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Test Automation is a prominent way of testing that falls under the category of software testing. Its primary function is to control the execution of automated tests rather than relying on a human tester to complete the task.
Nowadays, it is highly preferred because it consumes fewer resources, takes less time, and is cost effective. It compares the test result with the expected or predicted result to distinguish between failed and passed test cases. There are many other types of testing that can be used, including unit testing, integration testing, smoke testing, regression testing, and many others.
Although most of us are well aware that automated testing offers more benefits than manual testing and that firms place greater emphasis on it, organizations still rely on manual testing and codes. Let’s take a look at how organizations may assess whether they should continue using manual testing or if they should invest in automated testing.
What Are ROI Indicators?
ROI is an abbreviation for “return on investment”, and it is used to determine the effectiveness of any investment. This activity is carried out on a regular basis so that the organization can track the returns on its investments.
Automation does, without a doubt, lower the cost of testing, so the savings on test automation are kept in mind by every company. It is necessary for an organization to recognize the benefits of automated testing and, on that basis, determine what to automate and what not to automate because attempting to automate everything will increase the project cost if the project is not completed on time and on budget.
ROI comprises automation costs and maintenance costs. Therefore, only automatic tests that require minimal maintenance should be developed and implemented. Finally, we must adhere to defined procedures while developing test automation tools, frameworks, or test methodologies.
Benchmarks Required to Calculate ROI Metrics
The ROI is computed by dividing the net benefit from the change by the total investment required. All of the setup, resources, previously used tools, and any framework are included in the investment category. It can be calculated using the following formula:
ROI for automation testing = (value of Investment — cost of investment) / cost of investment
The cost of investment might vary depending on a variety of factors. Money and resources spent on different tasks such as root cause investigation, executing tests, and making patches can be taken into consideration while talking about manual testing. When we talk about automating new test cases, it is necessary to factor in the time and money it will take to design and maintain the new test cases. The cost can be computed based on the amount of time each team member charges on an hourly basis.
As part of the process of developing new test cases, it is necessary to determine which test cases must be conducted manually and which test cases may be completed automatically. It is not necessary for test cases to be brand new all the time; they might be several years old. It is necessary to first identify which aspects to upgrade or add to proceed.
The environment plays a role in the calculation of return on investment as businesses must first set up the environment before running the developed test cases or launching the product to ensure that produced items can operate under various conditions. If a product is only available on one platform, it will increase the cost of return on investment.
Defect leakage is also a significant factor in ROI computation. Since defect leakage is not fully covered throughout the development phase, it has an impact on the environment as well. The flaw can be calculated with the help of:
Defect leakage = (A / B — C) * 100
Here, A is defect count raised by the customer, B is also defect count but before deployment, and C is invalid defects that come due to duplicate or known issues.
It is always necessary to track the reusability of test cases as it reduces the duplicate effort and resultant cost. Organizations don’t need to develop test cases for that.
There are various automation tools available in the market that provide customizable testing options. A good example of such a tool is Perfecto. It not only performs testing but also provides a great deal of information in its report, such as a root cause analysis, screenshots, heatmaps, and a dashboard, among other things. If you parallelly test for different devices and situations, you can save a significant amount of money and get the best ROI.
Perfecto also offers a free trial period during which you may examine all of the capabilities that the software has to offer. As a result, Perfecto actually increases the ROI because the automation tool gives you much more than just test findings. Test automation provides a higher ROI and may be used to implement any and all aspects of software testing.
How Can We Quantify and Measure It?
Organizations are willing to spend a significant amount of money on software testing, but we still need to understand how to calculate the ROI to check if it’s worth it.
So, for example, let’s say a software tester spends approximately 80 hours testing a software product, and an organization pays him approximately $50 per hour. The first investment is the amount that is being paid to the tester, and then there are various expenditures such as the cost of the devices, the time spent running the tests, the time spent determining the root cause, and so on.
Consequently, manual testing will become an expensive endeavor, with little return on investment due to the time required for performance and test execution, and the difficulty of patching the flaws that were discovered. Several things can be accomplished through automated testing. You can run the test in different environments or on multiple devices at the same time. It also eliminates the need for someone to sit in front of computers because the tests will be executed automatically, and a report will be generated after they are completed.
Following the completion of the test, the most important component of ROI comes into play—screenshots, root cause analysis, and classification are required. An automated tool will supply you with the required data.
Conclusion
It is always a difficult endeavor to keep track of the passage of time. Testers must collaborate with the development team to determine how much time they are spending creating and maintaining the tests to determine the best approaches to evaluate the ROI on test automation. Assessing ROI indicators allows organizations to learn how much money they can save over the long term.