We talk big on Test Automation but why we fail?

Test automation has been a crucial part on ensuring the quality of software delivery. Today there are large amount of benefits when introducing test automation, such as;

1. Quick delivery of software
2. Time reduction on testing
3. Reducing the testing budget
4. Promotes shift left testing

But though there are large number of benefits most software delivery teams fail to leverage the full potential of test automation. Let's look at where we fail.

1. Lacking knowledge by the management on test automation - In most organizations the management does not have a proper understanding of test automation. They dont know the boundaries of test automation such as what should be taken into test automation and what not. They think test automation is a magic wand that will help out defects of a software in one go. Some managers lacks technicality and therefore they do not understand what a test automation tool can do and what cannot do. Some thinks record and play back automation is the ultimate solution rather than scripted automation.
2. Lack of knowledge by the testing team - The test teams who ultimately does automation should have a good technical knowledge on test automation. They sometimes does not have an understanding of what tools should be used and what is best for the given test automation context and application. They also try to get the short and easy hand tool rather than looking the flexibility and best featured solution. They sometimes does not process the tech skill to carryout automation scripting.
3. Technical Phobia - Most people do not want test automation as they are scared to grasp knowledge, which most of them think that is a burden for their work and most tend to stick to the knitting. They never want to go that extra step and therefore company will lack engaging on test automation or company will never enhance their existing test automation process.
4. Still utilizing push button test automation - Some of the organizations executes automation in QA engineer's machine or it is executed by manual triggering. They have not integrated to the company's existing Continuous Integration pipeline which gives more leverage of test automation to the build and release process and also early identification of regression issues before handing it over to the QA team.
5. Lack of automation standards and best practices - Some organization do not have proper automation scripting and coding standards, neither they wont use best practices and technology that is used in the industry. Also they do not use best coding standards, which will create code that is not easy to maintain or modify.
6. No up to date knowledge of the tools - Automation tools and technologies grows rapidly. News tools comes into the industry and the QA team should be knowledgeable to adapt such tools to rapidly grows the organization's test automation practice.

These are the main reasons why automation practice stale in the organization though we talk big about test automation in the industry.