What is low-code test automation?
Low-code test automation is a modern approach to test automation software that provides users with a GUI interface to create, manage, edit, and run automated tests. The low-code testing software provides a simple, intuitive interface that eliminates the need for users to write code or scripts to execute tests. Low-code test automation follows the trend of low-code solutions that give development teams more efficient ways to build applications while spending less time on redundant tasks.
Historically, software testing professionals have had to rely on “high-code” test automation solutions like Selenium to validate the quality of their software applications. These solutions require expertise in writing code and assembling libraries of scripts to execute tests. This risks hindering productivity by requiring coding team members to dedicate the majority of their time to test creation and maintenance. In contrast, low-code test automation solutions enable more team members to easily build tests and actively contribute to quality.
Why is low-code test automation important?
Low-code test automation solutions are the key to unlocking a culture of quality for software development teams. By removing the requirement of specialized programming skills from the work of authoring, updating, and running automated tests, everyone on the team is empowered to build software applications with quality front and center. Additionally, as teams make the transition from a predominantly manual to automated testing strategy, low-code helps facilitate this shift, upskilling workers and ensuring quality isn’t compromised.
As development pipelines accelerate - driven by DevOps adoption and maturity - it’s critical for teams to avoid testing bottlenecks that get in the way of product delivery to market. Democratizing testing with low-code testing solutions helps improve efficiency, test coverage, and ultimately helps teams avoid bugs in production, preserving customer happiness and retention.
While easily creating and managing automated tests is one of the biggest benefits of low-code test automation, comprehensive test results are equally important. Low-code is not the same record-and-play solutions that typically offer a pass/fail result. Leading low-code testing solutions provide users with an equally easy way to evaluate test results with the details to quickly identify the root cause of issues, facilitating team collaboration and leading to a speedy resolution.
When did it become popular?
Low-code software solutions have been around for the better part of the last decade. Prominent analyst firm Forrester published a report in 2014 that discusses how low-code solutions are helping development teams speed up software delivery. More recently, companies like Airtable and OutSystems have acquired additional venture funding and reached billion dollar valuations as a result of the rapid adoption of their low-code offerings.
Scott Brinker from Chief Marketing Technology blog also wrote about the emergence of low-code solutions in his 2018 blog post “Democratizing martech: distributing power from IT to marketing technologists to everyone." He discusses how low-code solutions are distributing power from a small to a large number of individuals, essentially democratizing technology.
Test automation is a relatively new entrant to the world of low-code offerings, spurred by the increasing importance of quality in both consumer and enterprise software. As emerging technologies like AI and machine learning merge with low-code, development teams have started to adopt low-code test automation solutions. Mabl, the leader in low-code test automation, has been in the market since 2019 working with a wide range of large and small brands including Arch Insurance, DataRobot, ITS, Ritual, and many others. The real-world experience of mabl customers guides platform growth, ensuring that low-code test automation continues to meet the growing demands of software testing while making it easy for everyone to contribute to testing.
Low-code test automation is inclusive
Low-code test automation is no different from other low-code technology in its intention to help make it easier for non-coding users to execute tasks that would have otherwise been restricted to highly skilled IT or engineering professionals. Software teams are looking to low-code to help democratize testing across their team of developers, engineers, quality professionals and product owners to enable a shared responsibility for quality at every stage of development.
Despite the variety of test automation solutions available, many software teams continue to rely on manual testing to validate functional correctness and the end-user experience. Manual testers typically do not have the skills to code or script new automated tests, or maintain existing tests. However, with the help of low-code test automation solutions, manual testers can save time and improve quality by easily creating, managing, and running automated tests to catch bugs before customers do.
Implement low-code test automation anywhere
Low-code test automation can be used by any agile or high-velocity software team that’s looking to improve test collaboration and execution. Both small and large organizations benefit from easily creating, managing, and running automated tests.
Leading low-code test automation solutions are available in the cloud, enabling users to take advantage of high availability and high performance regardless of physical location. This is particularly relevant for teams who have recently shifted to more remote work as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for those adopting hybrid and fully remote work in the long-term.
For some individuals and use cases, easily running automated tests locally is an equally important part of their development process. Like testers themselves, effective low-code solutions are designed for maximum adaptability and enable users to run in the cloud in addition to their local environment, avoiding testing bottlenecks while improving product quality.
Make the most of low-code test automation with mabl
Mabl’s low-code test automation solution empowers everyone on your team to take advantage of the power of automation. Teams are adopting mabl to reliably inject end-to-end testing into development earlier in the cycle, to improve test coverage and overall application quality. Anyone can create, run, analyze, and manage all of your functional UI and API tests from a single, easy-to-use solution.
With added capabilities like auto-healing, which automatically updates related tests with any changes made to the base flow, users will minimize the time spent on maintaining tests and dedicate more time to higher value activities. Mabl also includes native integrations with several CI/CD solutions that enable your team to embed low-code test automation directly into your development workflow, automating even more of the rote, repetitive tasks that consume too much time and energy. Quality is accessible, scalable, and easy with low-code test automation from mabl.
