Codeless Test Automation: Everything You Need To Know

Earlier, the development of test automation tools had a programming mindset involved. But the fact is not all testers are efficient programmers!

And therefore, working on a process that involves testers learning coding could get overwhelming at times. Even if testers have the necessary coding knowledge, working on the programming part takes the testers away from their primary responsibilities. 

Returning to test automation, the process aims to remove any responsibilities of the resources and ensure a streamlined approach toward quality engineering. 

In this blog, we will aim to underline every detail of codeless test automation while defining its need, benefits, associated myths, and many other details. 

Connect with the best software testing companies on The Manifest.

Codeless Automation Testing: Definition & Scope

Codeless test automation aims at performing test automation without scripts. Even the most codeless automation tools available in the market are made to overcome complicated coding with dynamic features that could save the testers from the hassle of coding. 

These include record and playback options, drag and drop elements, AI/ML integration, and everything that could avoid code write-ups. 

“The global codeless development platform market is predicted to generate a revenue of $187.0 billion by 2030, rising from $10.3 billion in 2019.” – Globe News Wire

Therefore, codeless test automation is gaining traction in the digital landscape, offering pre-designed templates to the testers for improved efficiency and minimum downtime. Ultimately, it allows rapid product releases, scalability advantage, and improved service delivery. 

Codeless Test Automation Offerings

Codeless test automation offers a user-friendly interface to testers with auto-generated test scripts written at the backend. Though codeless test automation could not replace traditional automation completely, codeless automation finds its most applications in repetitive tasks like continuous and regression testing.

From simplifying the process of designing test cases to achieving the quality assurance benchmarks, it simplifies exploratory testing and delivers smoothened product functionality.

How Codeless Test Automation is Different From Traditional Automation?

Testers working on traditional test automation practices must work through a defined learning curve. But since the original objective of test automation is to reduce the load for manual testers for added speed, it needs both programming skills and learning efficiency at the end of the QA team to fasten the process. 

However, the modern goals surrounding test automation have changed a lot, and thankfully codeless test automation is here to the rescue. 

With codeless test automation tools, testers do not need to learn coding, work on lengthy codes or outsource automation testing services to a third-party service provider. Most codeless testing tools in the market are made to meet the fast-paced requirements of the testers and development teams which helps nullify the gaps in a tester’s skill set, test data complexity, and overall test environment. 

Challenges Codeless Test Automation Can Resolve

Codeless test automation can be harnessed to overcome various significant issues and challenges that testers and developers might encounter while pursuing the software development lifecycle.

These include:

1. Meeting the Pace of the Development Cycle

When automation functions along with visual UI, it becomes easier to learn and implement. In other words, codeless test automation could be leveraged to overcome the coding time and simplify the test framework to match the development lifecycle, QA, and the CI/CD pipeline.

2. Maintenance & Scalability 

The visual UI workflows on codeless testing tools allow testers to skip the business rules and foster better test maintenance. Besides, it does not need adjustment of flow for every test change.

Moreover, working on a codeless test automation tool allows testers to combine reusable components with automated flows. On top of that, any changes made to heavily re-used user sub-flows automatically push the changes across the entire component. 

3. Keeping Testers Unoccupied with Minimum Spend

When testers don’t have time to work on code to work on regression tests, codeless test automation allows them to work on exploratory testing. 

Also, it does not need developers to be a part of developing UI tests, which ultimately reduces the cost. 

4. Improved Scope of Automation

Codeless automation platforms is made to support various web and desktop applications. It means they could accommodate more interfaces from the given application and beyond the project.

Also, the flexibility of advanced test automation tools allows convenient scaling of the automation process. 

5. Shared Automation for Improved Adoption

When an organization invests in a well-investigated codeless automation tool that is deployed under a dedicated test center of excellence, the knowledge transfer becomes easy. Besides, the sharing of automation components and flows cuts the time required to initiate new automation projects. 

A UI-based test automation tool not only offers the user advantage of picking on other workflows but even offers the liberty to change the flow of test actions for any app under test, when not aligning with best practices. Additionally, third-party tools used for codeless testing come with support and resources to simplify the entire task of testing. 

