Are you a software tester and want to learn test automation? More and more teams are investing in large test automation suites, as this allows them to release software faster and automate slow and repetitive tasks. So learning test automation will make you a much more valuable and productive team member. You will also have extra time to focus on more creative QA efforts such as exploratory testing.
Not just that, but many testers find that learning test automation and learning how to program also helps them get a better understanding of the apps they test. So learning test automation not just helps you automate parts of your job, it also improves your manual testing game.
There's yet another benefit to learning test automation: if you are currently a tester and your career goal is to enter software development eventually, learning test automation is a great path to becoming a programmer. You will already be familiar with basic programming, know the tools the team uses and be a productive contributor from day one.
This article is a comprehensive guide for everyone serious about learning test automation. So lets get started and dive directly into it! 👍
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Learning How to ProgramIf you want to become a test automation engineer, there's just no way around learning how to program. Many vendors advertise their test automation tools with how simple it is to use their visual editors. How you can just click together test automation scripts. Just record your tests, hit play, call it a day. Our advice: directly skip these no-code or low-code solutions and avoid vendor lock-in.
At the end of the day you will need to learn programming anyway in order to work on complex test automation suites. So why not directly start with the real thing and save yourself a lot of time and frustration?
The good news is that it has never been easier to learn programming. There are so many great resources, platforms, tools and projects out there helping you quickly make progress. Below we will take a look at various resources to help you get started.
Language: The Choice Is YoursThere are countless of programming languages to choose from for your first projects. So which language should you pick? This depends on a couple of factors.
What is your company using? If you want to become a more productive team member at your current company, it makes sense to pick a language your team already uses. So if your company is heavily invested in, say, Ruby, then start learning that.Already got programming experience? Have you already worked with a programming language for a few side projects? Test automation works with practically any language, so just use what you already know.Are you working in an opinionated industry? Do you want to improve your skills to advance your career in a certain industry, such as finance or gaming? If so, it doesn't make sense to learn Python first if most companies will be using C/C++.That said, if you don't have any strong preference yet, you could just pick JavaScript to get started. Not only is JavaScript the most popular language on GitHub and StackOverflow (so there's a huge ecosystem of open source projects and communities for JavaScript out there). It is also fairly easy to learn and to use, as you can run JavaScript programs just as easily in your browser, command line and on servers.