Manual testing is an important part of software quality assurance, where a human tester proceeds a quality check without using any automation tools. It aims to verify or disprove that the software works as expected and meets the technical and business criteria.
As new technologies evolve, automated testing is actively replacing manual testing, as it allows companies to save time and resources on completing repeatable tasks. However, it is still impossible to automate 100% of QA processes and any new software feature needs to be tested manually first, in order to prove its future automation reasonableness.
A common case is when a company wants to set up an automation process without a streamlined testing strategy. Automation is just one of the various testing tools, but not a panacea for approaching quality goals. Automation and manual testing always go hand in hand.
Manual and automation testing specialists work in collaboration to create a reliable automation testing strategy that fits the business’ quality goals.
At UTOR we provide end-to-end testing services that fit any specific software development life cycle. We start with analyzing the foundation, building a strategy, applying multiple testing methodologies, and test design techniques, which are adjusted to the project objectives. Only after that, the automation QA specialist will have sufficient documentation and can build the automation process, for example, API and UI automation.
In our work, we use both manual and automated types of software testing and combine them, which will help us cover as much software code and features as possible.
In this article we are going to explore in more detail what is manual testing, and in which cases it is irreplaceable.
Why Do We Think Manual Testing is Still Relevant?
Automation Tools Can’t Imitate Real Humans Yet
Even if automation testing detected no bugs, manual quality assurance can help to identify general design and usability defects, as well as unlogical navigation and customer paths.
Even the most advanced automated test scripts can’t detect what the human tester’s eye can see from a customer’s perspective and understand the problem on an emotional level.
Some Bugs Are Totally Unexpected
Automation tools are designed to test the software code only according to pre-written scripts, but some critical bugs might be found in completely unexpected parts of the software. But QA manual testers can potentially find some hidden defects while checking other issues.
Manual Testing Is Cheaper For Small Projects
Automating the quality assurance processes can become a big deal for small companies and startups, since professional software, maintenance, management, and scripts writing can take up a big part of a development budget.
Also, automation can be time-consuming. QA testers have to create the test scripts and set up the automation tools in order to run the tests properly. On the contrary, using manual testing, a small feature can be quickly checked, and a tester can give feedback to developers faster.
There Might Be Bugs In Scripts For Automation Testing
Just like any software code can contain bugs in it, automation scripts are not immune to them either. It means that testing results may have a wrong pass or fail result. Reviewing the feature by a manual tester can add up a “human vision” and help to get rid of potential issues.
No One Said You Can’t Combine Manual With Automated Testing
A key to getting all the automation testing benefits is to blend it successfully with manual testing. In order to do this, software testers have to define where each type of testing can be used with maximum efficiency and code coverage.
Test automation should be used when a particular test scenario requires an input of a large amount of data and a complex environment setup (for example, unit, integration, and functional testing). Also, automation is often used for performance tests, like stress and load testing.
Now let’s take a closer look at the areas where manual testing is more worthwhile.
When To Use Manual Testing?
Exploratory Testing
This type of testing is widely used in Agile methodologies and is based on a determination of test cases during the process of quality assurance. While comparing manual vs automation testing, exploratory testing doesn’t require test cases and scripts to be designed beforehand. Alternatively, it relies on a manual tester’s experience and expertise to investigate software and find bugs that could possibly be ignored by other testing approaches.
Mobile Testing
While testing the mobile software features, it is important to check the device compatibility with all the possible user interactions. It includes, but is not limited to, application behavior while being interrupted by a call or an unstable Wi-Fi connection. Also, it is critical to test how mobile applications will react to different screen tapping and gestures.
For these use cases, you will definitely need manual testing services to get fast feedback about your app usage.
User Experience (UX) Testing
Also known as usability testing, this type of manual testing is aimed to measure the user-friendliness of an application, its ability to meet predetermined objectives, and how easy it is to use for potential customers.
For instance, user experience testing can help to discover if the general design, colors, buttons, images match each other and look attractive and aesthetically pleasing. Another example is to check if navigation inside the app is understandable to the end-user or if it requires additional hints and explanation. These tests are hardly covered with automation testing but are successfully performed by QA manual testers.
Tests That You Only Run Once
It doesn’t make much sense to automate tests, during which you need to validate test scenarios once and perform only a few actions. On the other hand, if a non-recurring test requires an input of a large amount of data, then it might be reasonable to automate it.
Features, That Are Faster To Be Tested Manually
If you need to test a small change, automation testing would require time for coding scripts and performing them with automation tools. This process could be more time-consuming, than testing the feature manually right away.
Tests Without Clear Pass/Fail Conditions
Sometimes, when software is being moved to a new platform, interface changes are required or the database needs to be rewritten, so the software has to be tested as soon as possible. These kinds of activities are called “software maintenance” and are aimed to modify and update software to keep up with customer needs.
In such projects, the QA team often doesn’t have enough resources and time to create new documentation and automation testing scripts for updated conditions. That’s why the pass and fail conditions might not be defined clearly. In such cases, a manual tester can track the issues faster and compare the testing results with the software’s previous versions.
How To Hire A Manual QA?
To apply the right balance between manual testing and automation technologies, as well as use the correct manual testing tools, you need an expert QA specialist to join your team. You can hire an in-house tester or use QA outsourcing services.
Recruiting an in-house QA specialist allows a company to have full control of the testing process and integrate a new team member into their own corporate culture. However, the hiring process might take longer than expected, as well as high hourly rates and HR costs may increase your development budgets.
Alternatively, you can save time and resources by outsourcing a qualified manual tester or a complete QA team, depending on your project requirements. At UTOR we provide the full cycle of quality assurance services and tailor-made solutions to fit your business model.
Wrapping Up
There is still a big need for manual quality assurance, no matter how advanced automated software testing becomes nowadays. As you can see after reading this article, manual testing is still important in software QA strategy, and there are many cases when manual testing would be more resulting and cost-effective for your project. So, when testing your product, you shouldn’t focus on how to completely get rid of manual testing, but how to effectively combine it with automation testing.
Don’t hesitate to contact us to enrich your project with qualified manual and automated QA service!
