There are many factors that go into building an automated quality assurance system. But before we go into that, it is important to know why automated testing system is important for your ecommerce business. It is a vital business tool that works silently for you, while ensuring that all quantifiable metrics are available at your disposal when you need them. You may not need or use them all the time but the very fact that they are there for you is a very reassuring feeling. Automated quality assurance system keeps working for you without distracting you from matters that may need your undivided attention.
Automated QA can condense your development cycles and help you avoid a number of burdensome and monotonous tasks. It creates the ground for help improving quality of your products and processes.
A good automated quality assurance system consists of a number of ingredients. Let us look at what makes a perfect automated QA.
User-Friendly and Flexible
Ease of use is obviously one of the key requisites of a great automated QA. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had an automated QA system that could do a source checkout each night, and ran crucial checks and tests within a code coverage tool after you and your team had retired for the day? That’s the kind of QA system you must aim to have.
High Quality Reporting
Quality reporting is another important factor in automated QA systems. With time, the quantity of data generated can become extensive and may pose handling problems for your team. You must focus on making salient information easily accessible. Why?
If, for instance, a unit test fails, and it is not noticed by the team, what is the value of such tests? Nothing! With an advanced reporting system, it’s nearly impossible for such situations to occur. Besides making it easy to get the appropriate information, the reporting system must be designed to deliver actively and not passively or when prompted. The best reporting system will ensure that you receive a link to the report once the tests have been completed.
The Ability to identify Test Cases
It is impractical to automate all testing and that’s why the key to successful automation is to establish the test cases that need automation. The benefit of automated testing is connected with how many times a given test can be repeated. Some tests needs to be done only a few times. Such tests are best done manually. Choose those tests for automation that have to be conducted frequently and involve large amounts of data that have to execute the same actions.
Language Generality
Make sure the QA system you create is capable of running tests for code in any language. It will matter for your business in the future, if not now, as you don’t know what the future of your business will be a few years down the line. Typically, companies want their QA system to be able to test on multiple platforms but in practical terms, this may not be necessary. A QA system that’s not language-specific will serve your interests better in the long term.
