Companies totally agree, which is why you see a lot of jobs in the automated test industry. I received a lot of requests on Quora for answers related to career choices in automated testing, and how people can adapt to automated testing with or without experience with manual testing.

Here, I’ll explain in detail the seven most important steps to becoming a test automation engineer. So all of this should be on the radar of anyone looking to switch careers to automated testing.

1. Don’t ignore manual testing

While I understand that companies are moving to code-free automated test tools to reach expert level and keep up with the competition for automated test engineers in the industry, it is important to focus initially on the concept of manual testing.

First, I want to highlight the fact that manual and automated testing is used. Articles on when to use manual and when to use automated tests can help you understand the difference.

Once you grasp these differences, you’ll understand that automated testing is certainly a substitute for manual testing, but only up to a point. So, you can’t avoid coding.

This is very clear, automated testing is suitable for experienced manual testers.

2. Excellent technical programming skills

Most new testers ask me:

“Can I learn automated tests without programming skills?”

“Do you need coding skills to learn automated tests?”

Most of the people who came up with the idea of moving to automated testing wanted to skip the coding. Either they have no programming knowledge, or they hate coding.

However, as I said earlier, you need to be very proficient in manual testing skills to be a good test automation engineer in order to achieve a long-term career in the software testing industry.

If you are new to the testing industry, you need to know the following programming languages:

C/C ++, Java, SQL, Python, Perl, XML, HTML, CSS

Here are the technical skills manual testers should have in order to be a good test automation engineer:

Test architecture, test design, performance testing, configuration management, manual test agility and interaction, communication between teams, troubleshooting, Agility, evOps, and continuous delivery.

The combination of all these skills can help you automate tests easily and smoothly.

3. Know the application

When you go to see your doctor, the doctor needs to provide complete information about your past and existing health problems, old medical prescriptions, etc. Only then will your doctor be aware of your new health problems and symptoms. The same is true for automation test engineers. Automated test engineers need to understand software applications for both internal and external testing.

Common application details that every automation tester needs to be aware of are:

What programming languages were used when developing the application?

What platform is the application built on?

What databases are involved?

Are there any Web services/apis that connect to different parts of the system? How’s that？

What are the goals of the owner who developed this application?

What are the capabilities and features of the application under development?

Have manual tests been performed in this application?

How many manual hours were spent on this application testing?

Are there any serious issues or unresolved bugs?

What is the expected delivery date of the application?

These are just a few points, and it may vary depending on the complexity of your application. Therefore, make sure you fully understand the application to be tested through automated tests.

4. Experience automated testing tools

If we don’t talk about test automation tools when learning to be an intelligent automated test engineer, then we’re not doing the industry justice.

Major parts of these companies are already using automated testing tools. The main reason for using them is their benefits to the business.

Therefore, in order to get better exposure throughout your career, you need to try the leading test automation tools available on the market. Trying these tools can help you gain a lot of knowledge about their architecture, environment, test application feasibility, and so on.

In addition, having extensive experience with these tools will help you determine which tools will meet most of your automated testing needs. This can help you further your career when performing testing projects.

5. Understand the ATLC methodology

ATLC stands for Automated Test Life Cycle.

We follow the software development and test life cycle in the same way that automated testing does. To understand and follow ATLM, you need to have the following experience:

Decisions in automated testing

Test automation tool

Automated test process

Test planning, design and development

Test script execution and management

Review and evaluate test procedures

For each test automation requirement, the test automation engineer follows this lifecycle:

Decide to automate tests -> Adopt automated test tools -> Determine the automated process -> Test Plan & Use Case Design & Function Development -> Test Execution & Test Management -> Test Project Review & Test Evaluation -> Decide to automate tests

The diagram below:

To be a successful test automation engineer, you need to understand the ATLC methodology and execute it in every test automation project.

6. Create test automation policies

Once you use the ATLC approach and automated test tools, you can create test automation strategies for your customers or employers.

To be a good test automation engineer, you need to be the right person to start preparing the test automation strategy and finalize the tools, overall cost, and ROI calculations.

Automated policy creation is considered a critical part because you need to define and develop paths that help you reduce manual testing time and provide equity to your customers’ ROI.

7. Keep track of testing trends

Last but not least, keeping up with the latest software testing and test automation trends is the most important part of the industry.

Trending best practices, tools, techniques, tips and tricks will help you and your team succeed in optimizing test automation strategies and methods.

This generation is moving in the direction of automation. However, there is much debate about test automation tools that replace manual testers. But remember, test automation tools are created by testers like you. Therefore, to become an intelligent automation test engineer and succeed in this industry, you need to really work hard with passion and dedication.

Finally:

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