Nowadays organizations are very much aware of the role of testing in developing and delivering quality applications in a shorter time, for that they are investing in the requisite automation testing tools and technologies.

But the problem is not about awareness or tooling. The problem is managing quality and time in testing which is difficult. Agile development demands speedy application delivery and a shortened release cycle. Late delivery or defect in an application can damage its reputation, it can also lead to frustration and lost customers. 

A major reason for so many tests failing is that they take a long time to run. For that, it is important to improve test quality and speed. Because the longer it takes to run, the more likely it is to end with a failure. 

For small builds, manual testing can be enough. But constantly following up manually to determine the source of repeated test failures, making records of the findings, checking log files, and the database for errors is time-consuming and tedious for a tester. It is commonly known that human error is normal so to eliminate it manual testing should be minimized at all costs to save time and errors.

For bigger tasks when it requires testing the same areas repeatedly the need for automated testing comes into place. Automation promises to save your time and cost less while raising quality. It helps the testing team to implement different scenarios and increases overall application development efficiency. It also allows more robust tools to be built, and quickly get feedback on what works and what does not.

Time management, productivity, and collective effort are the important reasons behind accomplishing more work in less time. A tester’s time is valuable as their task is to test the application, communicate with the development team, and catch bugs. By automating the testing procedure the team has to spend less time validating newly developed features and delivering high-quality applications. It also improves communication with other development teams so that they can easily check the logs of the automated tests and see what’s happening.

But sometimes the tester gets out of time due to a heavy workload and longer test execution time. So it is important for a tester to have some refining automation strategies’ and hacks to reduce test run time and easily attain faster testing, by adjusting the processes that are already in place. This will not only make their life easier but also accelerate their testing and help them make the most out of their time.

Moving forward let’s discuss some important hacks to help a tester squeeze more out of their time.

1. Run Tests in Parallel

Automation will indeed help you to test more parts of your application faster, but you will only be able to accomplish this sequentially. This means that it will not be possible for you to run more parts at a time. Eventually, it will take longer to complete the one-screen flow test. 

That is why running tests in parallel will boost automation by allowing multiple tests to run simultaneously. Instead of running the same script over and over on different configurations, parallel testing allows you to run the same tests across multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices at a time.

2. Set Goals and objectives.

To do things in order to be effective it is essential to have control over time. Setting objectives and limits will let you achieve your target on time. It is not only about managing time but also managing tasks and priorities. To be effective, and move forward with your tasks you need to decide how to prioritize the tasks while setting your goal. Here are a few tips you can seek.

• Make specific and unique goals so that you can achieve them within certain limits.
• Set a way to measure your goals then you will be achieving them the way you expected to.
• To make the goal attainable, pick processes that suit your schedule. Sometimes you need to extend the time limits for bigger objectives as they may take longer
• Make your goals relevant by Checking whether your objectives meet the new project’s goal.

3. Design Atomic Tests

One of the best practices to create a better and faster automation experience and save time is to run atomic tests. They focus on testing a single feature of application functionality. This makes it very clear what exactly you are testing and what needs to be fixed. They are much faster and easier to execute compared to longer tests assessing multiple feature functionality.

When the aim is to reduce run time and improve test quality, it is better to write separate tests, each specifically focused on a single functionality.  Running individually but in parallel, “atomic” tests will execute in less time than one longer test.

4. Take advantage of available tools

Being a great tester you must know how to leverage the right tools to help you. Choosing an open-source testing framework and investing in the right automation testing tool will make your life way easier and save your time.

With the previously mentioned parallel testing, you just need to rely on a platform like LambdaTest for a cloud-based Selenium Grid.

5. Communicate with Your Team Members

Maintaining interactions between the team members helps in achieving goals and reducing the time by discussing issues closely and elaborately. You may get ideas on how to solve issues appearing in an application’s functionalities and discuss unnecessary tests in the application between the team members.

You may also gain real visibility and an understanding of tasks or applications from different perspectives.

6. Know Your Task

As a tester, you should have the ability to explain the tasks to other team members. For that, you need to have a clear idea about your work. Without knowing your task, it’s impossible to know how to focus your efforts.

So, it is important to invest some time at the beginning of tasks. Know the requirements and work on them. Doing this will help you to have a better idea of how to prioritize the time spent on each task activity. You will automatically save your time when you don’t have to struggle with understanding requirements later.

7. Avoid Multitask

Multitasking is dangerous, it affects your speed. It is important to finish things before starting new ones to avoid multitasking. For many testers, it does not work to multitask, as they lose concentration by focusing on a lot of different things and just get messed up. Running two test cases at the same time is hard to achieve and precarious too.

People who try multitasking are sometimes far less productive than those who choose one task at a time. Focussing on one thing at a time will speed up the task and give your full attention to what you are doing.

8. Teamwork saves time

Testers always believe that working in a team and collaborating with each member plays an important role in achieving major tasks. Some tasks are better achieved as a team than doing them alone. Teamwork ultimately leads to making things work more effectively. Teamwork helps to stay aligned with each other in terms of documentation and reporting, and also with the status of the applications that need to be tested and to be fixed. These are the ones that need special attention and proper planning. 

9. Write reusable test scripts.

Writing a reusable test script is one of the best ways for optimizing test automation and saving time. Creating flexible test scripts right from the beginning is preferred for better reusability.

While designing the automation flow it allows you to perform the same functionality again and again without creating them more than once.  It saves your time and effort for test script creation as well as helps in meeting release deadlines in agile cycles.

10. Know what type of Test Case should be automated

Undoubtedly automating your tests will make things easier and faster, but automating the wrong test cases will just do the opposite. Not knowing the best cases to automate just before starting to run them will only waste your time and effort, which is a dreadful situation for a tester.

You must consider the following when deciding to automate the test cases.

• If it has multiple data sets and is going to be repetitive.
• If it takes a lot of effort and time to do it manually.
• If it is going to run on several platforms and configurations.
• If the test requirements are stable and are not going to change often.

Try These tips With LambdaTest

Automated testing plays an important role in successful DevOps. Good automation helps testers do their job in time, but only when done correctly. In order to reap all its benefits and increase your chances of releasing on time, choose a secure and reliable platform like LambdaTest.

LambdaTest makes test automation, maintenance, and execution seamless, all from a test cloud. It will allow you to automate advanced test scenarios on devices and browsers in the cloud from anywhere in the world. It helps you build a cutting-edge automation process with maximum coverage at scale. 

LambdaTest allows you to perform live testing across 3000+ real devices and operating systems. In a nutshell, LambdaTest is a one-stop shop for all your testing needs; be it real-time testing, mobile app testing, visual ui testing, or automation testing.

Author Bio: Vixit Raj is Product Growth and Marketing Specialist in LambdaTest : The Cross Browser Web App Testing Platform. An E&C engineering background & digital marketing domain experience of 5+ years has aroused his interest towards learning more about latest technology advancements, product marketing, coding and testing.

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