5 Whys and Wherefores of Choosing Selenium as Your Automation Testing Tool

After the web application or website is developed, it is essential to go for thorough testing to check whether the site works well on every single device having different screen sizes or not. This task can be herculean and time consuming if there is no access to additional tools. 

As soon as the application reaches a stable phase of manual testing, business organizations start planning to go test automation in order to save costs involved in manual testing. The cost of testing is an important factor for every organization and to decrease the costs, organizations are ardent to invest in open source testing tools instead of making investments in costly commercial tools. The most used and trusted open source automation tool these days is Selenium. 

Why Selenium Testing

Along with the characteristic advantages of automated testing, Selenium has different and diverse benefits that give it an edge over the competition. It is used to test the GUI and functionality of the website and can be handled by any novice tester with no or minimum difficulties. Reasons to select Selenium automation testing are given below:

1. The open source advantage: The main factor that helps in making Selenium the preferred choice for organizations is because it is an open source software. It allows the user to modify, share and extend the code that is available. It enables the programmers to save a lot of time and effort and thus ultimately increase productivity and ROI. There are customized functions that can also be used by them for better manageability and readability of the codes. 

2. Remote control: The feature of remote controlling of Selenium testing help testers to easily build and test the infrastructure that is extensively spread across several locations, including the cloud to drive the scripts on every browser.

3. Platform portability: Automated testing is a repetitive process, and even a minor modification made in the code needs thorough testing to ensure that the software offers the desired functionalities and results. Performing repeated tests manually is a laborious process and requires a lot of money. The Selenium automation testing tool is highly convenient and can run on multiple browsers and platforms. This allows selenium testing companies to easily write codes without worrying about the platform on which it has to run.

4. Flexibility: Software programmers have a preference to keep the testing in the program itself. By using Selenium, tests can be regrouped according to the needs. This helps in changing the code quickly to reduce duplication and improve maintainability. The flexibility of Selenium allows the programmers to manage tests efficiently. 

5. Multi-language support: An application is written in various languages, which becomes a challenge for the automated testers. They have to integrate automation tools with the evolving environment for continuous integration.  However, in the case of Selenium testing service bindings for Java, .Net, Python, Perl, Groovy, it becomes easier to integrate with the changing environment.

However, there are certain things to notice when you choose to go with Selenium. Let’s discuss:

• Proper Understanding of Scope of Testing

Comprehensive research is needed to be successful with Selenium. At first, you need to plan a testing strategy, and for that, you need to have a rough draft regarding the application, expected user behavior, revenue model, etc. 

• Select a Suitable Text Editor

In order to be successful with tests, you must select an appropriate text editor. If you are a novice in testing and are inexperienced with text editors, it is better to stay with something as elementary as a Sublime Text editor.

• Choose a Suitable Programming Language for Automation Testing Services 

Selecting an apt programming language for writing acceptance tests for your application or website is an essential step to consider. It is always good to refer to your application development team and realize their experiences and evaluate their proficiencies with a particular language.