{"id":2721,"date":"2017-01-06T12:07:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T12:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gallop.net\/blog\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2018-07-19T20:12:37","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T14:42:37","slug":"impact-of-selenium-on-future-of-software-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/impact-of-selenium-on-future-of-software-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Selenium Impact The Future of Software Testing? Evaluating The Pros and Cons"},"content":{"rendered":"
Software Testing is an ever-evolving space that is cramped up with numerous challenges. Test Automation works as a rescue path for testers who are facing multiple issues with their manual testing strategy. Testing and Development teams have thus been leveraging automation tools and platforms that are both licensed and open source. Choice of automation tool is a sheer strategic decision, and so is the decision behind using Selenium as an automation platform.<\/p>\n
Open Source innovation has taken the software industry by storm \u2013 Analysts, professionals, experts, all are discussing the impact and witnessing it. Agile development<\/a> and DevOps<\/a> is contributing substantially to the continuous evolution of code. In this context, Selenium is being recognized as a powerful open source automation tool for continuous development and delivery. For various apparent strengths, developers and testers are increasingly applying Selenium Automation for web application testing.<\/p>\n Selenium testing<\/a> provides a framework that is used for testing web applications, enabling teams to test the software and evaluate if it\u2019s fit for production and ultimately market-ready. The powerful tool can be leveraged effectively by developers and testers. It is used to test web applications and can be leveraged for authoring tests without in depth knowledge of scripting language. With Selenium, tests are mainly executed to ensure that the quality of the application is intact.<\/p>\n Global enterprises are increasingly shifting towards adoption of Selenium, thanks to some compelling benefits offered by the tool \u2013 Cost-effectiveness, compatibility, speed, and much more. However, for enterprises, migrating to Selenium involves time, effort, costs, and challenges. It is critical to leverage the right resources, tools, and best practices to ensure a seamless migration. Thus, it becomes imperative to migrate test assets from commercial test tools to Selenium right from the beginning. It can be done by pooling in industry best practices and accelerating the process of migration.<\/p>\n Selenium migration is estimated to be 15 times faster, and reduces efforts, which makes it cost effective when compared to the manual effort. Nevertheless, for enterprises, it is imperative to understand both the sides of the debate and then take a call.<\/p>\n With Selenium you can effectively and easily test the applications to assess whether they run seamlessly across multiple web browsers, namely, Chrome, IE, Safari, and Firefox. This works in the favor of developers, as they have to create the scripts only once and then test across browsers. It also gives you the option to change languages and customize it as per your requirements.<\/p>\n Selenium supports various testing frameworks, namely, JUnit, PHPUnit, TestNg, etc. It also seamlessly integrates within the testing ecosystem and with various suite tools as Selenium grid, Hudson, OMetry, and Saucelabs, which is the key strength of the tool.<\/p>\n Another key strength of the tool is its capability to scale for complex testing \u2013 production monitoring and load testing. The code is flexible and can be upgraded constantly as per the requirements. Nevertheless, the feasibility of the code modifications has yet to be gauged and validated.<\/p>\n In terms of being test driven, Agile methodology and extreme programming (XP) communities are two key areas where Selenium is widely applied by developers. Additionally, the Selenium Web driver framework does not require the standalone Selenium RC server for being functional.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>An ever growing open and strong community is one of the crucial reasons for considering the shift. Dedicated expenditure on training is not required. High quality documents and web community are important aspects why you should be considering Selenium. However, with a lot of ifs and buts<\/em>. It could be rewarding!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Maybe not the main and only reason to consider, but Selenium can be considered for the cost-effectiveness that it provides. It is conveniently downloadable and the developers can apply the set of tools to automate web applications testing for any given language. It doesn\u2019t require specific training, as upgrade happens across an open platform.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Selenium ideally supports across browsers, but for you to get the scripts to work on multiple browsers, you need to get it written using Selenium IDE and use it with Selenium core or RC. If not done, the scripts can only work on Mozilla Firefox.<\/p>\n Selenium does not support data driven tests with manual scripts such as conditions and loops.\u00a0 When scripts are converted to Java, C# or Ruby, the software is unable to run and results in disruptions with the application. Additionally, there are instances of slow performance, when there is difference in terms of implementation of the tool.<\/p>\n Risks related to migration continue with Selenium, however, they are temporary if it is planned well. When the issues are handled initially, the risks continue to cease and performance is guaranteed. Planning the migration process is imperative.<\/p>\nSelenium Testing: what makes it popular?<\/h2>\n
Browser Compatibility<\/span><\/h4>\n
Testing Frameworks and ease of integration<\/span><\/h4>\n
Constant enhancement & Test Driven Development (TDD)<\/span><\/h4>\n
Support of strong community<\/span><\/h4>\n
It\u2019s almost free!<\/span><\/h4>\n
What are the risks\/challenges involved?<\/h2>\n
Browser support<\/span><\/h4>\n
No Manual scripts & Recorded scripts<\/span><\/h4>\n
Migrations risks<\/span><\/h4>\n