Manual Testing Vs Automation Testing: Which Is Better For Your Business?

If you are looking to get quality assurance testing services for your product, you must have come across the option of manual testing vs automation testing. This is a hard choice to make, especially if it is your first experience with hiring the services. In this article, we will explain both of the concepts in detail along with their pros and cons, which would help you to make a better choice.

Testing is the process with the intent to find a bug in the application. In both types, we try to find bugs as much as we can. However, which option is better for your business depends upon which situation you fall in. So, here’s a small guide to help you decide.

What Is Manual Testing?

To err is human. To check human errors, we ask another human to do testing on his behalf - the second round of independent level of testing is called manual testing. As it involves the human brain for testing; hence, it is more accurate than automation testing. In automation testing, there is a risk of false positives that sometimes can make the tests pass, which should not be the case. Luckily, with the interference of humans, this risk is reduced.

When To Choose Manual Testing?

As we said earlier, the choice between manual and automation testing services highly depends on the business’s requirements, and below are some of the reasons why clients might choose manual testing:

• The requirements are not concise/detailed. 
• You do not have enough time to wait for the automation scripts to write. 
• The application is in the initial stage of development and is not stable enough to start writing automation scripts.
• Better for exploratory testing - if the tester wants to learn about the application on his own and no one is available to give him a demo.

What Is Automation Testing?

Unlike manual testing, testers write code (Java/C sharp/Groovy etc.) and run it so that the automated process controls the application so the same tests can be run over without human interference.

In this modern era, people do prefer automation testing, especially when they want to run the same test over and over again. This redundancy when done by humans can result in an error, which is why automation testing is a better choice in these cases. Apart from this, there are other reasons as well, which we will discuss in the following section.

When To Choose Automation Testing?

You can choose automation testing in the following scenarios: 

• When you have enough time to write automation scripts in any language e.g. Java, JavaScript, C sharp, Groovy etc. 
• When you have the right skills i.e. coding is an easy option for testers to do. 
• You have enough budget to hire someone with automation skills. 
• Major change requests are not happening. 
• Most of the application’s modules’ functionalities are stable enough.

Here are some additional benefits of choosing the automation testing:  

More Testing In Less Time

Because execution time is faster for tests, it takes less time to run all the tests as compared to manual testing. 

More Test Coverage

Manual tests take more time to execute more tests but automation can cover more module testing in less time. 

Cost-Saving

In the long run, it is cost-saving as once completed, the job of executing the tests can be done by any non-technical stakeholder as well. 

Better Productivity

By the click of a button, tests get performed and an HTML report can be generated automatically, which can help decision-makers in making their choice. 

Final Thoughts

We hope this article has helped you get an understanding of the query of manual testing vs automation testing. These insights will help you a great deal in picking the right option based on your requirements and budget.

These are by no means hard and fast rules, but a checklist to see which scenario you fall into. You can decide by looking at the pros and cons of both services and determining which service is suitable for your project.