6. Process Documentation & Changes

Using a refined tool for codeless testing contains UI workflows that streamlines the visual description of the process and sorts the documentation. 

In other words, all the actions are events that are easy to record through these tools, allowing running of audit trails with greater ease. 

7. CI Tool Integration

Another major challenge that testers must overcome is the inconvenience tackled during the integration of CI tools. Since most modern-day test strategies or workflows contain a CI/CD pipeline, modern tools have dedicated plugins that can complement the custom integration of CI tools. 

Debugging The Myths Surrounding Codeless Automation Testing

Though codeless test automation is a trend that is widely being adopted across business domains, there are various myths and misconceptions surrounding its deployment. Let us quickly walk through them to understand how codeless automation testing can be harnessed for good: 

1. Scriptless Means NO script

When it comes to Scriptless, the term is often deceived to be a completely codeless practice. However, the process involves reducing the testing effort with automated code generation with the tool. 

The tool creates the script based on required user action or the tester specifies the test steps using natural language/keywords. Furthermore, the defined actions and keywords are then converted into code for execution. 

2. Scriptless Do Not Allow Manually Coded Automation

Most people believe that if it is codeless, it will have limited functionality. But that is not the case. 

Some tools understand the need for scenarios that involve custom code or custom automation and allow users to write custom code along with codeless scripts. 

3. Codeless Tools Are Record & Playback

Codeless automation tools are never limited to record and playback options. Since record and playback tools involve hardcoded steps, any changes to the application require code change and re-running the record and playback options. 

Codeless automation tools do not contain such inflexibility as they smoothly accommodate any code changes into the scripts. 

4. No Coding Skills Are Needed

Codeless test automation only covers the scripting part and does not work through every complex scenario that sometimes needs coding. Though codeless testing tools are highly capable, some circumstances need polishing of code to gain the necessary efficiency and comfort. 

Best Tools For Codeless Test Automation

Though codeless test automation seems to be an extremely convenient option to foster advanced testing, the inability to pick on the right tool could make things more difficult. Here are a few top codeless test automation tools that you might want to consider when planning to improve your test journey.

• Katalon Studio
  • Support for API, desktop, web, and mobile test automation. 
  • Built-in test libraries, keywords, object repositories, & project templates
  • Supports native plugins for Continuous Integration tools. 
  • Capable of identifying object modifications and developing tests consequently. 
  • Powerful record and playback options 
  • Comprehensive reporting capacities for added robustness
• Leapwork
  • Use automated flows across different test cases
  • Visualize flow builder 
  • Short learning curve
  • Simple integration with DevOps toolsets
  • Smart test step running and capturing
• TestCraft
  • Agility in generating test scenarios
  • Accommodate multiple data sets for parallel implementation
  • Reusable flow and elements
  • Adjust to app changes
  • Issue Management, Test Management, Notifications & Communication

Future of Codeless Test Automation

Unlike mainstream automation, codeless test automation has enabled test teams and developers to overcome the hassle of writing codes. Moreover, codeless automation simplifies the whole task of maintaining scripts and regression testing, saving time for exploratory testing and finding edge cases. 

It means testers could easily begin with the automation process on their way to UI development, skipping all the complex coding practices and frameworks. 

Therefore, the future of codeless test automation could be seen as a liaison between test teams and departments like sales and development for contributing to quality with efficiency. 

Codeless test automation also contains and complements innovation by removing skill barriers and fastening the development cycle for early deployment. Therefore, codeless test automation can be seen as a highly significant module of test automation.

Codeless Automation & The Future Of Testing

All in all, codeless UI automation delivers the speed and agility that modern-day test environments need. It cuts off the need for understanding test frameworks or underlying technologies and streamlines the whole task of test automation. 

Thus, codeless test automation is becoming an essential component of test scenarios that demand a stable test environment or where the objective is to attain a time advantage. 

And with the introduction of advanced testing tools, succeeding in digital transformation goals has become more reachable. Ultimately, it has everything required to empower coders, developers, testers, and non-developers who need to unleash the maximum potential out of creating, maintaining, and executing test automation, with no or minimum time to code. 

Find the right software testing company for you on The Manifest.