How To Create Reliable Test Automation Reports

In the arena of software testing, automation testing has made itself a distinct area. Automation testing, as the name designates, is using automated technologies to carry out test cases with little human participation. Then, compare the results and create reports based on the test.

To keep up with the expectations for swift yet high-quality software projects, automated testing is an essential aspect of any Agile team. Teams may boost result efficiency, improve problem identification, and much more by using automation. QA engineers and testers save a lot of time and work on initial testing and projects that need multiple executions of the same test thanks to advancements in this sector.

Also read: How Codeless Automation Tools Help in Test Automation

How To Start With Automation Testing?

• Defining the automation testing’s scope: An overview of your team’s test status, the quantity of test data, and the execution environment is critical. This particular phase will assist you in determining the broad region of the program in which your test is being performed. It can be defined using the following criteria:
• The technological viability of your team
• The percentage of components that are reused in the test
• Choosing a tool for automated testing
• Your test scenarios’ degree of strain
• The most vital features and functions are being carried out.
• Choosing an automation tool: Despite the benefits listed above, test automation is not appropriate for all projects. While automation has benefitted many QA teams, it has also resulted in firms wasting time, effort, and money on the use of automation solutions. The process of selecting the appropriate tool may take some time and effort at first, but it is critical for successful automated testing in the long term. Please see our article on how to choose the best automated testing tool.
• Planning, developing, and designing: They are all important aspects of any project. You must consider the objectives of the testing process, your framework designs, and features, as well as the schedule for scripting and running test cases when establishing and planning an automated testing strategy.
• Building your reports and executing test cases: This stage is concerned with the execution of automation test scripts, which are programs that execute using test data as input. Test execution may be done directly with the automation testing tool or through the management tool, which will then call the automation tool.

When this procedure is complete, the test report gives a consolidated overview of the project’s testing so far.

The Relevance Of The Study On Automated Testing

In an automation framework, test automation reporting is critical. The results of your automated test suites will be the sole artifacts for which you may investigate their failures after they’ve been run. They will assist you in deciding whether or not to release a product.

What Is A Test Report?

A test report is a well-ordered overview of the testing goals, actions, and outcomes. It was developed and is used to assist stakeholders (product managers, analysts, testing teams, and developers) in determining product quality and determining if a product, feature, or defect resolution is ready for release.

A test report gives information about the quality of your testing and test automation efforts in addition to product quality. Typically, organizations have four high-level questions concerning test automation. They are:

• What exactly is the issue with my automation scripts?
• What is the problem with my backend?
• What’s the matter with my laboratory?
• What is the matter with my executions?
• Lastly, test reporting should assist you in comprehending the value of testing. Are you, for example, testing anything unnecessarily? Are the results of your testing consistent? Were any concerns discovered early on in the process?

All of these critical questions may be answered with the help of a competent test reporting methodology. You may not only increase the quality of an app but also speed up its release.

How To Efficiently Report Test Execution

We all know that a clear and thorough report may assist us in reaching important product development conclusions. So, how might we successfully report our test? Each tool has its own reporting format; nonetheless, certain metrics are required regardless of format:

• Test cases have to be presented in a tabular format
• Total number of scripts
• Test Result (each test case’s passed/failed status)
• Duration

Also read: Top 10 Testing Tools for Web Applications

How To Create Reliable Test Automation Reports?

It is the content of the test report that matters. Therefore, you must be wondering, “ What should be included in a test report?” That relies on the mix of stakeholders who will be utilizing it, as well as the team’s sophistication. Regardless of the topic, it should provide quick, actionable feedback. Everything should be explained as simply as feasible (or presented in a test automation tool) — but not too simple. To be helpful, it must have the appropriate granularity in the appropriate places.

It is important to remember that the test report is used to assess the quality and make judgments. Important subtleties may be ignored if it is too basic, resulting in bad conclusions. It will be difficult for you and your team to acquire a feel of the overall quality picture if it is too detailed.

