Pros and cons of record and playback
In the year 2019, automation testing has become more prominent. This form of testing is more preferable since it minimizes the need for code generation. With automation, once the test scripts are written, they can be used many times. One good example is the Record and Playback functionality offered by new age test automation tools like QARA Test – a complete test management platform developed by The Digital Group.
Test automation tools use the concept of ‘Record and Playback’ to use the same code multiple times. So today in this article, we will discuss the benefits of ‘Record and Playback’ in test automation. But first of all, let’s see how the feature works.
Record and Playback:
The term ‘Record and Playback’ implies the recorded code is automatically generated and this code runs when the user chooses to playback the recorded test scripts. Here the changes can be made to the code to make the test run differently. It also allows the developer to update, maintain and make test improvements. The software records and logs your manual testing. This includes every mouse movement, screenshot, keystroke, which is all recorded and the user can play them back.
One way to use this feature is to combine the existing GUI identifiers and images. Often it combines the test identifiers based on the current hierarchical GUI. An expert automation testing programmer can write the functions and variable names with an expressive name. Now let us have a look at the benefits.
Benefits of Test Automation Record and Playback:
Usually, a software team consists of several members with the varying skill sets. These include the developers, testers, debuggers and so on. i.e each one is an expert in a specific domain. Here, for the purpose of development, we must exclude people like debuggers.
But consider a scenario where the developer is unavailable for some reason. So at this moment, someone has to take the initiation. The individual, need to make simple updates to make sure the test is executed well. Moreover, the changes can be made by altering the code (or) creating the new version of the recording.
Benefits of test automation tools:
The test automation tools help with testing of the software application. So the people who run the automated test may also run the manual test. Some testing professionals prefer only manual testing. But according to my view, both the forms of testing have their own significance. Automation testing is applied to the record and playback. So people, use this tool to adopt the code generated from recording and introduce the code of their own. But some test developers manually decide to code for their automated test scripts. So, irrespective of the skill set, this job can be done by anyone.
Disadvantages:
These tools create the procedural code. But these procedural codes are a big problem. For every change in the code, it needs to be recorded. So doing this repetitively increases the maintenance cost.
The main drawback of this tool is that it does what you have previously recorded (nothing more or less). It means these tools typically do little more than the basic navigation testing. Here you are typically limited to testing against the user interface.
Poor integration:
These tools, by and large, don’t integrate well with your SDLC process. They don’t have their own test interfaces and test runners. It means you people need to manually kick off the test. This can also mean that the test needs exclusive control over the machines. Additionally, this record and playback tool cannot know the intention when you click a button (or) type into the field. But the user here cannot create a meaningful name for the GUI elements for the system when they interact. Besides, it cannot identify with the names that clarify your intentions.
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- qtsinfo March 30, 2022, 12:28 pmvery nice article. visitreply
- Wendye November 18, 2020, 2:59 amTest case recording and playback is a feature available in new age complete test management tools like QARA Enterprise and Katalon Studio that makes test case execution easier and saves time and efforts of the QA team.reply
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