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Did you know that the UK alone has over 26,000 software development companies? That means there’s a lot of competition, and you need your offering to stand out if you want to compete with the best.
One thing that will ensure you get a constant stream of clients is offering exceptional quality web development services and platforms. Maintaining quality in software development products and services is essential for ensuring a secure and error-free product and providing your end-user with an exceptional experience.
Software testing and quality assurance (QA) have therefore become an integral part of the software development life cycle (SDLC).
In this blog post, we’ll be addressing the differences between manual vs automated QA.
Before we get into the key manual and automated testing differences, let’s define them individually. Manual testing, as the name suggests, involves manually testing the software product, helping you detect issues in quality, functionality, usability, and performance.
Automated testing involves implementing automation tools in the executing test cases. This is often the preferred method for larger projects or where multiple test cases need to be conducted.
Let’s explore the benefits of manual vs automated QA.
Manual QA relies on the human perspective to ensure better quality assurance, especially for complex UI/UX
This testing method is often more efficient than automated testing, especially when the product is in the earliest stages of development or is extremely complex
In the instance of exploratory testing, manual testing is much more beneficial than automated QA
Automated QA is often much faster than manual testing, which can help save time on the QA period
The automatic testing process can run hundreds of test cases simultaneously, ensuring better resource utilisation, consistency, and enhanced product quality
Here, we’ve highlighted the key manual and automated testing differences:
Manual QA | Automated QA |
Human-executed | Script-driven |
More flexible and intuitive | Faster and easily repeatable |
Best for exploratory testing | Best for regression testing |
Time-consuming | Initially takes time to set up, but faster once implemented |
No programming needed | Programming needed to create test cases |
Less expensive | Expensive to buy QA tools |
When you’re considering manual vs automated QA, manual testing is often preferred by web development companies. In this age of automation, do you wonder why manual QA is still a preferred choice for many testers and developers?
Let’s take a look at the many benefits of manual QA over automatic QA.
Manual QA is often more accurate than scripted testing. You can catch even small discrepancies and analyse behaviours, especially early on in the SDLC. Automated QA simply runs test cases but can’t really look beyond what has been specified.
Testers can understand the actual demands and requirements of the target audience, and can therefore address anything that they find challenging in executing.
In automated QA, the locator can often miss subtle changes in alignment or colour, but in a human-led QA, this can easily be noted, so the required changes can be made.
Human quality analysts can mimic the actual end-user experience. The QA can provide feedback about the UI/UX, helping to create a user-friendly application/product.
Manual testing can be superior to automation in terms of flexibility. Depending on the project’s objectives and where the testing is being conducted in the SDLC, manual QAs can quickly adapt themselves. On the other hand, for automated QA, scripts would need to be rewritten for every change in test cases.
When we compare manual vs automated QA, manual QA is a more cost-effective solution, especially for small businesses or startups. Automated QA requires an ad-hoc initial investment in tools and software. This can significantly increase the cost of the project.
Looking at the difference in cost between manual and automation testing tools, automation tools are more expensive and extensive, so they’re less accessible to smaller businesses.
Both manual and automated QA have their own strengths and weaknesses, and, depending on your use cases, you can choose either. Between manual vs automated QA, small businesses often prefer manual testing because it is more cost-effective, flexible and often offers a higher level of accuracy.
QA is integral to a company’s success, and a poor quality assurance process can cause complications within the project lifecycle. But this doesn’t have to be an issue for you, and your organisation can be known for its streamlined QA process with the right resources in place.
QualityHive is a leading website feedback and bug-tracking tool. We support team collaboration with clear feedback, making it a great tool for web developers, QA specialists and business owners. If you are looking for seamless and streamlined solutions, then the exceptional features offered by QualityHive will make your workday seem like a breeze. On our platform, you can get access to some of the best features like video and voice recording of feedback, in-depth device details, instant screenshots and managing the project pipeline with Kanban.
Project managers and clients can now keep track of things in real-time with our live task status. QualityHive allows you to offer top-quality web development and QA services at a low price, starting at $33.33.
Book a demo today to test our tool for yourself.
