E2E testing in Agile more efficient:

Try to automate the E2E test cases with maximum coverage.

Keep the E2E automation suite separate from Smoke, Sanity, and BVT.

Execute E2E suite before any sprint release to make sure that the happy flow of the application is working as expected and new changes don’t have any impact on the subsystems of the product.

Integrate the E2E suite with CI/CD pipeline using any tool like Jenkins.

As E2E suites take time to execute so create Jenkins job and schedule it at night so that all the failed test cases can be analyzed in the working hours.

Every so often, E2E does contain some cross-browser and parallel testing too, so in that case, try to take advantage of Selenium Grid with Docker. Use Docker containers for different browsers and execute the test cases in parallel using TestNG.

While running the E2E automation suite, it is required to create an environment similar to production and need to avoid any environment level issue, so to achieve this, you can use Docker containers.

E2E Test Deliverables

The E2E test team will create the following work products:

Test cases with detailed steps for the E2E test suite.

Enterprise test automation framework configured for the application.

Automated test execution reports and defects encountered during the End-to-End test suite.

The requirement traceability matrix will ensure that the entire requirement on the E2E workflow.

Transactional test data generated during test execution.

Documentation and manuals.

Script coding and management standards.

Script Development/Execution tracker.

Functional Issue log tracker.

Workflow diagram of the application.

Ensure maximum coverage with data, process, and the logic behind the functional workflow.

Benefits of end-to-end testing:

Ensures stability and quality of product

Since the application is tested at different layers like data, business, integration, and presentation, it ensures the stability and quality of the application.

Increases Confidence on E2E Business workflow

End-to-end testing increases the confidence in the functional flow and performance before its release as the application is validated across all endpoints for different devices, browsers, platforms.

Frequent Testing Reduces Risks

As the application is tested in every iteration and sprints, it reduces the chances of any major bugs.

Reduces Repetitive Testing Efforts

End-to-end testing reduces the occurrences of frequent breakdowns and thus reduces repetitive testing efforts.

Costs Effective & Less Time

Implementing E2E testing reduces error recurrence in the later stage of product development, so fixing those issues during the early phase of the SDLC saves lots of budgets. As in E2E we make sure of the major business flows so by performing it we can avoid all major issues which can be a blockage for sprint release. Automation of the end-to-end test allows quickly adapt changing business requirements and enhance agility to the testing project.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of Automated Testing wherever applicable in software test processes has been rarely disputed. Automated Testing reduces testing time, identifies bugs faster and facilitates continuous development (CD). However, Automated Testing environments tend to get extremely large (one with over 100 test scenarios would qualify as large and test scenarios can easily run into the 1000’s) and tedious to maintain. It produces results that cannot be fully relied on. Therefore, it is critical for managing a large test environment effectively using well-defined processes and a decent set of tools.

If your test library is large, it is important that you find out if the individual test scenarios are properly organized, critical to the core application and relevant to the latest application version or to the usage pattern.

Test Organization: Your applications tests may involve testing various functional capabilities of an application. How do you determine which tests to run after you have made updates to just one section of your application (for example, your “billing” functionality has been updated)? You may not want to run all your test scenarios (unless doing regression tests) in order to test a small update. Your test framework should allow you to categorize your tests by functional areas so that you can quickly filter out everything else and run only those tests that belong to a specific function.

Test Criticality: Ideally you would create tests that cover both the critical and non-critical areas of your application. Your testing framework should provide an efficient way to manage bugs and failures. You should be able to categorize your test upfront by criticality (Critical, High, Medium or Low) so as to prioritize the testing as well as the resolution based on the criticality of the test.

