Five Reasons That Hold Businesses Back From Implementing Automated Testing

If perfectly executed, automation testing can offer businesses a wide range of benefits. It can improve product delivery, increase test coverage, reduce business expenses, and reduce business efficiency. Even more impressive, test automation can improve the brand image and add value to your business because it helps the development team to deliver higher quality products, which could translate to superiority in the market.

Even with the many benefits of automation testing, businesses may be hesitant to implement it in their software development process. This article explains some of the reasons that hold businesses back from automation testing.

Why Businesses May Be Hesitant to Implement Automation Testing

Most of the reasons we will list here fall down to the perception of the people in charge of the business. While they may be right, the benefits of automation testing far outweigh the cons. You will enjoy numerous benefits in the long run. Here are some of the reasons that dissuade businesses from implementing automation testing.

Cost of Test Automation

One of the popular reasons businesses may shun automation testing is the cost. It can be expensive because it requires investment in tools and resources. You will have to spend to acquire the test automation software, test environments, and skilled testers. This causes an increase in production expenses compared to manual testing.

It might seem expensive at the initial stage, but the return on investment is worth it in the long run. Let’s use regression testing as an example. Assume you need a team of 10 testers who require 1000 hours to regress your software manually. With automation testing, you will require fewer testers and working hours because automation testing technologies such as AI, ML, and automation tools are used to create scripts that complete many tasks throughout the testing process, thus dramatically changing the course of the testing process. In addition, you will also spend less when running subsequent regression tests.

In addition, automation testing helps you to find bugs faster, so you save money. The earlier you discover bugs and defects, the cheaper it is to rectify them. The Systems Science Institute at IBM reports that the cost of identifying and fixing defects increases as the project progresses. You will spend 15 times more to fix a bug during testing than during the design phase. When tests are automated, developers are notified immediately if a test fails. This allows them to correct it sooner before it becomes more complicated and expensive to rectify.

Limited Coverage

Automation tests cannot do above and beyond the stated tasks. It will only do what the tester has programmed in the test scripts. Thus, it cannot cover all possible scenarios or test the software like a manual tester. However, the automation engineer can draft a proper automation strategy to ensure that the tools cover all possible aspects of the software.

We should also note that automation testing offers more test coverage than manual testing. It allows you to test more features more extensively and in lesser time. As a result, the testers will be able to perform more efficient testing and ensure that no bugs go undetected. As a result, the development team will be able to release a higher-quality product to the public. The higher the test coverage, the higher the quality of the product.

It May Disrupt The Business Mode of Operation

For some businesses, adopting test automation can disrupt the business mode of operation. It can cause a significant change in the way that they develop and maintain their software. This can be perceived as an additional burden to the development team. As a result, it can be a dealbreaker for businesses that are resistant to changes.

It Can Be Difficult to Maintain Over Time

Automated tests will need maintenance as the software changes over time. With the addition of new features, the number of tests will increase, so there will be a need for code changes to keep the test scripts up to date. You can avoid this problem by employing an automation tool that requires little time to write and maintain the test. This will help your team to spend less time updating test scripts and more time extending the coverage of the test.

Accuracy and Reliability of Results

A business concerned about the accuracy and reliability of test results may prefer to use manual testing for some tasks. For instance, a manual test will be better suited for the task if an automated test produces false positives or negatives. A false positive is when the test indicates that there is a problem when there is not. Likewise, a false negative is when the test is a success, even when there is a problem. Test results can be misunderstood based on false positive and negative outcomes.

Also, suppose a test has many dependencies on other systems or components, such as a database or an external application programming interface (API). In that case, you may get a test failure during automation. To mitigate the problem, you can use automation testing techniques to simulate the behavior of the dependent system, either using a mock or stub or employing manual testing.