Humans vs. Bot. What to use in data oriented Testing?

Testing software and data is one of the most crucial steps in any lifecycle of data oriented projects as well as of application development projects. We often hear words such as black-box testing, white-box testing, beta testing, and many others but at the heart of testing, this is not the main concern. In 2020, the major debate is not over these different types of testing but over the major distinction among how they are performed; either manual or automated.

Essentially, both are aimed to assure the quality how data gets created, processed and analyzed. In laymen terms, it checks if all the system components are performing the correct, and expected outcomes – also under high usage load.

Let’s dig deeper into this debate of humans vs. bots.

Data and Software engineers are continuously working together with test engineers to deliver error-free programs. And for that, software testing is vital. Testing is the process of checking, verifying and validating the quality and results of the program. Companies need to dedicate outsourced or in-house teams to meet industry standards. This cannot be ignored anymore.

What is manual testing and how it works?

It is one of the old-school techniques, and is the simplest type of testing techniques. This is the first testing, programmers often self-perform, intentionally or unintentionally. Test cases are mentally thought-out and program flows are checked against expected outcomes. It is often random or based on the experience of the QA tester.  In manual testing, as the name suggests, no software is used to aid the testing procedures. Its basic types are functional testing and integration testing.

Pros of Manual Testing:

• As humans perform this, there is a factor of human observation and common sense involved.
• It better judges user-friendliness from a users point of view as usability is often neglected by test automation software.
• It is economical and easier to setup.
• It is the best way to judge the user experience.
• It is easy to handle small changes in the code as test cases are easier to edit rather than editing entire test scripts.

Cons of Manual Testing:

• The process is slower compared to automated testing.
• With every project interation there are more and more test cases. Performing them manually over and over again is costly or leads to insufficient testing.
• Only experienced QA testers can produce reliable results who are equipped with specialized knowledge and eye-to-detail
• It cannot batch similar test scenarios with one script.
• It is not suitable for stress testing.