Manual Testing

This year is the n’th time we have heard about the demise of Manual testing and the n+1’st time it has not occurred.To paraphrase Mark Twain “Rumours of the death of Manual Testing have been greatly exaggerated”.

Why does this keep coming up year after year:

1. We keep inventing new items that are not amenable to being automated.
2. New startups have neither the time or the budget to worry about automating testing. Their emphasis is on getting the product out the door and into the hands of their customers.
3. Some organisations have a great deal invested in an old automated tool. They are not maintaining the existing scripts or adding new but no one is willing to throw them out.
4. Some testing tools have not lived up to their promises and people are unwilling to try again with a new test tool.
5. Most project managers do not have budget for automation of testing and since they do not benefit from it (the next project benefits) they see little reason to add it to their project.
6. If it becomes a corporate or central responsibility to automate, then the question of funding it becomes awkward. Who is responsible for the cost fo the tool and the automation effort? How is that cost amortized and apportioned?
7. It appears cheaper to get Manual Testers.

So will this change in the 2020? It seems unlikely in view of the above unless we consider the following:

1. Calculate the real cost of repeatedly executing the same testcases manually.
2. Calculate the real benefit of implementation of automation over multiple projects and years.
3. See whether the automation will pay for itself using the above two figures.
4. Find an automation tool that suits your situation. There are many good ones around; you just need to find the appropriate one. Talk to us about a well tested methodology for test tool acquisition.

Photo by Hunter Haley on Unsplash