8 Best Practices for Selenium Automation Testing on the Cloud

With the implementation of advancement in the application development industry, various innovations and additions are getting integrated into the test bench. Some of the most common integrations include automation testing and the addition of a cloud testing environment. Automation testing is one of the most significant pieces of the modern application development environment. This is because, with the help of automation testing practices, the developers can quickly implement all the test cases in a complex app environment. Modern applications must simultaneously access multiple elements and pieces to act as a one-stop solution. Automation testing helps developers to verify not only the standalone performance but also the integrated functioning. The developers can also implement automated testing in a cloud environment.

With this article, we will deeply examine some of the primary factors developers must consider while implementing cloud-based automation testing practices. During this process, we will also discuss some of the best platforms and tools to assist developers and testers.

Understanding the Base of Test Automation

The basic description of test automation is eliminating human involvement in the testing processes. This means during the execution of automation testing practices, the systems can independently execute the entire process with the help of certain parameters in text files. These text files also consist of multiple sets of data that can help analyze the user interaction of the web application. With the help of these parameters, the system will imitate a normal user interacting with the web application. These testing processes are essential to ensure that the application is ready to be released to the end users. The developers can also change all of these data to ensure the results are customized according to their requirements. It’s also possible to reuse these test cases for future app development needs.

However, like any other element related to the application development process, automation testing is also full of shortcomings. The major disadvantage of introducing automated testing is its massive initial expenses. This is because application development companies have to introduce various new parameters, software, and other integrations to set up the automation testing framework. Moreover, automation testing comes with a steep learning curve when the developers and testers get accustomed to all the new testing practices. Therefore we highly recommend that all app development companies properly analyze their business perspectives and real-time returns on investment before transitioning.

Developing a Basic idea of Cloud Testing

During the initial years of the application development process, the device market was highly limited regarding available devices. This is because, initially, the developers could only access the web through their desktops. However, with the advancement of technology and the integration of portability, various new alternatives like smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets started to arrive in the market. Therefore, the diversity of the market started to increase heavily. The developers could not ignore these platforms, as surveys suggested that over 50% of Internet traffic comes from all mobile devices. The most popular mobile platforms include Android, iOS, and windows. To create a perspective of this diversity, we can consider that only in the Android platform more than 1000 new devices arrive in the market annually.

The developers must have an in-house test bench to implement the testing processes properly. An in-house test bench is a facility where the developers have all the popular devices to implement the test cases. However, maintaining such a facility is expensive and highly tedious. This is because app development companies must continuously update the bench with the increasing number of new devices. To avoid all of the shortcomings, small app development companies and individual creators often take the shortcut of restricting the test cases to only simulators and emulators. However, it is worth mentioning that these simulations cannot properly understand the application’s performance based on physical parameters.

This means with the help of emulators; the developers cannot understand the change in app performance by reducing battery charge, a broken device, or a user input error. So, cloud-based platforms are the best alternative to having a physical test bench. This is because, with the help of cloud platforms, the developers can analyze the application’s performance on real devices over the web. So it not only helps to eliminate the need for physical test benches but also provides similar accuracy. Various popular cloud-based platforms are easily available in the market. To improve our knowledge of the influence of cloud platforms, we can use LambdaTest as a center point of discussion:

For the introductory segment, we can say that LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that helps developers implement secure cross-browser test cases on web apps. Considering the standards of the modern application development industry, we can safely say that automated cloud testing is the new standard for ensuring the highest quality of web applications. With automated cloud-based cross-browser testing, the developers can ensure a stable application irrespective of user shifts in the operating system, device version, or browser version. With LambdaTest, the developers can import the automated test cases from multiple popular frameworks like Selenium, Playwright, and Cypress. It is worth discussing that while working with Selenium test files, the developers can implement them on more than three thousand unique modern browsers.

LambdaTest has innovative features like parallel test execution to implement side-by-side testing on different test configurations. Experts believe that parallel test configuration can help developers increase the dependability of the test cases by almost 15 times. Moreover, the addition of hundreds of real devices with the existing emulators and simulators helps massively improve the test cases’ dependability and accuracy.

Best Practices for Selenium Automated Testing on the Cloud

Automation testing in itself is an overwhelming process for developers who are new to this segment. Moreover, integrating cloud-based testing can further improve the complexity of this testing process. However, certain practices can help developers to simplify the introduction and execution of automated testing processes massively. So, we have gone ahead and researched some of the best practices for improving the execution of Selenium-based automation testing on the cloud. Based on our understanding, the major best practices are as follows:

  1. Developers need to choose the perfect cloud platform that can suit their automation testing requirements. Since hundreds of such alternatives are easily available in the market, the developers must consider a series of parameters for the perfect decision. During this process, the developers must ensure that their preferred cloud-based platform provides access to multiple popular programming languages. This is one of the most important parameters to ensure the proper compatibility of the application testing process.
  2. The cloud testing platform must provide access to real devices. This is because, as we already discussed earlier, it is almost impossible to verify the proper performance of an application without the inclusion of real device testing. So, cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest are one of the best choices for modern automation testing processes.
  3. When performing cloud-based Selenium automation testing, the developers must implement parallel testing. Parallel testing is one of the most important functions of modern automation test benches. The Selenium grid is an important component of the Selenium test suite that helps developers easily implement parallel testing. With parallel testing, the developers can execute multiple test configurations on different application elements at the same time.
  4. Application developers must create a proper testing strategy before starting the testing phase. This is because, with the help of this strategy, the developers can properly plan the test cases according to their priority. It will also help the developers to avoid any unwanted surprises during the execution of the automation testing process. The developers must include all the testing and business teams while creating a business plan. This will help to spread general awareness about the application testing process.
  5. While implementing cloud-based Selenium automation testing, the developers must maintain an activity log.  This activity log will help the developers and testers to keep track of all the test cases that have been completed and the ones that are undergoing the execution phase. This activity log will also keep track of all the bugs and errors that have been detected. It will help the testers to implement the debugging process that will follow soon after easily.
  6. While implementing cloud-based Selenium automation testing, the developers must ensure to execution of the test cases on legacy devices. This is because a recent market survey shows that more than 70% of the users have devices at least two years old. So, maintaining continued support on legacy devices will help improve the company’s overall audience base.
  7. While implementing cloud-based automation testing, the developers must properly understand behavior-driven and data-driven testing. These are two of the most important parameters that help classify the applications according to their use case.
  8. While implementing cloud-based automation testing, the developers cannot afford to overlook the importance of manual testing. This is because certain application parameters like exploratory and graphical interface testing are impossible to test without the involvement of human developers. So, the developers must choose a cloud platform that helps them maintain an active balance between automation testing and cloud testing.

Final Verdict!

The primary focus of this article is to ensure that the developers efficiently conduct the cloud-based Selenium automation test cases. This is because, with all the practices we discussed in this article, the developers can utilize the full potential of the automation test bench. We also recommend the developers keep their knowledge updated based on all the modern innovations and additions in the automation testing field. The app companies also have a crucial role in spreading the required knowledge with the help of various seminars and discussion sessions. This is because experts believe that the role of automation testing will continue to increase with the advancement of technology.

So, all these practices will help the companies maintain their position in this competitive market. Lastly, choosing the correct tools that suit your development and testing requirements is very important.  The developers should also conduct thorough market service to have a basic idea about their target audience. It will also help them keep their data updated about the missing features or the most wanted additions.

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