Over the past few years, test automation has undergone a digital transformation. Dedicated solutions, new and open-source tools have challenged the traditional domain of manual testing. The benefits of saving on costs and time have convinced the CTOs of tech-driven businesses of the need for a shift to automated testing. The availability of frameworks has also made the task of test automation seamless, simpler, and faster.
Automation in testing has created a demand for dedicated Automation Testing Experts. While Manual Testers can migrate to automation over time, they cannot easily acquire the technical skill sets required for creating automation scripts. Manual Testers do not have the necessary knowledge to contribute to the automation roadmap of an entire product or application lifecycle or discover the right tools for seamless integration. Customer demands have evolved, and customers are not ready to stay through seven or eight cycles for an effective ROI.
As part of a business’s digital transformation journey, automation is replacing the manual testing process. With automation emerging as a strong career option in the domain of testing, technical professionals who take an automation testing online course gain an edge in the software testing hiring market. Automation Test Engineers bring value to the company by reducing the redundancy in manual testing and delivering new code releases speedily to customers as part of the Continuous Delivery (CD) deployment pipeline. This makes them highly employable in the software industry.
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What is Automation Testing?
In traditional manual testing, Quality Assurance (QA) teams develop test plans and checklists for manual updates and changes in software projects and follow-up with a return of test results to the engineering team for review. The process is slow, resource-intensive, and prone to errors. However, with the advent of automated testing, efficiency increases, as testing is speedy and seamless, with minimal faults or outages, improving the ROI of QA teams.
Automation testing is a software testing technique that tests the actual result against the expected outcome by creating test scripts or using automation testing tools. It facilitates the automation of repetitive testing and test data generation tasks.
Automated testing supports a lean QA team that develops test plans simultaneously with feature development for automatic execution with continuous integration (CI) tools. Automated testing is critical to the goal of CD of new code releases to customers. Today, Agile and DevOps software projects include automation testing from the beginning of the software lifecycle.
Who is an Automation Test Engineer?
Automation Test Engineers, also known as Test Automation Developers, create programs for testing software throughout the development cycle. They are Software Developers with knowledge of testing who design and write scripts to run tests on existing and new software. Automation Test Engineers use automation frameworks and tools such as Selenium to design and build testing programs and scripts. Other tasks are exploring software issues and working with QA Analysts and Software Developers to discover solutions.
These testing specialists are known for their expertise, customer insights, coding skills, and talent for timely identification and troubleshooting software issues.
Typical hirers range from small software start-ups to large enterprises like Accenture, IBM, and Capgemini.
Hirers across industries:
- Software development companies
- Financial services businesses
- Banks
- Technology consultancy firms
- Public sector organizations
- Energy companies or utilities
- Telecommunications companies
- Food processing plants
12 Steps to Become a Successful Automation Test Engineer
An Automation Test Engineer is an in-demand profession that is every tester’s dream. Many IT professionals also find their interest in test automation as it offers the challenges of writing code in an automated testing environment. However, it is not achievable overnight. You must navigate a step-wise process in the Test Automation Engineer roadmap.
Here are the steps for becoming a successful Automation Test Engineer:
Step 1# Know the basics of testing
If you are a newbie, build your knowledge on software testing. Know what you are testing and why. Look up online resources and open-source tools. Install a tool on your laptop and work through it. Browse through technical manuals and commit yourself to learn testing techniques and available tools.
Step 2# Learn about test automation strategy
Whether you are a QA Manual Tester or a beginner, learn about automation testing to fit into an increasingly digitalized industry environment. You ought to speak intelligently about automation in your job interview and demonstrate a strong foundation in automated testing. Ramp up your software testing knowledge, learn about automation testing strategies and understand which tests to automate.
Step 3# Develop programming skills
Automated testing requires you to learn how to program and demonstrate your testing skills. So which language to learn? Browse through job sites to see the languages most in demand for an Automation Test Engineer. Generally, Java and Python are the most common languages used. But it helps to know C#, Ruby, and JavaScript too.
Step 4# Get familiar with basic coding
Know the basic coding concepts in the language of your choice. Understanding coding concepts help you extrapolate this knowledge to any other programming language. Learn basic coding, experiment with writing programs, pick up websites at random and test the web page for practice.
Step 5# Look up Help files
Although online resources are great for building your testing knowledge, the Help files of tools are a wealth of information that makes your learning path easy. The Help files help you navigate the tools and the IDE and understand what is necessary for your test automation roadmap.
Step 6# Build a foundation in testing
Test automation skills are a must-have to ace that Automation Test Engineer or Developer job interview. Master the necessary skills, specific tools, and frameworks in use, and learn the basic principles. Practice writing scripts and executing tests using popular tools.
Step 7# Run through popular tools
Besides programming, you must learn an IDE and at least one testing framework. Although this may suffice for your projects, you need more in your workplace. Learn the specialized CLI commands for a Version Control System (VCS), such as Git. Also, run through build tools commonly used, like Maven and Gradle. Scan job sites to see what tools an Automated Test Engineer must know, and make sure you have some knowledge and practice with those tools.
Step 8# Pick which automation technology to learn
Do not get overwhelmed with the wide range of tools available. Select which ones to learn. Pick those automation technologies that align with your career goals. Each application – desktop, Web, mobile, or APIs – requires different testing metrics and tools. For instance, Appium is used for mobile testing and Selenium for web applications. Pick an application in high demand and master test automation on it.
Step 9# Gain a deeper understanding of DevOps and Agile methodologies
Test automation is a part of the DevOps lifecycle, critical for speedy and high-quality delivery. Automated testing supports the practice of Continuous Testing in DevOps to make sure that new code is free of bugs before implementation.
In Agile methodology, test automation allows QAs to create test cases that auto-run whenever a new code is sent to the code repository for an application.
For a wannabe Automated Test Engineer, knowledge of DevOps and Agile methodologies are a must-have to build a career in reputed software companies.
Step 10# Practice
Practice automation tests with clear instructions. Practice coding regularly. Make sure it presents the test result clearly as pass or fail. Try to solve real problems and debug code. Keep practicing to refine your results with fewer lines of code. Check if it is readable? Can it run faster? Is the program memory efficient? Ask such questions as you practice and keep improvising.
Step 11# Build your communication skills
Testing professionals must be communicative and tactful. They work with QA teams, Software Developers, and other stakeholders to communicate test results, improve the product, or convince them why it is not working. It requires excellent soft skills and the power of conviction with supportive results.’
Step 12# Get a Certification
Online resources, manuals, and research can only get you so far. Certifications add to your self-learning path with capstone projects, mentorship, and guidance on testing techniques. Certificates look good on your resume and can get you through the initial screening process and onboard the interview process.
If you are an existing Manual Tester, a certification is a seal of approval of your switch to the automated path, boosting your career growth.
Conclusion
Automated testing has emerged as a standardized software development practice that facilitates the digital transformation goals of a company. Test automation supports the CI/CD pipeline, enabling customer satisfaction with the delivery of reliable and robust software. Thus, companies are implementing automated testing in their software projects and hiring Automation Test Engineers.
Be a part of the digital growth story of a business. Become a Test Automation Engineer with a certification that teaches you the latest trends in automated testing and their role in a commercial environment.
