subject: Manual Software Testing: Is it here to stay ? [print this page] Manual Software Testing: Is it here to stay ?
Owing to the immense pressure of handling core business objectives, enterprises are no more reluctant to seek testing services of offshore vendors. QA departments of most of the vendors around the globe are still dependent on manual QA testing by 80% or even more. Since testing often takes a backseat when the pressure of beating the project deadline mounts up, the quality of the product being released into the market suffers.
When the topic of manual testing surfaces, often it's looked upon as the main bottleneck in the project delivery pipeline being accused of time consuming, monotonous, tedious and expensive. Now the question pops upIs manual QA testing here to stay?
Being the oldest testing technique, manual testing is still the most renowned form of IT testing. Although automates testing has made its way into the IT testing space, manual testing still grabs the lion's share of 80% or even more of testing assignments. In manual testing, the tester is supposed to conduct test operations manually on the test application without using automated software testing tools. Though a monotonous testing process, it empowers the tester with the propitious set of qualities of being tolerant, observant, perseverant, innovative, broader outlook, analytical etc.
This testing process can be carried out by a wide range of professionals employed by the vendor from test engineers to developers to business analysts. All of them carry out the testing manually with a common objective of locating defects pertaining to UI testing functionalities. Until now, there has been no absolute substitute for manual testing. With the entry of automation tools almost two decades back, these have not emerged as convenient alternatives at all occasions across all projects.
Still today, most global enterprises turn to manual testing of applications, critical to their business objectives. Since in order to adept to the continually changing IT environment these applications undergo continuous changes, automation testing tools often grapple with these dynamic application trends. Taking this inability of automation testing into consideration, manual testing is sought for since it's less risky for their businesses.
Some SMBs/SMEs that take a fresh plunge headlong in the IT domain are hesitant to make use of automated testing and rather resort to manual QA testing. Although there's a much hype about automated testing, it has been observed that it suffices for mere 1020% of all testing requirements.
