Nishil Patel
Sep 25, 2024
5 min read
Manual testing has been part of the software world for decades, but with automation tools becoming more popular, teams are starting to question if it’s still necessary. The truth is, automation isn’t always the best tool for every setup. This article explains why manual testing remains important and where the human touch makes all the difference.
1.
Introduction
2.
What is Manual Testing?
3.
Can You Replace Manual Testing with Automation?
4.
Why Manual Testing Still Matters
5.
Debunking Myths Around Automation Testing
6.
How BetterBugs Can Help in Manual Testing?
7.
FAQs
Automation has made incredible strides in the past decade, bringing faster testing, greater scalability, and the ability to run scripts tirelessly. It’s helped companies save time and cut costs significantly. But has this rise in automation pushed manual testing to the sidelines? Not quite.
In this article, we’ll explore why manual testing still plays a vital role in today’s automation-driven world. You’ll discover the key benefits of manual testing, its importance in the software lifecycle, and why automation isn’t always the right choice. Let’s dive in!
Manual testing relies on human testers to carry out test cases step-by-step rather than using automated scripts. The goal is to spot bugs or issues in the software by mimicking how users interact with it and making sure the application works as it should.
Here’s an example of “manually testing” a fitness-tracking app that monitors physical activities, dietary habits, and sleep patterns.
Steps:
Expected Result:
The app should accurately reflect the distance walked.
Manual Observation:
Testers can note any discrepancies and assess how the app handles interruptions (e.g., incoming calls).
Steps:
Expected Result:
The app should accept the inputs without errors and provide accurate nutritional information.
Manual Observation:
Testers can assess how easy or frustrating it is to log food, pinpointing any potential pain points for users.
Steps:
Expected Result:
The app should accurately display sleep duration and quality (e.g., deep sleep, light sleep).
Manual Observation:
Testers can assess whether the sleep data is displayed clearly and in a way that's easy for even beginners to understand.
Also Read: What are the Types of Software Testing Tools?
Replacing manual testing entirely with automation isn't typically feasible or advisable. While automation can significantly enhance efficiency, coverage, and repeatability, there are areas where manual testing remains essential:
Also Read: Test Automation 101: A Comprehensive Guide
Manual methods excel in diagnosing flaky tests, adapting to agile workflows, and addressing the nuances of mobile interactions, making it the most effective system for ensuring overall software quality. Here’s why manual testing still matters:
Some test cases need a trained human eye to spot issues that are difficult or not cost-effective to automate. For example, identifying bugs in a software's visual appeal, user interface, and accessibility often requires human judgment.
Also Read: What’s a Bug Lifecycle?
Exploratory testing allows testers to navigate the system using their curiosity and critical thinking to uncover defects not usually addressed by pre-defined test cases. This approach lets them test freely, without strict rules or plans. Similarly, ad-hoc testing takes a more informal route, focusing on finding defects through random checks and spontaneous exploration.
Flaky tests can yield inconsistent results—passing or failing without any changes to the inputs—which may lead to confusion. Here are some examples of flaky tests and how manual testers can help diagnose them:
Also Read: What’s the Average Cost of a Software Bug?
Automated tests often rely on set scripts and scenarios, which can miss the subtle details of how people actually use the software. That’s why manual testing is so important. Human testers bring their real-world experience to the table, helping to ensure the system aligns with business needs, validates user flows, and catches those tricky edge cases that automation might overlook.
Automation often has a hard time keeping pace with agile projects, where requirements change frequently and project scopes are regularly updated. In these environments, automation scripts can quickly become outdated, leading to the need for constant maintenance and additional resources.
Also Read: Best Practices for QA in Agile Workflows
Automated tools often struggle to capture the subtle nuances of user interactions, making manual testing a better fit in many cases. For example, automating touch gestures on mobile devices can be tricky because user behavior varies widely—things like swipe speed and pressure sensitivity are best evaluated through direct human interaction.
A mix of manual and automation works best to ensure the overall quality of a system. For instance, manual testing can be prioritized for high-risk areas where automated tests may not adequately cover potential issues. On the contrary, stable, monotonous, and error-prone tasks can be performed using test automation.
Also Read: Top 40 Automation Testing Interview Questions
Although automation is a powerhouse for tackling repetitive and error-prone tasks, it thrives best when paired with human oversight. Think of it like a dance: humans bring the intuition needed to interpret test results, keep an eye on automation's performance, pivot strategies to meet shifting business demands, and unravel complex issues that automation might miss.
Testing methods such as UI/UX testing, exploratory testing, ad-hoc testing, and accessibility testing mostly rely on manual efforts.
Achieving 100% test coverage—even with manual and automation combined—is nearly impossible. Factors such as system complexity, budget, and time constraints for testing, edge cases, and unpredictable testing circumstances can pose significant challenges.
While automated test results can be highly reliable due to consistent and tireless script execution, flawed test scripts can introduce errors with false positives or false negatives in test results. It’s a potential pitfall that’s crucial to consider and shouldn’t be overlooked or underestimated.
Automation works best for methods, such as end-to-end testing, API testing, and regression testing. However, automation’s scope typically remains limited for these specific testing procedures and misses out on catching visual, intricate, or unexpected bugs.
BetterBugs is a bug-reporting Chrome extension that enables you to create and share technically sound visual proofs of software errors while running manual testing activities. Using it, you’ll never have to explain another bug to anyone. Just share the report using a shareable link.
BetterBugs also includes an AI debugging assistant. Moreover, you can connect it with several PM tools and issue trackers and share the report with project workspaces without leaving your browser.
Here are features of BetterBugs ways that make it a must-have for manual testing:
You can take instant or delayed screenshots and record screens of software issues directly from your browser.
You can just use “Rewind” to get the last 2-minute recording of issues that just happened. Using it, you don't have to record issues manually. Once enabled for a domain, you can get the recording anytime to analyze issues that just happened.
You can add annotations and markups to the screenshots to help highlight the issue. BetterBugs has an annotations toolbar with several markup options, such as arrow marker, freehand marker, callout marker, and others. You can also annotate while screen recording sessions.
Also Read: Annotations 101: Step-by-Step Guide with Examples
With every screen capture, you get all the technical details of the issue auto-attached. Developers can use the information to reproduce the bug faster and get to the root cause of issues without confusion. Here’s what you get with every report:
You can add text descriptions to your report to provide the whole context of the issue. Moreover, you can add tags, attachments (up to 5), priority levels, and comments to your reports.
You can get all the event logs from your connected Sentry backend right within your bug report. Once connected with your Sentry project, you’ll have access to all event logs within the bug report. You don’t need to log in to Sentry every time something goes wrong.
You can connect BetterBugs with several project management tools and issue trackers, such as Jira, Asana, Slack, GitHub, and many others. Once connected, you can share the bug report instantly to your project workspaces. You do not have to juggle using several tools to share assets with project tools. You can easily share everything from the browser by sharing the report link. It’s as easy as that.
BetterBugs also has an AI debugger. You can get auto-generated steps to reproduce, impact analysis of the bug, and bug diagnosis which enables you to get the root cause analysis using AI and debug way faster.
It’s available for free with extensive features on the Chrome web store and also has two pricing tiers with several advanced features:
Nishil is a successful serial entrepreneur. He has more than a decade of experience in the software industry. He advocates for a culture of excellence in every software product.
Meet the Author: Nishil Patel, CEO, and Co-founder of BetterBugs. With a passion for innovation and a mission to improve software quality.
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