How fusing manual and automated testing transcends tradeoffs

Arpita Goala , Content Marketing Manager

October 31st, 2023

The age-old debate of manual and automated testing has often left teams at a crossroads, searching for a way to strike a harmonious balance between speed and effectiveness. However, in the world of software development, evolution is the name of the game. Enter “fused testing,” our approach that transcends the conventional notion of QA tradeoffs and broadens the horizons of QA strategy. 

Fused testing is not just about reconciling the differences between manual and automated testing; it’s about unleashing the power of CI/CD pipelines, on-demand resources, and the convergence of DevOps and TestOps. Get ready to discover a testing strategy that saves time and enhances the quality of your software products, ultimately delivering results that speak to the expectations of your development team and your customers.

Automated and Manual Testing 

Fused testing merges the manual and automated testing approaches into a cohesive whole. While automated testing offers immediate test execution, manual testing provides the flexibility and coverage to verify app performance on real devices outside the test lab in localized environments. Manual testing verifies new features and offers actionable reproduction instructions for issues missed by flaky or broken automated scripts. 

Automated testing’s benefits rely on the speed and efficacy of a well-implemented pipeline. Once configured, you have a reusable and reliable framework to test user flow with minimal hassle. Sometimes, this leads to tight integration into your platform of choice. 

Both methods have their benefits but can be time-consuming when used separately. Fused testing merges both these approaches to deliver a CI/CD pipeline that gets results in days rather than weeks. Not only will this save your organization time, but it’ll also keep your development team from writing wasteful code.

On-Demand and Dedicated Resources 

Collaboration between on-demand and dedicated personnel is the key to fused testing. On-demand, crowd-sourced testing models deliver exceptional value for new features, bug report verification, and as-needed pushes/releases. On the other hand, full-time, committed resources, managed within external frameworks, drive continuous testing, ensuring a steady supply of quality engineering capacity.

Fused testing can yield fantastic results, especially if you outsource the process to a managed service provider. You get all the benefits of having a CI/CD pipeline while having dedicated resources on call for the testing process. While this lacks the finer internal controls of a first-party team, it means you have a knowledgeable and dedicated team with expertise built around the testing phase. 

Continuous Testing

Continuous testing usually means one team of manual testers performing in bursts while allowing room for automated tests to run. This gives a much broader scope of information in a more timely manner than typical approaches. Continuous testing is vital for establishing a promising CI/CD pipeline, as your dev team can quickly implement fixes. 

Testers leap into action quickly when you need them, swarm testing requirements, and then intentionally go dormant. As a result, capacity is available when needed, and automated testing takes the lead in the interim.

Using a third-party managed service provider can be beneficial, as you have resources on call to start each phase of your testing cycle. Suppose the automated testing workflow is well-designed. In that case, you can readily have results available for all testing platforms, regardless of whether they’re using mobile devices, web interfaces, or more conventional computers.

DevOps and TestOps Systems 

Open architecture can and should be implemented, as this will help minimize costs while maintaining maximum flexibility in how you approach development and testing. When properly implemented, shipping deliverables should result in much faster results. 

This is a very different approach to development, resulting in higher-quality software being released more timely. While DevOps has been crucial to modern software development, timelines still slip due to limited software, out-of-date DevOps architectures, and integration issues.

An open architecture system that melds DevOps and TestOps can get you results in a more immediate timeframe, saving time while also maintaining the level of quality your customers have grown to expect. A platform built on continuous integration means you’re that much closer to a near-instant transition between development and testing.