Most often encountered problems in a company when
it comes to testing is when to automate and when to manually test.
Not all tests can be automated and most times is difficult to
decide what to automate and what to manually test. Here are some
advantages and disadvantages of both methods.
ADVANTAGES |
Automated Testing |
Manual Testing |
• If you have to run a
set of tests repeatedly automation is a huge gain |
• If Test Cases have to be run a small
number of times it's more likely to perform manual testing |
• Helps performing "compatibility
testing" - testing the software on different configurations |
• It allows the tester to perform more
ad-hoc (random testing) |
• It gives you the ability to run automation
scenariosto perform regressions in a shorter time |
• Short term costs are reduced |
• It gives you the ability to run regressions
on a code that is continously changing |
• The more time tester spends testing
a module the grater the odds to find real user bugs |
• Can be run simultaneously on different
machines thus decreasing testing time |
|
• Long term costs are reduced |
|
DISADVANTAGES |
Automated Testing |
Manual Testing |
• It's more expensive to automate. Initial investments
are bigger than manual testing |
• Manual tests can be very time consuming |
• You cannot automate everything, some tests still
have to be done manually |
• For every release you must rerun the same set of
tests which can be tiresome |
OTHER FACTORS |
• The performance of yout test tools |
• The knowledge level of your testing
team |
• The continous growth of software to
be tested |
• Number of necessary regressions |