Testing has changed a lot in the last few years, principally down to the rise in automation. Obviously manual testing still has a place – and a very important place at that. Manual testing comes into its own when testing new functionality for the first time and it is perfect for exploratory testing. There is great value in how testers can create scenarios that can envisage what may go wrong. Ultimately, they represent the user and can identify with how they would like an application to perform, look and feel. But the benefits of automation have resulted in it becoming an essential part of the testing landscape.

Well, for a start, and at the risk of stating the obvious, automated testing is faster. And with the arrival of continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment, automated testing is even more of a no brainer, because it results in faster turnarounds and the faster identification of defects.

Another benefit is that automation invariably improves the testing and development teams’ relationship. There can often be a little dissonance between test teams and developers, but the nature of agile and DevOps, means they have to work better together. Sharing automated scripts means that tests can be executed and any issues identified before passing over to Test. These tests run automatically as soon as new source code has been added informing both teams if they fail. This bridges the gap between testers and developers as they work more closely together.

It is also true that test automation improves overall software quality, as it can be utilised earlier on in a project to do this. And it also increases the depth and breadth of the test suite – test automation can increase the overall test coverage and can execute tests that target part of an application, which would otherwise be impossible to test manually. Provided the implementation of automation tests have been done correctly and are maintainable, they are often reusable and can be executed on different versions and platforms.

In this era of automated testing, DevOps and continuous integration, it is essential for manual testers to make the shift into becoming test automation engineers. As part of this they need to expand their technical depth – to really benefit from automation means learning how to code to help get the skills needed to write better, more effective test scripts. And understanding the tools and frameworks that can be used to implement automation is key.

While it’s clear manual testing is nowhere near dead in the water, automated testing has made a massive impact in the software development world in the last few years. The benefits for organisations are undisputed. But in order for organisations to maximise these benefits and not miss out, they have to ensure their testers have the right blend of technical skills. There is no question that as the demand for automated testing burgeons, and more innovation in test execution is required, testing teams have to be up to scratch. If they aren’t, they will really risk missing the boat.

Kemi Olafisoye is a Consultant at P2 Consulting