IMAGINE - Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, asking us to write code before sending an email, or Microsoft Excel asking us to write code to create a new sheet or a table or to add two numbers? Sounds weird right??
If yes then why do we use and build an automation framework/tool that asks us to write code to automate testing?
As with the utility software like Gmail, MS Outlook, or MS Excel, or any other modern software/SaaS, which let us perform the task #CODELESSLY, it is time to change how to automate testing and implement #CODELESS automation testing tools in software testing.
Codeless or no-code application software is going to be the new way of working for the software industry. Essentially, it means you can get your task completed or software developed using another software that supports codeless development and doesn't involve any coding at all. The task could be anything, from developing a website or integrating two services or automated software testing. These types of software provide a visual and interactive development environment where the user is able to design, develop and manage software, add additional functionality without the need for coding or scripting. It involves clicks or drag and drop mechanisms using which, functional components of software can be easily developed.
Is the codeless concept really new?
If we think deeply, even all legacy software like Microsoft Outlook, Excel, or even internet browsers, etc are doing our tasks without writing any code. That is the objective of any software application, isn't it? Outlook is saving us from writing a code to connect to a mail server and send an email, excel is doing all complex calculations at the back-end and saving us from writing a code, and similarly, browsers are saving us from writing a code to render a web-page. Hence, these legacy software are providing us with a codeless experience but, these were never considered codeless software because these software are for end-users and non-technical users who don't know how to code.
Now, instead of technical developers doing coding to ship the software, current codeless or script-less software platforms are enabling a codeless experience to develop any software. This new revelation of CODELESS or No-Code or script-less software is eliminating the need for tech developers to do coding to develop the software itself. For example, developing a website would always involve writing HTML, CSS, and JS code, but now with codeless solutions like WordPress, GoDaddy, Wix, you can essentially build a website without writing any code. Similarly, codeless automation solutions like BotPlay automation are saving the end-user from the need to write code to develop an automation framework and write new automation test cases.
Coding -> Frameworks -> No-code
The jump to the codeless solutions is not instant. This evolution can be divided into three stages -
Everything needs to be coded -> There was a time when tasks like connecting to a database, designing software architecture, or developing a website required coding.
Frameworks increased code reusability -> Then comes the frameworks like Spring, Spring-boot, Hibernate, for software development, and libraries like Selenium, REST-Assured for automation testing framework development which standardizes software development by providing certain defined architecture and functionalities.
Anyone can develop using no-code SaaS platform -> And, now taking the journey forward, this is the age of codeless + SaaS model where even the development of the software has become a codeless experience.
Why is the world moving toward codeless testing?
No-code or Script-less or low-code Testing Tools
The market has seen an increased number of codeless testing tools that enable codeless automation testing. This shift to codeless automation testing tools is due to the overheads that come with custom frameworks like developing a framework, hiring testers with coding skills, sending time in automation maintenance that any code-full automation testing tool brings to the automation testing process, and thus slowing down the overall software delivery.
Some of the pain points of traditional automation testing and the benefits of codeless automation testing are explained below.
The pain of traditional (coded) Automation testing
1. Skillset - Automation testing requires an experienced programmer in the testing team.
2. Overheads - Requires infrastructure, tools, and development environment set-up on automation developers’ machines. This is a prerequisite that can take days to complete.
3. Challenging - Then develop a framework using open source technology, follow the best development practices, overcome all challenges to reach a point where the framework is ready to use.
Benefits of codeless automation testing tools
By adopting codeless or no-code or script-less automation testing, the software development teams are able to come up with more efficient innovations in the SDLC. Codeless automation tools provide a way to automate automation testing. Automation testing can be made accessible to those who can’t code.
Some of the benefits of codeless automation testing are :
There are many benefits of using software that enable codeless testing -
Saves effort & time - Codeless tools are built on the principle to save effort & time. Using these tools helps by creating test scripts without writing any code and reusing the out-of-the-box functionality of the tool.
Achieve in-sprint automation and match up to development speed - As we don't have to write new code for testing, achieving in-sprint automation is far likely possible and automation testing can match up to the development pace.
Reduced time to market - They provide a quick way to launch a product to the market by speeding up automation testing.
Low maintenance - Testing scripts become more scalable and changing them is a lot easier as you don't have to write a new code to make changes.
Advantages over custom frameworks - These tools are better than custom in-house frameworks as these tools are tested thoroughly and have a wide range of features as tools are developed for multiple clients.
Teams can focus on more productive tasks - By saving a lot of automation scripts development time, teams can focus on other tasks of the software development lifecycle. Teams can focus on their core business rather than worry about automation testing maintenance.
More accurate testing - Since there is no coding to develop testing scripts, automation testing is more accurate, also these tools have inbuilt mechanisms like wait time, synchronization, exception handling, error logging, etc. to produce more accurate testing results.
Save hiring automation developers - Using a codeless tool eliminates the need to have a team member dedicated to automation framework development. Teams can focus on hiring testers for project testing rather than dedicating their time to develop automation frameworks.
Codeless Automation testing can be made accessible to those who can’t code. BotPlay is leading tool for codeless automation testing.
Why is BotPlay automation a perfect choice for your automation testing?
BotPlay Codeless Automation is an intelligent, on-demand, self-service SaaS product providing a codeless way to automate 100% of your testing & processes on web applications.
BotPlay is the codeless automation tool that automates the automation testing.
Benefits - It is lightweight, portable, and doesn’t need any installation. It is an easy-to-use, no-code automation testing tool that removes manual dependency for automation, provides consistent results and saves testing costs, and generates ROI.
Use cases - If you have any of the below use cases, we would recommend you try out the trial version of BotPlay and gain a comprehensive understanding of the tool and fitment for your use case and project.
Features - The salient features of BotPlay include supporting automation testing scripting in natural language hence ensuring 4x faster automation development with 80% less maintenance compared to other tools and custom frameworks.
How to use BotPlay Codeless Automation
BotPlay Codeless Automation, helps organizations to remain true to their core business priorities and solve their automation testing challenges by providing a codeless UI automation tool that anyone can automate, even a non-technical user for web automation testing.
We would recommend you download BotPlay - Free automation testing bot, to start automation testing in your project.
Conclusion
In the current world, many new products are launched every day. To keep up with the competition, companies need to go through with the SDLC at a faster pace than before. Automation does help launch the product faster but codeless Automation Testing helps accelerate the process even further keeping up the market and demand. Codeless automation is made successful by the utilization of the right tool the selection of which should be thorough and judicious.