Are you failing to establish a solid automated test environment? After completing all major changes for app development that don’t show the desired results, automation testing is required. It helps create a powerful and reliable application.
Although there are a bunch of tools available to test web apps, Selenium is significantly flexible with an enormous range of features. It, too, has its set of challenges that developers and testers need to learn to overcome.
In this article, we will discuss the challenges in Selenium automation and non-functional testing, which ensures the performance of the app based on its security and usability.
Challenges in Selenium Automation
Selenium is a well-recognized open-source tool, compatible with different browsers and platforms, and a favored option for testing online applications. However, challenges in Selenium automation can hinder the entire procedure, as mentioned below:
Dynamic Web Elements: Modern applications, from time to time, update their content and change the properties of their dynamic elements. This makes it very difficult for Selenium to highlight changed elements. In simple words, this makes it a code that will easily break, and the test will fail or pass unpredictably.
Browser Compatibility: Although the automation of Selenium supports several online browsers, it does experience some difficulty on different versions of the same. Different browsers make use of different approaches to interacting with an application, which further differs in page rendering by browsers and how it runs JavaScript. These discrepancies pose a difference in test results. To handle this, the developers must take support from other cross-platform online trial approaches.
Maintenance Overhead: One of the key challenges also pertains to maintaining test scripts. Since new updates are introduced into a web application, their test scripts need to be updated to reflect them too. This requires an investment of time and resources.
THINGS TO CONSIDER False positives occur when test cases produce errors even though the application is working properly.
This type of test plays a role in guaranteeing that the application functions correctly, delivers optimal performance across different scenarios, and maintains robust security measures.
Performance Testing: This would be required for the optimization of the performance of an application. Non-functional performance tests of an application are done under different kinds of loads and test cases of users. During this, response times and resource utilization are tested for the applications.
Security Testing: Non-functional analysis for security is done so that all the vulnerabilities can be found to protect this application from every sort of cyber-attack intended for data breach. By offering a secure app, the developers offer trust to the users while complying with regulatory requirements.
Usability Testing: Besides the above, a non-functional test is also being used for checking the usability of an application. Ensuring the best user experience must be a must for developers to ensure ease of navigation of their developed application and that all possible functions are accessible to users. From checking the UI to the accessibility of an app, all come under usability testing.
STATISTICS The graph here shows the growth and forecast of the global selenium testing service market from 2022 to 2032.
Overcoming The Challenges in Selenium Automation
Addressing the challenges in Selenium automation involves strategies that can help in overcoming them and enhancing the efficiency and reliability of automated testing.
Implement Robust Locator Strategies: Interacting with dynamic web elements is definitely where Selenium automation falls short. So, the developers need some external help to handle these changing elements. Fortunately, locator strategies such as CSS selector or XPath reduce the probability of flakiness.
Cross-Browser Testing Tools: Avail the facilities provided by cross-browser tools to ensure your web applications work well on every different browser and their versions.
Adopt test automation frameworks: There are a couple of widely used test automation frameworks by others in the industry. The utilization of these can minimize the maintenance overhead. These frameworks offer a structured approach when writing and managing the test scripts this ultimately helps in minimizing the time required for the maintenance of the test scripts.
Conclusion
Finally, by addressing challenges in Selenium automation and profound non-functional testing, software developers can maintain high-quality standards in the app development industry.
There are tests of dynamic web elements, browser compatibility, and maintenance overhead. Developers can ensure that their web application performs consistently irrespective of the browser from which the user accesses the web.
Non-functional tests gain the trust of the user by offering robust security, optimal performance, and intuitive user experience.
ACCELQ further optimizes these procedures using AI-driven automation solutions that will enhance the effectiveness and precision of testing. This is how, with the help of advanced tools and adherence to industry practices, companies can ensure their software applications meet the standards of quality and reliability.
