The Essence of Automated Testing

Introduction

Before the advent of automated testing, software was tested exclusively manually. Software engineers or testers would manually test the software. Although it did not require any additional software testing frameworks, such practice was deemed highly time-consuming, repetitive, and boring. It was this way because any software change would warrant a complete retest to check for software regression. In other words, a complete retest would be warranted to ensure that any features that were working before, remain working according to specifications.

To somewhat limit the time-consuming requirements of manual testing, the software would be tested at sample intervals, perhaps after a series of changes were made, or after a bug was identified and fixed. The challenge with intermittent manual testing, as opposed to testing after every change, is that it increases the chances of software regression creeping in undetected. The later the bugs are identified, the more costly they are to fix.

The cost of identifying bugs

Fixing software bugs is costly since it demands time from software engineers. However, the time requirement is not constant. Naturally, the time required to fix bugs varies depending on who is fixing it and whether the individual(s) fixing the bug are the same individual(s) who introduced it in the software. Even if the individuals involved are held constant, the time required ...