Currently, Selenium has established itself as one of the most popular Frameworks for performing automation testing. This Framework has a great reputation in the engineering community. It is a testing Suite that consists of multiple tools like the integrated development environment, remote controller, WebDriver and Selenium Grid. It is one of the very few testing Frameworks that just arrived in the market and has managed to dominate the entire industry. The primary benefit of Selenium was that it was able to solve all the previous inadequacies present in the older frameworks. Some older frameworks like HP QTP forced the developers to write the test in VBScript. They were also primarily intended to perform the testing of only desktop applications. However, a recent survey shows that more than 50% of internet traffic is dominated by mobile users.
On the other hand, Selenium also supports multiple programming languages like JavaScript, Python, C#, etc. Therefore, the developers can create the test script in a programming language that is most comfortable for them. Due to its reputed features, major companies like Google, Fitbit and Hutspot are using Selenium in the testbench. Selenium was launched in 2004 with a specific aim. The creators of this wonderful Technology wanted to completely abolish the repetitive manual 711719541028 testing processes.
In this article, we will try to explore the various ways in which the developers can improve the efficiency of the Selenium test suite. This process will also help web developing companies to receive the maximum test coverage in a short period.
Let us begin with the basics of the Selenium test case creation processes simonparkes org blog.
Extracting Test Case from Business Requirements
It is a common process to perform end to end testing before releasing software to the end-users. In this process, the developers have to analyze the application workflow of the software from the beginning stage. They can achieve this goal by replicating multiple user scenarios and understanding the behaviour of the application. In this process, the testers have to consider all the user interactions and aim for implementing maximum test coverage. The use of Automation Testing is a perfect way to achieve this goal. To begin this process, the tester has to study different business requirements and isolate the user stories. These user stories will help the developers to represent the business requirements for the application. In simple terms, it will help the developers to get an idea about what the users can expect from the application.
Understanding the different expectations of the end-users is highly essential to personalize the test cases. After the framing of test cases, the developers have to follow a set of industry-wide best practices. These practices will help the developers to create the perfect test cases for verifying each functionality of the web application. This is what we popularly call a test case.
Writing a Test Case in Selenium
While writing the first test case, it is a good idea for the developers to consider various sample business requirements. To understand this process, let us consider the example of creating a test case for testing the login features of a web application. For creating this test case, the testers have to consider the following factors:
- Validate whether the customer can log in by entering the correct user id and password.
- Understand how the web application reacts when there is an entry of a wrong user ID and password.
- Analyze the reaction of the web application when either the user ID or the password is incorrect.
- The options that the users have to recover the account when he fails to remember the correct login credentials.
We can explain all of the test cases with the help of positive and negative test paths. A positive test path signifies the happy journey of a user when he enters the correct data and the application works as intended. On the other hand, a negative test path will focus on all those invalid actions. These actions often try to replicate valid data or seek access to an invalid component. In this case, when the user enters the correct login ID and password it will lead to a positive test path. All the other instances will immediately result in a negative testing scenario.
Factors to Improve the Efficiency of Selenium Test Suite
The entire aim of Selenium-based Automation Testing is to improve the speed of the test cases. The developers must create a test suite in such a way that helps implement speedy delivery of high-quality web applications. There are various factors that the developers can consider to improve the efficiency of the selenium test cases. Let us take a quick look at some of the major ones:
- Use of Parallel Testing
During the early years of software development, the developers used to conduct the test cases one after the other. Using this conventional method, it used to take almost five days to complete all the testing process. The company started to realize that this time was much more than they intended it to be. Parallel testing is one of those modern technologies that companies started to use for reducing the delivery time. Using this feature, the developers can initiate multiple test instances simultaneously. This means that the developers can verify the functioning of the web application on multiple devices, browsers and operating systems at the same time. Various market studies show that parallel testing helps to complete all the test cases within 2 days.
- Write Short Test Cases
The developers must ensure that each of the Selenium test cases is made to test an individual functionality of the web application. Another helpful suggestion is to keep the total number of states in a test case under 20. Parallel testing is indeed built to speed up the testing process but the ideal approach is quite different. This is because each of the test cases must run on a single device instead of multiple devices. So, one of the best practices to improve the efficiency of a test case is to reduce its overall length. The short test cases also have another major advantage for the developers. In case of a failure, the developers can easily pinpoint the errors of a web application if necessary. So, we can easily justify that short test cases help to improve the efficiency of the troubleshooting processes.
- Refine the Quality of the Test Scripts
As a developer, you must remember that your primary goal of a test case is to introduce the faster execution of testing processes. To achieve this goal, you must write test scripts that are independent and do not duplicate the steps. The developers should also ensure that the test case does not consist of hanging steps or methods. This means that all the steps and methods of a test case must have some form of connection with the outcome. All these factors help to improve the quality of the test cases and improve testing satisfaction. The developers must also remember that test cases also play a vital role in improving the quality of the web application.
Role of Tools in Improving the Efficiency of Selenium Test Cases
Tools play a vital role in improving the efficiency of automation test cases. They also help to simplify the testing processes for the developers who are new to this industry. Currently, there are thousands of tools that help you to perform Selenium-based automation testing. However, the developers must choose the correct tools to utilise the full potential of the testing environment. Various factors can help in this decision-making process. We can divide these factors into the generalized categories and personal categories:
The generalized categories will consist of all the factors that every web development company must be aware of. These factors primary revolve around the basic performance of the testing tool. For instance, it can consist of the trustworthiness of the tool, its subscription charges, testing capabilities, support for multiple programming languages, etc. The best way to verify the trustworthiness of a tool is to check for user reviews on multiple online forums. Here the developers can find various instances from the daily life experiences of testers who are currently using this tool. This feature ensures that the tool will have no negative impact on the working potential of a testbench.
The personal factors generally revolve around the requirements and capabilities of a testing team. The requirements of the application development project also have a vital role in this process. Developers can also consider their preferences as personal factors. It also consists of the company’s budget and the expected delivery date. Let us use the example of LambdaTest to further analyze the role of testing tools and frameworks:
LambdaTest is a platform to verify the cross-browser compatibility of a web application. Cross-browser compatibility testing ensures the smooth performance of a web application irrespective of the browser or the operating system of a device. LambdaTest verifies the cross-browser compatibility of both mobile and desktop web applications. It performs all the required test cases on a cloud-based Selenium grid. The Cloud Service also has a major role in improving the efficiency of the test cases. For instance, it massively improves test coverage for web developing companies. As all the devices are available remotely, there is no limitation on the number of devices for testing purposes. Currently, LambdaTest allows the developers to verify the functioning of the web application on more than 3000 different browsers and browser versions.
LambdaTest also generates highly accurate test results that can be used for further bug detection processes. It achieves this goal by not only combining the test results from virtual machines and emulators but also from real devices. LambdaTest also helps the developers to execute parallel testing on their web applications.
The Conclusion
So, we can conclude that Selenium Automation Testing plays a significant role in improving the efficiency of application testing processes. It is a good idea for the companies to hold regular training sessions to improve the knowledge of the testing team. This is because only experienced developers can utilise the full potential of the selenium test suite. The developers should also remember to maintain a perfect balance between manual testing and automation testing. Manual testing is important as certain tests like visual testing and exploratory testing require the experience of a human developer. Lastly, the developers should consider Selenium automation testing as a vital part of their portfolio. It is one of those factors that will guarantee a successful future for the developer and the company.
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