QA Automation Tools: Bugs They Detect Best
Over the past few decades, the landscape of software development has undergone constant evolution. Software products have become increasingly refined in terms of performance, features, and functionality. Along with the evolution of software performance, customer expectations have also risen.
The tolerance level for any bug in the product has almost been reduced to zero, whether it is related to slow loading times or broken login flows. Companies can no longer release software in the market without thorough testing or fixing even the minutest bugs, which may not necessarily cause disruption in the desired outcome, but may produce a poor customer experience. Because the impact is severe, either customer churn or lost revenue.
Traditional testing methods were useful in the past when software used to be single-functionality dedicated products. But as the complexity of the products rose, manual testing started showing its limitations. Hence, for the modern software testing requirements, QA automation tools have become the go-to option. Companies have started leveraging these tools for automated end-to-end testing, along with many other benefits they offer.
In this article, we are specifically going to look into the kinds of bugs QA automation tools are most effective in catching and get a holistic understanding of QA automation at large.
The Role of QA Automation in Bug Detection
Traditional testing methods, like manual testing, are helpful for exploratory testing and covering intuitive test cases. But when it comes to testing large-scale complex products, it often shows limitations such as missed bugs, shorter coverage, or human fatigue. Automation testing can easily overcome such challenges, along with adding a few more benefits.
Faster release cycle
Most of the modern software companies usually operate under tight deadlines and budgets. Automation testing makes it possible for companies to release their product much faster after any changes have been incorporated. Any regression checks can be made rapidly, and software becomes ready to be launched much quickly than manual testing.
More precise
Automation testing is more precise than manual testing when it comes to catching minute bugs. Manual testing is often prone to human oversight, which may lead to missed bugs. A clear example of this can be seen when a minute change is made in the UI panel, e.g., a short text update in a large content. Such errors are usually difficult to catch with the human eye. An automated testing tool can easily catch such errors as it works on coded algorithms to validate the content against requirements.
More scalable
Once the automation testing tool is integrated with the software, it keeps on scaling along with the evolution of the product. Generating new test cases as per the newly introduced updates in the software is much easier with automated testing tools. testRigor, as a QA automated testing tool, is one such tool that can automatically generate new test cases based on natural language commands as input.
By using all of these features, an automated testing tool can catch bugs more effectively and rapidly while eliminating human fatigue in a rigorous QA process.
Types of Bugs a QA Automation Tool Can Detect
Bugs can occur at any part of the product based on functionality, performance, or layout. An effective QA automation tool can cover most of the scenarios where a bug is most likely to occur, including the rare ones too. The three most common types of bugs it can detect best are:
Functional Bugs
Functional bugs are the kind of bugs where a software functionality doesn’t meet the required outcome. It is the primary need for a software to first fulfill its basic functionality for which it has been developed. Any rare events or functions can be tested only once the primary objective is met correctly. When a tester uses a QA automation tool, they first generate the positive test cases that are meant to test the functionality of the software under ideal conditions.
Examples of Functional Bugs
Functional bugs that can be found in software may include:
- A login method fails even after providing the correct credentials.
- A check-out button doesn’t lead the customer to the next page as expected.
- Search functionality based on filters produces wrong results.
- The product description on an e-commerce website doesn’t load properly.
An automated testing tool can easily find these kinds of errors, log them, and even notify the concerned persons who are supposed to fix them. These kinds of tools are especially effective in an agile development environment where the product goes through multiple iterations. After each iteration, an automated regression test can be performed to check if the existing functionality remains unaffected by the newly introduced changes.
UI and Compatibility Bugs
Most of the software products that are produced these days are device-agnostic. That means they can be used on any device, platform, browser, or version. Due to such diverse usage scenarios, there are high chances for UI to behave differently, inconsistently, or even in a distorted manner. While these bugs do not affect the core functionality of the product, the embarrassment faced by the company in providing a poor customer experience cannot be undermined.
Examples of UI Bugs
A few UI bugs that are most commonly seen in web-apps are:
- Misalignment of buttons on the webpage due to inadequate cross-browser testing.
- Inconsistency in the display of fonts and colours on different browsers.
- Images are unable to load on certain devices due to a resolution difference.
A QA automation tool can be most useful for such scenarios, as it can simulate all the possible conditions for the product to be tested. You don’t have to keep switching between different devices, browsers, or versions for testing your software, but simulate all those scenarios on a single test automation platform.
Performance and Integration Bugs
Besides functionality and display, your application must also have robust performance in all possible scenarios. There are several integrations between modules and third-party applications that must have been implemented in your software, and they must work together perfectly well to produce the desired results.
Examples of Performance and Integration Bugs
A few examples where performance or integration bugs may occur in your product are:
- Extended page load times or page time-out. This can cause all your software operations to come to a halt.
- Software is not able to handle high-traffic usage. A common example of this can be an e-commerce website that breaks down during the festive season when high traffic is expected.
- Slow API response is causing the integrated modules to slow down the overall performance of the software.
A QA automation tool is especially effective in catching these kinds of bugs by simulating conditions where these bugs may occur.
Final Thoughts
Automation has become an integral part of all stages of software development, whether from using designing tools, to developing code, and testing. While it can provide immense benefits to a modern QA strategy, it still has a few limitations, like intuitive decision-making and exploratory testing, which require human intelligence.
There are two options to overcome these challenges: one, using a blend of automation and manual testing. Second, upgrading to an AI-powered testing tool. While the former option is a step back, the latter is the inevitable future of current QA testing tools.
AI-based testing is taking automation to a whole new level, where it can not only leverage all the features of automation but can also enhance the overall testing strategy through features like self-healing, predictive analytics, and machine learning. But to reach that level of sophistication in your QA strategy, the path starts from implementing automation in your testing strategy today.
