A programming mindset dominates how many test automation tools are developed. But more times than not, your QA testers are not programmers. Because coding takes years of practice to master, training your QA team to code can drain your resources. Furthermore, testers find themselves spending more time coding test cases than running tests.
Your QA process doesn’t have to be this complicated. It’s time to adopt codeless testing.
With codeless automated testing, your team can still enjoy the perks of automated testing without investing the time and resources for coding test scripts. In this guide, discover what is codeless test automation, the benefits of a codeless automation framework and the best codeless test automation tools on the market.
What Is Codeless Test Automation?
In QA testing, codeless automated testing is the practice of creating automation tests where coding is not required. Codeless testing removes the pressure of learning code for creating test scripts so that your QA testers can focus on tasks surrounding application functionality and user experience. QA teams with limited scripting knowledge and coding skills often choose to set up a codeless automation framework to streamline QA testing in the development cycle.
The best codeless test automation tools are designed to create test scripts without coding or the need for testers to learn how to code. Instead, codeless automation testing tools create automated test cases after examining a user’s navigation and clicks through the software application and/or by translating user behavior explained in natural language into test scripts.
Benefits of Codeless Testing
- Save time and resources: Codeless testing means that test cases can be created in minimum time and executed quickly. This means that time previously assigned to your QA testers to code test scripts can be reallocated towards other important tasks.
- Improve time to market: With codeless QA testing, testers now have plenty of time to focus on the outcome of testing rather than conducting test practices repeatedly. The best codeless test automation tools feature excellent integration abilities designed to simplify test creation and maintenance, further ensuring no delays in product deployments.
- Easily create test cases: Because codeless automation testing tools don’t require coding skills to create test scripts, the process of creating test cases is approachable for any QA tester. These tools often showcase an intuitive user interface without the intimidation a script development environment presents.
- Decrease your testing bottleneck: Since codeless automated testing speeds up the process of creating test cases, QA teams can run through test cases and deliver results at a more accelerated rate. No longer are developers delayed in resolving application issues because of lag in testing.
- Simple to maintain and manage test cases: A codeless automation framework simplifies the process of updating test scripts whenever requirements change or whenever product enhancements are enabled. The best codeless test automation tools follow a well-defined structure and architecture so that your framework is properly managed over time.
- Quick access to testing reports: Collecting test performance data is a must for any test automation checklist. However, writing custom scripts to create these reports takes up time and resources. Fortunately, codeless automation testing tools often feature customized reporting that’s easy to gather, understand and explain to stakeholders.
Codeless Automation Myths
- Codeless doesn’t mean zero code: Despite its name, codeless automated testing doesn’t mean an absence of code. In fact, code is generated whenever a tester creates a test case. “Codeless” in this context simply means that the tester is not required to code in order to create the test script.
- Codeless tools don’t support custom code: While codeless tools make it easy for testers to create test cases without code, that doesn’t mean that the tool is limited to codeless testing. Many codeless testing tools support custom code alongside codeless scripts.
- Testers don’t need coding skills: QA testers can still expect to encounter scenarios where code needs some polishing for optimal test performance. While codeless testing makes creating test cases a fast and easy process, coding skills can still help QA engineers ensure the smoothness of codeless testing processes.
Selenium Automation vs. Codeless Automation
Should your team consider Selenium automation or codeless automation for QA testing? That depends on the skills of your QA engineers and the goals of your projects.
Selenium automation, the open-source option, specifically supports codeless test automation for tests recorded and played back through Selenium IDE. Coding expertise is required for editing test cases and automated complex scenarios. A technical understanding is essential for reviewing any test case.
Codeless automation upgrades this experience, making automated test case creation approachable for all testers. Codeless testing platforms go beyond record and playback for creating test scripts with setup being a straightforward, painless process. No coding skills are necessary for creating test cases or for reviewing any test case within the testing tool. Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and xpath are beneficial to have for editing test cases and for system maintenance.
Best Tools for Codeless Test Automation
There’s no shortage of tools designed for codeless automated testing. The tools you choose for codeless testing should provide the most support to your team without depleting your resources.
What should you consider when choosing a test automation tool? While researching your options, we recommend exploring these codeless automation testing tools:
- Katalon Studio: This complete codeless testing platform is designed for both beginner and professional users for testing web, mobile and desktop applications. Beginners can quickly create test cases with the intuitive interface featuring drag and drop commands as well as record and playback. Expert testers can access the dual-scripting interface for advanced test cases.
- Test Craft: This end-to-end automation testing solution excels at regression and continuous testing. To prevent accidental code breaking, Test Craft features “smart binding” where the platform locates all smart elements for easy updating. This tool offers in-depth reporting with analysis on every test step and supports parallel execution.
- CloudQA: As a cloud-based codeless testing platform, CloudQA is designed to build, maintain and execute tests across browsers in parallel. Recorded tests are easy to put into maintainable modules and transformed into comprehensible forms. This tool supports synthetic monitoring and test case reusability across regression testing and load testing.
- Perfecto: Teams choose this cloud-based test automation tool because of its comprehensive AI analytics with error classifications in order to optimize CI/CD pipelines. Perfecto supports codeless testing across devices, browsers and operating systems with unlimited scalable execution in parallel. This platform offers a self-healing feature that allows test scripts to run continuously without any disruptions or needed maintenance.
- Leapwork: Enjoy an easy-to-use interface and advanced testing capabilities with this codeless test automation tool. Users can quickly build test cases with Leapwork’s default library and predefined building blocks. This platform supports testing both local and distant environments by customizing run schedules.
Your team doesn’t have to go through the process of implementing codeless test automation alone. Make this experience seamless by partnering with a QA services provider like QASource. Our team of testing experts specialize in automation testing and offer years of experience in developing best practices for codeless automated testing. Our QA engineers can guide your team through the process of implementing codeless testing and integrating codeless testing tools into your practices. Get in touch with a QASource expert today.