Test Relevance: In most environments, software development and testing is a continuous process and over time you can have a large number of tests. Unfortunately, as software evolves (with new or updated features, changed processes, etc.) some of the tests become redundant or duplicate. It can be challenging managing test library to ensure that only quality test cases exist, especially if your testing framework does not allow for easy review of the individual test cases/scenarios. You should be able to log and keep a track of the entire test creation life cycle (including updates). For instance, you should be able to track the test creation date, the module/release version for which the test was created, the test case revision history along with the name of individuals who authored the tests. This would make a periodic review of test cases to identify redundant scenarios much easier and keep your test library lean and clean. It will ensure a test environment that provides high-quality test results that you can rely on to make decisions. You do not want to rely on the results from redundant tests by ignoring “passed” results or waste your time by acting on “failed” results that they produce.

Test Usage: If there are test scenarios exceeding 2 months sitting in your library, there is a possibility that they are just taking up space and may not be required anymore. It is vital that your testing framework should be able to identify such test scenarios so that you can make apt decisions, either to re-prioritize or re-categorize them for efficient usage or get rid of them.

By maintaining your test libraries through regular checks, you will certainly have a manageable test environment that produces reliable results on which you can make assertions and also ensure a faster and better software development process.

CloudQA and Effective Test Management

CloudQA is much more than just a Test Automation tool. It has some helpful features that make test management much simpler.

Test Organization: You have the ability to tag your test cases and test scenarios by functional groups or any other preferred method. (show image)

Test Criticality: Tag your test cases/test scenarios as Critical, High, Medium or Low.

Test Usage & their Relevance: CloudQA keeps a record of the run history of all your test cases. You can view the history in many ways – for example – show the behavior of “Critical” Test Scenarios in “Billing” function over the last 4 weeks OR show the “Critical” test scenarios that have not been run in the last 2 months OR look at the revision history or a particular test.

To know more, visit https://cloudqa.io/ or email us at [email protected]

SaaS or Software as a Service model is increasingly becoming popular. Thanks to its features like – quick deployment, reduced dependency on internal systems, an increase in availability, reliability of resource and most importantly low upfront costs, it serves as the best choice.

However, looking at the flip side, the companies are under immense pressure to release new features at a fast pace. Adapting agile methodology for development and testing has helped the businesses, but has also come with the challenges – the need to deliver quality software. So, what could be done? How can you assure the quality of the software yet make a quick delivery?

Codeless Automated testing for SaaS-based web apps

We all know how crucial is to test any software, but with a SaaS-based application there are numerous challenges that makes testing of utmost importance. So let’s take a glance to the challenges of SaaS Application and how codeless testing tools can help overcome them.

Requirements of a SaaS application:

Frequent Updates and UI Validation

Why is it important

 Live Updates are smooth

 Integration and Interface connectivity are seamless

 User does not experience any discontinuity of the services

 The existing features work as expected

Solution By Codeless Test Automation

Setup could be achieved within minutes

Execution of test cases is possible from any location, anytime

Ability to test live site without interfering with users workflow

In case a test case need amendment due to software update/ feature change, edits could be made in a very short time

Scalability and Performance

Why is it important

Certifying the load at zero and peak hours in multiple environments

Defining the downtime and availability of the application

Scaling the users depending upon the usage/market requirement

Solution By Codeless Test Automation

Provides a clear data on response time, reliability, resource usage and scalability of the software under various condition.

Security

Why is it important

By verifying the privileges assigned to a user

Continuous monitoring of logs and database to detect unauthorized access

Compliance based testing

Testing the accessibility of data.

Solution By Codeless Test Automation

Defines levels of data access

Helps in detecting unauthorized access or fraud by continuous monitoring of logs

 Integrations & APIs

Why is it important

Ensuring compatibility, security, and performance of API’s when they handshake with other third-party application.

Solution By Codeless Test Automation

It possible to test the integration of the system with other interfaces or APIs

Cross Browser functionality

 Why is it important

SaaS Application need to be browser compatible and certify the minimum number of version it can support that browser, that’s where SaaS testing comes handy

Certifies the compatibility with different browsers and the minimum version it would run successfully.

Solution By Codeless Test Automation

It assists in certifying the browsers, the SaaS product is compatible and the required version is supported.

