Codeless Automated Testing

Test automation, in general, refers to automating the writing of test scripts, test suites execution, etc., so testers do not have to perform these tasks manually. For example, it could be building a CI/CD pipeline (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) to lift the burden of manual test execution.

Now, codeless automated testing puts an extra layer of cream by performing them without writing a single line of code or minimal code.

Why codeless automation?

Test scripting poses few obstacles before any organization, including scripting time, test code maintenance efforts, loss of productivity, etc. Codeless automation frees time for both developers and testers to focus on product development to help accelerate testing.

Codeless Automation vs. Low-Code Automation

Codeless automation requires no prior coding experience. It allows everyone to create and execute tests to validate business logic, making software testing more accessible. 

Low-Code automation allows code insertion on top of the user interface providing visual codeless automation. Some coding knowledge is a prerequisite as it offers only some reusable components, while any new desirable functionality can be incorporated using low-code scripting.

For the sake of this article, let's focus on UI codeless automation. Remember, everyone's old friend, Selenium - a powerful UI automation tool. Now, we will iterate over some data points and compare the traditional scripted selenium approach with codeless automation.

Test Design

Typical test designing with Selenium in a BDD(Behavior-driven development) includes the following -

1. POM(Page object model) creation: Relating to every web page, we define a java POM class containing paths to find web elements and their associated methods to handle the desired automation.
2. Test scenarios development: Page-based test step creation under various test scenarios and outlines.
3. Script modeling: Respective Java/Python/Js code needs to be written corresponding to each step inside test scenarios.

In contrast, codeless automation leverages specified tools(developed using ML/AI) to help develop the test scripts, which require lesser time to author, reusable for different test scenarios. 

Note: For any assistance on indicative saves from the traditional to the current codeless approach, look at the indicative* figures in this article.

Test Maintenance

Selenium-based tests are flaky - any minor change in element under test can cause test scenarios to break. Testers find maintaining the selenium code even more frustrating than the test design as it becomes hard to find the elements causing code to break and fix the associated impacted areas.

In contrast, codeless automation offers self-healing capability, making tests adaptable to radical changes. Codeless automation tools can learn the entire DOM structure and fix any change in the background without impacting the ongoing test execution.

This way, tests are more efficient and scalable with codeless automation.

Benefits of codeless automation - Beyond the limits

Apart from all the stated benefits of codeless automation, if we introduce it with the cloud network, there is no alternative to it in this range.

1. Seamless Continuous Testing (CI) - With the codeless testing approach on the cloud, sharing test data and test scenarios leads to increased cross-team collaboration.
2. Improved SDLC - CI further helps improve the software testing lifecycle by providing fast and reliable feedback to the teams upon any code change, leading to risk mitigation.

Codeless Automation tools - Getting started.

To get started, identify which tests to include in this approach - automating manual or flaky tasks like email otp verification in SignUp flows. Do not forget to consider them as they end up eating valuable team resources and time. 

Instead of giving or advertising some market solutions, let's quickly define some parameters before concluding to make you self-reliant on decision making.

While choosing a codeless automation tool, think futuristically by focusing on tools that provide testing analytics using some dashboards to depict key performance indicators. Look for the below traits -

1. Drag-and-drop: The automation tool must offer drag-and-drop commands to design test scenarios, which are the best way to avoid any scripting and are comfortable for all stakeholders.
2. Record and Playback: Test data and scenarios recording is a must-goto feature as it prevents test recreational time.
3. Third-party integration: Look for tools allowing third-party integrations with external test libraries to avoid reinventing the wheel.
4. Reporting facility: The tool must provide clear dashboards for test execution which will help in team discussions in improving your testing approach.
5. CI support: Look for a tool providing comprehensive support for continuous integration as it would eventually help build team collaborations over code changes.

Conclusion

With a great abundance of codeless automation benefits, QA teams must migrate faster to it and indulge these techniques in their agile development workflows to attain better product quality.