Usetrace checks the functionality of the application under test automatically from
the end user’s perspective. It simulates people interacting with the application’s user
interface by automatically using mouse and keyboard according to pre-defined user
flows. This is the highest level of testing possible on a software. This testing level is
called end-to-end testing, i.e. the test is not observing the internal coherence of the
application under test but is rather observing that for a given specific input the
application behaves as expected.
Our vision is that all software designed for people is systematically tested from end-
to-end before releasing it to them. This means testing must be automated to a large extent.
As the importance of automated end-to-end testing is usually recognized,
companies often face all, or a variety of the reasons below why testing in this level is
not possible right now.
1. We don’t have the time right now to implement this level of testing.
Time is rarely an abundance in software projects and it is not uncommon that
testing is the one of the first things to be cut out when time and resources are
scarce. Companies also find that test automation would require too much time to
have a positive effect on an existing project and therefore testing is often
postponed to be taken on the next project.
2. We don’t have the expertise to adopt this level of testing.
If a company is thinking about building a large testing infrastructure it will
probably not have the in-house expertise to make that happen. This is where
testing consultants come in for three to six months to guide you through the
process, accumulating high consultancy fees and thus requiring a large upfront
investment and time before testing itself can even begin.
3. We don’t have the resources to create and maintain high quality, sustainable automated tests
Creating maintainable scripted automated tests requires excellent programming
skillset. The same skillset companies want to target towards their product
development, not to testing.
4. We don’t want to spend the time and money to train our people to test in this level.
Nowadays companies have their Quality Assurance-personnel doing manual
testing. Training them to become professionals in test automation is a major
investment to any company, taking time, money and resources.
Check the complete white paper on how you can implement cost efficient test automation in your software development process: Usetrace Whitepaper
Photo by Lee Roylland.
