Challenges of Automated End-To-End Testing

Our vision is that all software designed for people is systematically tested from end to end before release. However, it’s not easy – and we know why.

Usetrace checks the functionality of the application under test automatically from the end user’s perspective. It simulates people interacting with the application’s user interface by automatically using mouse and keyboard according to pre-defined user flows. This is the highest level of testing possible on a software. This testing level is called end-to-end testing, i.e. the test is not observing the internal coherence of the application under test but is rather observing that for a given specific input the application behaves as expected. Our vision is that all software designed for people is systematically tested from end- to-end before releasing it to them. This means testing must be automated to a large extent.

As the importance of automated end-to-end testing is usually recognized, companies often face all, or a variety of the reasons below why testing in this level is not possible right now.

1. We don’t have the time right now to implement this level of testing.

Time is rarely an abundance in software projects and it is not uncommon that testing is the one of the first things to be cut out when time and resources are scarce. Companies also find that test automation would require too much time to have a positive effect on an existing project and therefore testing is often
postponed to be taken on the next project.

2. We don’t have the expertise to adopt this level of testing.

If a company is thinking about building a large testing infrastructure it will probably not have the in-house expertise to make that happen. This is where testing consultants come in for three to six months to guide you through the process, accumulating high consultancy fees and thus requiring a large upfront
investment and time before testing itself can even begin.

3. We don’t have the resources to create and maintain high quality, sustainable automated tests

Creating maintainable scripted automated tests requires excellent programming skillset. The same skillset companies want to target towards their product development, not to testing.

4. We don’t want to spend the time and money to train our people to test in this level.

Nowadays companies have their Quality Assurance-personnel doing manual testing. Training them to become professionals in test automation is a major investment to any company, taking time, money and resources.

Check the complete white paper on how you can implement cost efficient test automation in your software development process: Usetrace Whitepaper