Organizations worldwide are transitioning to the cloud to optimize their business operations. Utilizing enterprise applications such as CRM, ERP, HCM, and SCM has become integral for managing various business processes. A key driver for this shift to the cloud is the dedication to continuous innovation.

This commitment ensures that users consistently receive new features and functionalities, enhancing their responsiveness to customer needs. Given the pivotal role these applications play in an organization, it is imperative that they function seamlessly. This is where testing comes in.

Over the years, the development models have changed. Enterprises have embraced Agile and DevOps that allow rapid and reliable releases. As maintaining the quality and stability of the applications is paramount, manual testing seems like an illogical solution.

Why Manual Testing Isn’t a Viable Option in 2024

• Manual testing adheres to the waterfall approach, where testing is conducted after the completion of development activities. However, this approach has a significant drawback—bugs discovered in the later stages of development are more costly to rectify.

• Manual testing is time-consuming and susceptible to errors. Testing a single scenario manually involves data entry at multiple points. When it comes to regression testing, the selection of regression suites is often based on guesswork, posing potential risks to your business.

• Enterprise applications like CRM, ERP, SCM etc., are complex. As the application grows, the only way to scale manual testing is by increasing the number of resources. Finding skilled resources is a challenging task and keeping them is quite expensive.

• Frequent updates have made regression testing mandatory. However, repetitive testing can be monotonous and lead to fatigue, potentially affecting the quality of testing.

• Manual test cases may not be reused easily. This repetitive work often consumes too much time and effort in the long run.

These challenges can be addressed with Test automation. In this, specialized tools and frameworks are used to automate the execution of tests and the validation of software applications. The automation scripts simulate the actions of a human tester interacting with the software, such as clicking buttons, entering data, and verifying outcomes. The benefits of automated testing are listed below.

Faster Execution of Tests: With the help of automation scripts, test scripts can be executed significantly faster than manual tests. This enables quicker feedback on the quality of the software. The faster execution of test cases can be significant in agile and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) environments where quality software releases are rolled out quickly.

Reusability of Test Scripts: Once created, automated test scripts can be reused across different phases of development, ensuring consistent and repeatable testing. So, every time testers don't need to start from scratch. This is especially helpful in a scenario when regression testing needs to be done multiple times in a year.

Increased Test Coverage: Testers can execute many test cases in a short period with the help of automated scripts. Since the number of tests that are executed is more, there is a possibility that more defects are covered.

Consistency and Accuracy: Automated test scripts can be executed multiple times with precision. As human involvement is limited, the chances of human errors in test execution and evaluation are also limited.

Early Detection of Defects: Unlike manual tests that are executed after development, automated tests can be integrated into the development process. This allows early detection of defects and ensures early feedback. Since testing is a part of the development phase, developers can identify and address issues promptly. This reduces the cost of fixing defects.

Regression Testing: This is a perfect use-case of automated testing. Whenever an update is rolled out, previously validated functionalities are retested to ensure that new changes have not introduced defects. Automated tests can quickly and thoroughly execute a large number of regression tests.

Parallel Execution: Test automation enables parallel execution of tests across different environments, browsers, or devices. This enables application's compatibility and performance testing under various conditions simultaneously.

Scalability: Large and complex projects can be scaled easily with test automation. As the application grows, the test suite can be expanded and modified to accommodate changes, ensuring ongoing test coverage.

These are some of the top benefits of automated testing. Undoubtedly, test automation speeds up the testing process and eliminates coverage risks, there is a catch. Finding the right ERP testing tool is a key to success. And it is really daunting to find the right tool with so many ERP testing tools available in the market. We recommend you select the no-code test automation tool as business users who are essential component of testing can easily operate it.