Anurag Gupta
Why can’t a software test a software?
If you can relate to this quote, then you are in the direction of automation testing.
Imagine you are asked to test an application for employee data with 10 fields. Now imagine, you are asked to test the same application for 2000 employees. If a single form takes 10 minutes to be tested, to test for 2000 employees, will be a 330-hour job in case there is no error!!
Now imagine, every month you need to test the same application, with a new build released. Since this is such a boring job, you start to disengage in active testing and hence begin to test only 5 or 7 fields instead of 10. In this scenario the application is bound to have errors or bugs!!
This is where automation testing steps in. You create an automation script that you must execute for this scenario every month.
In a nutshell Automated testing or test automation is a method in software testing that makes use of special software tools to control the execution of tests and then compares actual test results with predicted or expected results. All of this is done automatically with little or no intervention from the test engineer.
In this Blog, we have planned to enrich your knowledge with an often-misunderstood automation tool Tricentis TOSCA and how-to setup a project with TOSCA automation.
Let’s start by the very basic question, what is TOSCA?
TOSCA is an automation tool for functional and regression testing of various software products. It also includes GUI, CLI (command line interface), integrated test management, and API. The tool was developed by TRICENTIS Technology & Consulting GmbH, the Austrian company.
Now that we know what TOSCA is, the next question is Why TOSCA?
The very simple answer would be that anybody can automate using TOSCA.
Reason? Because it does not require any prior coding/scripting knowledge. As scripting is not necessary, it is evident that people end up using it more often effectively.
Second reason is that TOSCA supports multiple Technologies.
Tosca automation tool offers support to most of the common technologies like SAP, ORACLE, JAVA, SOA, HTML and so on. This makes the tool convenient for testers to enjoy the functionality.
Also, TOSCA comes with a very reasonable price, against the services offered by the tool. A quality vendor support is provided by Tricentis, after the purchase.
Comparison of TOSCA with Selenium:
Every automation tool/framework has its own pros and cons. Hence it really depends on the business needs to determine an automation tool for the project.
To make your life simpler, following is a generic comparison of TOSCA and Selenium.
This brings us to the most important question, how to start automation in your project with TOSCA?
For starters, we would recommend that you download the trial version of TOSCA Tricentis, which comes along with a trial license for 15 days.
You can download TOSCA from https://support.tricentis.com/community/
Also make sure to check the system specification for TOSCA, before installing.
https://documentation.tricentis.com/en/1120/content/systemrequirements/systemrequirements.htm
Install TOSCA in your system by following the steps mentioned in the following document
https://documentation.tricentis.com/tosca/1230/en/content/installation_tosca/installation.htm..
At this point, you have successfully installed the tool, and you are just a step away from automation.
Search for the keyword TOSCA in the Windows search and choose the option TOSCA commander from the results
Activate TOSCA trial license:
Step 1: Click on the project tab on the home-screen of TOSCA commander
Step 2: Click on License-> Activate -> Connect-> Connect to a cloud hosted License Server.
Step 3: Click on Activate Enter the credentials (please note the credentials are the same credentials, used for logging the support portal).
Now you are all set to start an Automation POC!!
Analyze a flow from your project. In our opinion, it will be good if you use a critical yet reusable flow, so that you get an idea of the automation feasibility in your project using TOSCA. This will also help you pitch the tool to the business, with a sure shot demo and results.
Tricentis provides free TOSCA training AS1 and AS2, which will help you with learning TOSCA and starting the POC.These courses can be accessed from https://www.tricentis.com/academy/training-certifications/.
Once you are convinced about TOSCA, you can go ahead and request for a full licensed TOSCA version.
Yes, it will cost you an initial amount for the licenses, but so will any other automation tool. If not in the license, then in hiring professionals who will be skilled enough to use any other automation tool like Selenium, QTP/UFT.
In the words of Karl Albrecht “You cannot improve quality by cutting costs, but you can often cut costs by improving quality”.