As an entrepreneur, if you are looking to reduce the testing efforts, test automation could be beneficial. It not only reduces the time-to-market but could also help you with providing accurate results. For building the test automation framework, test automation strategy in-house, here is the quick approach and best practices that could help you.

Test Automation Approach for SaaS Products

An efficient automation is one reduces manual effort, improves test coverage, reliability and provides a positive ROI. Hence while formalizing a test automation framework, fundamentally for a SaaS product, you should keep in mind the features of SaaS.

Record and Play Approach

The most basic test automation approach offers convenience, low implementation cost and easy to be deployed. However, it does not provide flexibility and maintaining a record and play tool when manual intervention is required could be a costly affair in the long run.

Data-Driven Approach

The approach is best suited when a significant amount of data is to be tested under different combinations. It involves some scripting, and hence team should be skilled enough to check data output under various conditions.

Keyword-Driven Approach

A testing approach that could be expanded to various platforms, applications and environments. It suits for large/small data sets and projects of long/short duration. However initial implementation cost is one of the major pitfalls of this approach.

Hybrid Keyword Approach

The most sophisticated test approach that is long-lasting, flexible, provides you with ample checkpoints, sustainable and comes with an ability to integrate with external objects. But again, the initial implementation cost is enormous, and during initial months you may not witness a positive ROI. Hybrid keyword approach is a long-term test automation strategy and may not be the right choice for short-lived and straightforward projects.

Best Practices for Testing SaaS Products

Make sure to set aside resources and time to measure the performance of the SaaS application.

Get a clear understanding of the requirement and “How it needs to be tested.” Just for example does SaaS product needs integration with any other application? Or Would it work under different environments?

With frequent release, set aside some time for exploratory testing in every release that helps in getting new test cases and bugs

Make sure to perform upgrade testing, data migration testing with frequent upgrades and changes of SaaS application

Ensure the security, stability and quality of the SaaS application when connected to third party APIs

Set an estimate to your test automation efforts. Just for example once you guys have decided on the approach, how much time do you think it would need to write one test script? How much time does it need to execute it? It would help in comparing the estimated and actual efforts, thereby re-aligning your test strategy and leading to a higher ROI.

The user base is quite crucial for a SaaS application, hence make sure to have room to scale up in case it is needed.

Set up a plan for disaster recovery to ensure your users are not in a hung state in case of discontinuance of service.

Ensure Reliability testing in your release cycle for smooth deployment of code onto live site.

While founders know, the prime motive of building a SaaS application is that it is customer focussed. Have you thought they are also getting the quality? SaaS testing is a comprehensive test solution that includes Functional, Security, Load, Performance, Cross-Browser, and compliance testing. 

WHAT IS CODELESS TESTING? 

Codeless testing is a method where testers record user-like behavior to automate them. Though the name codeless testing, it doesn’t mean it is a 100% code free. While a tester can generate most of the tests code-free, certain tests may still need some coding. Testers can use codeless testing for keeping up with the deployment needs. 

Though codeless testing is popular for UI testing we have extended its capabilities. At CloudQA, we use codeless testing for Synthetic Monitoring, Load Testing, and more. It gives testers the ability to perform a wide range of tests for a single test case. Testers can reuse a single test case for various functionality and performance metrics.

SUPER FAST TEST AUTOMATION 

With Codeless testing,  test automation is more about enabling functional expertise. Using functional know-how you can ensure intuitive, reliable, and quality testing.

We leverage the record and playback testing tool and a feature-rich SaaS platform. This aims at relieving your pains related to scripted test automation. 

Our automated testing platform caters to all levels of testers; newbie to expert automation testers. It is the best platform to transit from the capabilities of manual testing to automation. 

LOW LEARNING CURVE

CloudQA has a familiar user environment where you type, click, and interact. Getting started is intuitive so that any person with basic web browser skills can use it.

HIGHLY FLEXIBLE

CloudQA builds a layer on top Selenium, allowing testers to focus more on test needs. Also, it is a structured yet flexible approach to handle different complexities. Hence, our test environment makes it easy for you to run and manages tests.

HELPS COLLABORATION