Your team is divided on testing methods. How do you navigate the manual vs automation debate?

Understanding needs means figuring out what is required or desired by assessing the specific goals and challenges of a situation. This involves gathering information, asking questions, and listening carefully to determine what is most important and how best to address those requirements. By clearly understanding these needs, you can make informed decisions and tailor solutions to effectively meet the objectives.

Navigating the manual vs. automation debate within your team starts with understanding the project's specific needs, recognizing where each method brings value. Embrace flexibility by acknowledging that both manual and automated testing have their place and can complement each other. Educate your team on the strengths and limitations of each approach to build a shared understanding. Integrate both methods into your process to leverage their respective benefits. Establish open communication channels to ensure ongoing dialogue and address concerns. Finally, continuously evaluate and adapt your strategy based on team feedback and project outcomes to find the right balance.

There's a place for both types of testing. There's value in "exploratory" manual testing which is typically used for new features. This is useful at early stages of new features as it's not yet proven whether this feature will have high usage from end users. Once a feature is deemed to be useful and baked, automated tests ensure protection against regressions. Automation is primarily used for existing features to catch regressions. It's important to think through the ROI of automated tests as every automation test added incurs costs and maintenance overhead. How much effort is it to write and set up? Is it effective? Is it flaky and difficult to run reliably? These are core questions to ask.

Firstly automated tests need to be designed properly and run manually at least once. There needs to be time and budget to automate tests during the project or a plan to do it afterwards. Also, it depends on the expected life cycle of the application. If it is only going to last two or three major releases then there is probably not return on investment automating. If it will be the cornerstone of your business for a decade then it is almost certainly worth doing.

Developing a robust test strategy early in the project lifecycle is essential for ensuring high-quality software and efficient development processes. Ensure that you consider both automation and manual testing for optimal coverage. Improve automation testing by reviewing the tools and effort required and what the maintainence needs will be. Ensure that allocations for manual testing include usability and exploratory testing.