Custom software also offers a competitive advantage over your competitors. It’s something that they don’t have – indeed, your custom solution is something that they can’t have – and as long as it’s well-designed you should soon see yourself getting ahead of your competition.
Custom software can be easily modified and expanded, keeping in-step with your business as it, and technology, morphs and changes over years. You own the software, you can do what you need with it.
What’s more, it can be designed to meet every requirement that you had outlined in the evaluation phase. Rather than just labeling something ‘Nice to Have’, you can have it.
By its very definition custom software is built for the unique challenges of your situation. It is designed specifically for your unique circumstances, and, when done well, provides an almost perfect solution to your problem.
The built-from-scratch nature and endless customization that is possible with a custom software solution does mean that you’ll likely be looking at a larger upfront investment. It’s important to note, however, that the solution’s efficiencies will usually see this upfront investment richly rewarded in the future with a solution built perfectly to match your needs. Indeed, many off the shelf options are structured as monthly subscription packages in order to disperse the cost. The perpetual nature of this model can ultimately end up costing more than a custom solution.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, a custom software solution may not be for you. You’ll be facing a development phase that may take several months, which, while eventually delivering a great solution, simply isn’t feasible in certain situations. But the same could often be said for an off-the-shelf solution, as customizing and implementing software that wasn’t built specifically for your business can take a surprising amount of time. It’s not as easy as loading a program and getting an instant benefit.
Creating a custom solution could leave you dependent on the custom software provider. If they were to fold or become unavailable for whatever reason your business could be inconvenienced. At the same time, this small-scale, localized support is a terrific thing, as you’ve got the benefit of a software team that truly understands your business. It’s simply a matter of choosing your partner wisely.
Where:
Savings is time saved, money saved, and other avoidable expenses (e.g., the cost of post-release troubleshooting);
Investment is the cost of automated test code creation and maintenance.
You have to subtract the savings from the costs, divide it all by the expenses, and multiply it by 100. Done! Now you have a percentage of the potential ROI from implementing automated tests.
Can Automation Replace Manual Testing?
If the benefits of automation testing are so obvious, why is manual testing still a thing? Well, there are several good reasons for that:
First, manual testing proves to be a much more efficient approach for small projects or young startups, where new features may be added every couple of days. It doesn’t require writing lines of code in advance, so engineers can quickly assess the quality of a product after making minor changes.
The manual approach is the only way to conduct exploratory testing. In this case, using not pre-prepared test cases but studying the product's capabilities on the fly allows engineers to detect more unforeseen bugs.
Finally, only a human can assess flaws in the UI and draw conclusions based on feedback about the usability of the software. A manual tester can identify interface imperfections and point them out, which is essential for quality assurance. It is no secret that users are willing to give up using the software if the interface is uncomfortable to interact with.
Automation testing can not replace manual testing completely. Some companies claim to have no manual tests, but they are definitely missing something. For example, it is impossible to perform a pen-test or check usability, UI/UX, or localization only with the help of automated tests.
Ideal Solution: Blend of Manual and Automation Testing
Neither of the testing approaches is perfect. Both manual and automated testing have pros and cons, so the whole manual testing vs. automation question is quite odd.
Automation will benefit the product if:
The project is growing, includes more and more subsystems, and the number of tests is increasing;
The team has many programmers who want to make sure that the changes they make do not break someone else's code;
Several versions of the product are supported.
However, the complete transition from manual to automated testing is impossible. Automated tests cannot detect even minor errors if they are not taught beforehand. Regular product updates also require changes in the script code, which makes the quality assessment process more time-consuming.
Manual and automation testing exploit different approaches that complement each other. Manual is a proactive approach, where QA testers anticipate defects and find new flaws. Automation testing is about “we know where the flaws shouldn't be” and checking the system’s stability. Automated tests often find fewer new bugs than manual tests, and that's okay.
QA testers are specialists who can analyze the results of manual and automated tests comprehensively and efficiently. Without them, nothing will work properly. Next, we’re going to examine in which cases which approach is more effective.
When to Use Automation and When to Use Manual Testing
So let's get right to the point of when to use automation vs. manual testing.
Manual testing is more suitable in the following cases:
Exploratory Testing
This type of testing relies primarily on the experience of a QA engineer and their ability to make logical conclusions. It is great for identifying the most critical bugs as soon as possible.
UI Testing
The human factor plays a key role here. The tester needs to evaluate and analyze the potential usability of the product for the end-user. A machine cannot cope with this type of task.
Ad-hoc Testing
In this case, the primary tool for testing the product is intuition. The testing process takes place without a pre-established script. Since the tester relies more on their common sense and experience with the product during the testing process, there is nothing to automate.
Automated testing will be more appropriate in such cases:
Regression Testing
This means testing an already tested program after modification to ensure that the modification process has not introduced or activated errors in the areas that haven’t been modified. It is performed after changes in the product's code or environment.
Load Testing
Conducting it manually is very difficult. Automated tests allow to simultaneously emulate the actions of any number of users in the system. A system that operates 24/7 and serves millions of customers must be exceptionally reliable. Automated testing tools reveal the limits of reliability and resiliency.
Performance Testing
In this case, it makes more sense to check all the interaction scenarios with the software automatically. Manual testing, in this case, will take an unreasonably large amount of time.
In other cases (for example, in integration, system, unit, and acceptance testing), a great idea would be a combination of both approaches. For instance, in integration testing, the manual vs. automation argument simply doesn’t make sense since there are elements that require not only machine testing but also human review.
Consider Gearheart as Your Reliable Outsourcing Partner
No matter how much is said about the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, you should never forget that each method is only as good as the experts who use it.
Writing automated tests requires in-depth programming training of the tester. All this knowledge is converted into a high-quality final product. Thus, the first thing you should worry about is not the approach, but the professionals you hire.
And that's precisely what you get at Gearheart. When you partner with us, you get access to a close-knit team of top-notch developers and testers. We'll be your trusted outsourcing partner and build a strong relationship for bringing your project to life. We've already completed many successful projects and got many satisfied customers. But don't just take our word for it. Make sure of our expertise with your own eyes by checking out our portfolio and cases.
After that, simply click the button below, and together we will use the best approaches to testing along with our wide range of services to bring your product to perfection.
Let's make something great together
Final Thoughts
To summarize, there is no obvious winner in this automation vs. manual software testing race. Automation testing is an investment in the company's future and an opportunity to significantly improve the quality and speed of software product updates and optimize costs. But the importance of manual testing should not be underestimated. To get a truly high-quality product, you need to take the best of both approaches, and good professionals can help you with that. By the way, you already know where to find them.
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
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