What are the best strategies for transitioning from manual to automated testing?

There is no standard way as such. Firstly we need to determine the need of automation. Not always manual testing has to be automated. Once we identify the need, start analyzing the right automation tools based on your needs. Get hold of coding language you are comfortable with and practice some basic algorithms. Choose what to needs to automated from all your manual test cases and then start with the easy ones and progress gradually towards the complex test cases.

Don't listen to the advice of "it doesn't need to be automated" this is fundamentally wrong and not the point of doing it. You want a traceable process that prepares an environment conducive to passing bug information back to the devs. This means a recording process that builds up environments, and records the data automatically, even if you have to "manually" do a couple steps in the process. This is just Testing, It doesn't need to be split into manual and automatic. Nothing is more toxic to our profession then the use of the word Manual. Stop it.

Before taking the decision to go for Automation. Once the entire system is evident, first asses the system for automatability. Certainly we need to automated some of the repetitive/mundane tasks.Let's have a discovery workshop with the entire team and decide which are the tasks we go for automation which which gives value in our regression cycle. Agree the items which we can be automated and design the plan of execution.

Assessing the current testing process involves a detailed examination of the existing manual testing practices. - Review the types of tests being performed manually, such as functional, regression, and performance testing. - Identify the specific test cases and scenarios that are frequently executed and consume significant testing resources. - Analyze the time and effort required to execute these test cases manually, including any repetitive or labor-intensive tasks. - Evaluate the effectiveness of manual testing for defect detection, test coverage, and overall quality. - Understand the challenges and limitations of manual testing. - Gather feedback regarding pain points, areas for improvement, and potential candidates for automation.

Don't focus too hard on which frameworks you use, but use many, and on the same problems. Python is the most used so start there, Selenium, puppeteer, etc are all interchangeable, so find what suites your project needs. Appium is no good, it confines you to a 1 app context and creates a fake environment unlike a real phone. Use a physical device, and an app called Tasker to simulate real user interactions via screenclicks, instead of element selectors and Xpath. -scoffs in robot- xD

Once the Automation decision is taken, we need to decide the Framework and tool for automation. It's a good to have in the same technology where the product developed, For example if the application is developed in JAVA and the Automation Framework which we are choosing is Python, This approach is not going to work as we are not going get the competency from the DEV Team as well.So It's better to choose the automation Framework inline with the application developed language.

Consider a smoke set of tests to decrease the feedback loop to your devs on low hanging fruit problems. Having to wait for the entire suite to run can greatly increase the expense of your testing.

Planning the automation and prioritizing the cases for Automation is critical for the success of automation project. First identify the BVT/Smoke cases which we need to run for every build and can be included in our CI/CD. Once the Smoke and Sanity is done, extend the automation for the regression where we need to run the cases for each release or upgrade.

Steps: 1. Understand Application Architecture 2. Learn Selenium and Java 3. Start with Basic Test Cases 4. Build Modular Automation Framework 5. Integrate with Continuous Integration 6. Collaborate with Developers 7.Implement Page Object Model (POM) 8. Prioritize Test Cases 9. Use Data-Driven Testing: 10. Apply Parallel Execution 11. Continuous Learning and Updates 12. Conduct Peer Reviews

manual testing is a step on the road to automated tests, don't buy into the nonsense of "not everything needs to be automated". This is false, testing starts with a check, and expands to create an environment and events to verify that check. For this to generate data, you need to have a defined process. Anything with a defined process can be automated. For the data to be worth anything, it needs to be collected in a repeatable and reportable way. Pass/Fail 'Manual' testing is not the scientific method, and doesn't serve anyone except people who think doing otherwise threatens their job..