Automation testing is really that difficult? Part-1

I am writting my first ever blog on automation testing. Hope I will justify with it :)

I interacted with many manual testers who says please make me learn automation testing or give some material about automation testing like samples, tutorials, sample projects etc. 

So the question is "Is automation testing really that difficult, what some manual testers assume?" I don't think so. One fear is that automation testing required lot of programming skills (not to shy.. if you are one of them). But I would say it is not correct unless you did not bunk your acadmic programming classes in college. In other words you will need some basic programming skills and once you become automation tester you can make it advance.

One misconception about the automation framework is, some testers think only automation framework is capable of writting autoamtion scripts; specially the UI automation scripts. Lets assume you have google.com and want to search something, now if you don't have any framework then is it possible to write UI automation test cases? It is not? Seems difficult? or too many questions? Don't have any framework how to start Internet Explorer etc..

HTMLDocument doc = new HTMLDocument();
InternetExplorer ie = new InternetExplorer();
ie.Visible = True;
ie.Navigate("http://www.google.com");

// Store HTML Document object 
doc = ie.Document

// Find Text Box and input text
HTMLInputElement searchTxtBox = doc.GetElementsByID("gbqfq");
searchTxtBox.Value = "Automation Testing";

// Find Search Button and click
HTMLInputElement searchButton= doc.GetElementByID("gbqfba");
searchButton.Click();

(I will use C# or Java for the demonstration. For special need you can ask me, I will try to provide in other languages of your choice.)

OK now take deep breath because this is very simple, isn't it? May be you are thinking what are those keywords and what is IDs and how this is launching Internet Explore. Well this is not so simple in first impression. But this is very simple once you know about it. But if you are new then you will know it bit slow but will know for sure :)

You can assume the above scenario with login page where tester writes 10-15 cases for validation and in each of the release he/she may need to execute it. But this becomes very difficult when build is getting rolled out every day. So any manual tester can just write a loop and pass different crendentials to test various scenarios. 

Hey wait... But this is not automated testing but just a script. Umm Yes, it is true but what does automation framework do? this is just a glimps of that. But test framework hides the extra complexity and you may get the same cript in GUI format, something like below one

SearchTextBox:value("Automation Testing")
SearchGoogleButton:Action.click()

But still there is a question, what?

Test Framework gives Pass and Fail result as well but this script is not giving. ummm yes gotcha, writting script doesn't means it fulfilledthe need of a framework or solved the automation problems. Still automation testing looks complicated? will cover in next updates...Part-2

Leave your feedback, this is my first ever blog and written by interacting with some manual testers.

and keep tune in to my blog for further updates.