Summary of the Basic Test Report: At the absolute least, a very basic test report for a small application or business should contain the following:

• Executive Summary – A summary of the most important results.
• Exam Objective – Details regarding the kind and purpose of the test.
• Defining succeeded, unsuccessful, and blocked test cases in the test summary.
• Defects – Described in terms of priority and severity.

The bare minimum will not be enough for a bigger business or one that is doing more advanced testing.

Each test report must include enough artifacts, such as logs, network traffic (HAR Files), video recordings, screenshots, and other relevant data, to allow the reviewer to make data-driven judgments. Test history, which includes flaws discovered during the test, as well as a problematic platform or feature in the product, may be quite useful to test reporting reviewers when it comes to determining the next actions,  test coping, and test impact analysis for the next cycle.

Continuous Testing Test Reporting: Smarter testing and analysis are a must when you’re releasing often and with the aid of test automation, as most contemporary enterprises do. To begin, schedule your testing operations such that reporting and analysis arrive at the most appropriate point in your development process.

Unit, smoke, and regression testing are timed to correspond with when they are important to the team. If you wait too long to do unit testing (or wait too long to get feedback), you risk postponing a release. Regression tests should be synced every night so that the team can collect feedback and take action the following day.

Good test reporting is sent to the appropriate teams at the appropriate time. Apart from that, you’ll need a test reporting dashboard that’s tailored to the process. The following are examples of what this might entail:

• Executive Summary- Highlighting real-time patterns in the Continuous Integration pipeline for testing.
• Focus Areas Heatmap – Mapping Emerging Issues (risks or other areas).
• Visual Validation Across Browsers – To rapidly spot functional/UI flaws across browsers.
• Single Test Report – For a comprehensive root cause investigation that includes a list of the artifacts.
• For successful triaging, use the Report Library (dicing and slicing of data).

Also read: How To Check For Your Software’s Scalability Testing

Challenges That You Might Face During Test Reporting

The characteristics of current development, such as Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD, have altered the criteria for a “good” test result. A few difficulties that may stand in the way of a quick, accurate test result are listed below.

• Data with a lot of noise and a lot of volumes: Testing teams nowadays create mounds of data from their tests. Both test automation (more testing) and device proliferation have contributed to the creation of mountains (more devices, browsers, and versions). Is it not true that the more data you have, the better it is? Both yes and no.

Yes, if it’s something that can be done. If it isn’t, no. An overabundance of testing data plagues many enterprises. It’s tough to tell what’s useful and what’s simply noise in such a situation.

Noise is generated by faulty test cases, unstable environments, and other difficulties that result in false negatives for which we don’t know the fundamental reason. In today’s world, digital businesses must go through each failure highlighted in the research. As a result, reporting is hampered by large amounts of useless data.

• Cadences of Galloping Release: A test report was traditionally created and reported as one of the last phases of a waterfall development process (using spreadsheets!). There was time to gather findings, write a report, and make judgments since releases were few and far between. This has been substantially altered by the Agile and DevOps movements‘ adoption of rapid release cadences. Testing must be completed fast. Quality decisions must be made in weeks, days, or even hours, rather than months. If the input isn’t received in a timely manner, the release is either halted or released with dubious quality.
• Data that has been divided: The amount and diversity of tools, teams, and frameworks are also a problem, especially in bigger businesses. Simply:
• There is a substantial amount of testing data.
• It comes from a variety of persons and groups (SDETs, API testers, developers, and business testers).
• It comes in a variety of frameworks and forms (Appium, Selenium, etc.)
• Good test reporting becomes extremely difficult without a consistent means to collect and filter this data throughout the business.

You’ll be able to take important actions to increase your quality and effectiveness if you have a thorough grasp of automated execution and test findings. In conclusion, automating test cases and maintaining test results are not as difficult as most beginners believe. To get the most out of Test Execution or Automation Testing Reports, you’ll need a well-thought-out testing strategy and a number of supporting test automation platforms.

Utilizing LambdaTest’s cross-browser testing platform, you may examine and analyze the results of your automated browser testing on 3000+ real browsers, devices, and operating systems. LambdaTest integrates with  test management and test reporting systems, enabling you to manage your test execution results while