Are you planning to choose mobile testing services for your project needs? Confused between automated and manual software testing? If yes, you are at the right place! Software testing is required to guarantee that essential features operate as intended and make products stable. Software teams today are focused on optimizing the application testing procedure through the use of several sophisticated automated testing techniques and tools. But even now, manual testing remains a crucial part of software testing.
Manual testing can help find both visible and hidden software flaws. Even with the increasing use of automated testing, manual testing is still a crucial part of software development testing. In this detailed guide, we will discuss the importance of manual testing in software development. But let’s first understand what manual testing is.
What is Manual Testing?
Manual testing is a procedure for finding errors and flaws in software without the aid of automated software testing tools. In this process, QA manual testers manually carry out test cases while considering the end user’s viewpoint. Software is tested manually to ensure it meets the customer’s unique needs. Certain manual testing tools are sometimes also used.
Why is Manual Testing an Integral Part of Software Development?
Below, we will discuss why QA manual testing plays a crucial role in software development. So, let’s get started:
Automation is Not Always Precise
Some people may find this surprising, but automated software testing is not 100 percent accurate. Test automation tools, like any software, are prone to errors during testing and may not always be able to adequately test the application.
A test script full of errors may lead to several mistakes throughout the testing process. There are even chances that functional features may be labeled as malfunctioning and flawed features as accurate. In such a situation, it becomes crucial to conduct manual testing as it helps in making the right choice in these circumstances.
Unautomated Situations
Software testers often cannot run automated tests due to the constraints of a specific technology or platform. This may occur when the testing scenarios are too complicated for automation or when the cost of automated testing is significantly more than that of manual testing. In all these situations, manual testing tools and procedures emerge as true saviors. Software testers must rely on manual testing to reliably assess essential software features and functionalities.
Verifying the User Interface
Automated testing platforms are helpful when testing responsive user interface elements. However, these testing processes might have restricted abilities when conducting comprehensive user interface testing.
The software is tested using automated test scripts that measure the distance between images and design elements and their relative alignment. Nonetheless, this methodology allows the tester to design elements, like alignment, at all times. Conversely, it is easier for a manual QA tester to find failed test cases. Choosing the best mobile testing services will help you achieve the best results.
Long Cycle Times
The average amount of time a team takes to produce functional software is called cycle time. It serves as a metric for assessing a development team’s productivity. Building an effective testing pipeline requires a significant time and effort commitment when you first start implementing automated testing.
Although automation testing initially just lengthens the time it takes to deliver software, it does assist in building the foundation for future test automation efforts. So, the time it takes to develop test cases and write automated scripts can delay software production instead of finishing them quickly. In these cases, manual testing is necessary for your team. Since manual testing requires less setup time, your testing team can start the testing process almost immediately by choosing it. Thus, by validating test cases in your current test cycle, manual testing aids in achieving greater test coverage than creating automated scripts from scratch.
Exploratory Testing
Exploratory testing generally restricts manual QA testers from creating test cases ahead of time. It is typically employed in extremely complicated testing situations that are impossible to pinpoint using pre-written test cases. Because of this, it is not possible to forecast which automated testing scenarios will work best in a particular circumstance. Complex test cases require manual testing.
Price
Your software team can execute tests more quickly and conduct continuous testing with the help of automated testing. However, it takes some time to reap the cost-saving advantages of automated testing.
Investing in automated software now may end up costing many times more than doing manual testing. So, if you are looking forward to saving your money at this moment, then it is a good idea to go for manual testing instead of automated testing. For better decision-making, you can reach out to professional mobile testing services.
Agile
The Agile Methodology is mainly designed to deliver working software gradually and adapt to changing software needs. On the other hand, software testers may have to rewrite automated scripts in response to changes, which they must then adapt and deploy during the following sprint.
Having said that, automated testing is a dependable method of testing software rapidly and gaining more test coverage if you have previously created a varied library of automated tests. However, until then, manual software testing has turned out to be the unquestionably best method for carrying out tests that haven’t been automated.
In What Situations Manual Testing is the Only Solution?
There are a number of circumstances where manual software testing can prove to be valuable, especially when automation is not possible. Below are discussed some of the major manual testing examples:
While Conducting User Experience Testing
User experience is known to be the part of the software that directly corresponds to humans. Therefore, to accurately assess an application’s usability, human testers are required. The main reason behind employing manual software testing and manual testing tools for user experience is that it is challenging to encode user experience automated testing processes.
While smoke tests may also be used to assess usability, manual testing is far more convenient in this regard. Moreover, only human testers that you can get from a trusted software testing agency can verify design elements and language accuracy in addition to testing for localization features.
When Agile Testing Is Necessary
Software testers and quality assurance engineers offering mobile testing services must adapt to shifting needs in the user interface, product flow, and, in extreme situations, even fundamental features while working in an agile setting with continuous feedback. Simultaneously, in agile environments, these volatile changes may also impact regression test scripts.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that even standard examples of testing automation could need different adjustments in Agile. Additionally, if the testing team needs to entirely redo the previously prepared test cases, the risk of changing requirements could result in a waste of important resources.
When Automated Testing Is Being Used
With the help of automated software testing, it is possible to streamline software testing processes and eliminate the redundant tasks of software testers. However, it cannot completely replace human intelligence during testing processes.
Automated testing can only replicate human intelligence and expand the application’s total test coverage. So, human testers are still required to improve the overall coverage of tests and write creative scripts to address intricate testing oddities. For more information, you can opt for the assistance of an agency offering cutting-edge mobile testing services.
For Small Project Testing
Software for automated testing is not free, and it incurs high maintenance and administration expenses. So, it would not be wrong to anticipate the overall cost to be considerably higher, as you may need to design and reevaluate testing scripts in addition to setting up environments and processing times.
Working on long-term projects or high-selling products makes this investment worthwhile. However, it is not a good idea to opt for automated testing for small project testing. Project managers have to conduct smaller projects on a restricted budget, and the expense of automated testing can drastically cut the revenue.
What are the Key Benefits of Manual Testing?
QA Manual testing offers a number of benefits in certain situations. Here are discussed a few of them:
- It works well for precise UI testing.
- Quick fixes in the application don’t require software testers to redo the entire thing.
- Manual testing is known to be less extensive and involves lower costs upfront than automated testing.
- Manual testing process can more accurately mimic the mobile and app user experience
- It is a more straightforward method than automated testing for resolving exceedingly complicated test cases.
In a Nutshell
Thus, this guide demonstrates that manual software testing is less expensive upfront and requires less time initially. In addition, manual testing allows you to run complicated test cases and assess user interface requirements more successfully. To achieve the best software testing outcomes, it is a good idea to combine automated and manual testing methodologies.
