Manual Testing vs Automation Testing 

Throughout the entire process of developing a software application, software testing is a key step. It allows project teams to ensure that the software generated satisfies the required specifications without any flaws before release by checking, verifying, and validating its functioning.

Depending on the use case, timetable, and money, both manual and automation testing are employed today to deliver high-quality products to clients. At first, software testing was done manually, with no use of tools, software, or scripts. Automation testing was later adopted as a result of technological advancements.

What human and automated testing entails is covered in this blog. You will also learn about the specific differences between manual and automated testing here.

Manual testing: What is it?

Software testing that is done manually by a QA Analyst is referred to as manual testing. It is done to find bugs in software that is still being developed.

In manual testing, the tester examines each of the software or application’s crucial components. Without the use of any automation software testing technologies, the software testers carry out the test cases and produce the test reports in this method.

It is a traditional approach to all testing kinds and aids in the discovery of faults in software systems. To complete the software testing process, an experienced tester is typically used.

When ought manual testing to be used?

Manual When the software must be tested using cognitive and behavioral skills, testing is successful.

It primarily excels at testing:

• Functionalities
• Features for Website and App Behavior
• User Interface (UI)
• User Experience (UX)
• User Acceptance

An attentive and proactive QA tester is necessary to achieve the best outcomes in manual testing. When the tester (whether it a developer, QA engineer, product manager, or designer) demonstrates a multidimensional approach and has a deeper understanding of the technical and business use case components of the website & app, manual testing can give excellent performance.

Types of Manual Testing

• Cross-browser testing

Cross-browser testing examines an application’s appearance, usability, accessibility, and other factors in a variety of web browsers. Since every browser implements and produces a webpage differently even for the same code, the quality assurance team and designers inspect the rendering before production.

•  Usability Testing

Usability testing looks at how users interact with an application and records their responses in order to learn crucial information about how to improve the user experience. This task is typically provided to those who are not involved in production to simulate end-user behavior.

• Acceptance Testing

After all issues have been fixed, acceptance testing, sometimes referred to as user acceptance testing, is carried out. The product is tested by potential or real customers to see if it lives up to their expectations.

• Exploratory Testing

This method of testing, as its name suggests, depends on the tester’s unrestricted exploration of the test object. A tester uses their domain expertise, imagination, and prior experience to find unusual flaws that might go unnoticed during formal testing.

Advantages of manual testing

• No coding or programming experience is necessary.
• A more affordable alternative to setting up automation testing for small-scale operations
• Greater likelihood of finding unforeseen faults and problems that don’t fall under the normal test settings
• Ideal for testing tiny, minute modifications, as opposed to automation, where testing for different variants would require changing the parameters every time.
• An advantage for testing “human observations” that automation testing cannot, such UI design decisions (i.e., font type, button size, menu layout)
• Good for only needing to run the test case scenario once or twice.

Cons of Manual Testing

• Time-consuming, particularly for examinations that are repeated
• No opportunity to reuse test code across several applications
• Costly over the long term

What is Automation Testing?

Software testing that uses automated technologies to discover software flaws and produce reports is known as automation testing. The goal is to speed up test execution, which will result in higher test coverage and ensure that the application operates as intended.

Once a test script is created, it enables code reuse without manual intervention for repetitive tasks and frequently changing applications.

The benefits of automating testing

• Trustworthy and swift in execution
• No human intervention when test scripts are left unattended
• when operations are recorded, versatile and reusable
• increased effectiveness in locating bugs
• lessens the workload on human testers and increases productivity
• longer-term savings
• Each unit is tested for flaws.

Drawbacks to automated testing

• Without human intervention, it might be challenging to get an understanding of your user interface’s visual elements, such as colors, fonts, sizes, contrast, and button sizes.
• The cost of the testing project may rise due to the potential expense of the automation testing technologies.
• Testing automation software is not yet error-free. Each automation technology has constraints that limit the breadth of automation.
• Another significant challenge with automated testing is script debugging. Test upkeep is expensive.

Manual Testing Vs. Automation Testing

Conclusion

Now that you are aware of the distinctions between manual and automated testing, you can see that each is appropriate for a different task. Both could succeed in a variety of circumstances. Which one would you prefer, now that I ask? You should first determine your testing requirements before using the information in this blog to decide between manual and automated testing.