Manual testing vs automation testing – a comparison

What kind of software tester do You need? When comparing manual and automation testing, it's no use trying to pick one over the other. To prove this point, we have analysed the issue in five key categories.

What is actually the difference between manual and automation testing? A manual tester reviews the application entirely by themselves. They do not need the knowledge of programming languages or of any additional tools. An automation tester, on the other hand, has to know both a programming language and a framework. They do not analyse the application’s functions manually, but rather write commands that make the specific tools do it for them.

What follows are five categories of the comparison made by our Quality Assurance Specialist, Samanta Vogel!

1. The time and effort

   It is said that automation testing takes much less time and effort to carry out than manual testing. I do not quite agree. Indeed, it is faster to perform tests using a framework. But what needs to be considered as well is the time it takes to actually write the script and the fact that it has to be constantly taken care of.

   Experience has taught me that a code perfectly written today does not necessarily have to work tomorrow. In such a case it is not the fault of a program error, but rather of a change in the tested application itself. Such a change often comes unexpected and goes unnoticed. When it happens, the tests need to be redesigned, which inherently entails long hours of reading the code in order to alter it accordingly. It takes full concentration and additional effort for the task to be completed properly, which often requires working overtime.

2. Error detection

   It is generally agreed that automation testing is more precise than manual testing, because no matter how many times a computer executes the same script, it is always executed in the same way - the risk of human error is virtually non-existent. In other words, once written, a test is going to compare the current state of the application to its state while writing/editing the script, and will do it just the way the tester intended it to. A manual tester might simply overlook a missing snippet of code. On the other hand, though, obsolete scripts might overlook errors that would be obvious to a manual tester. In this category there is no outright winner!

3. UX and UI

   Here, manual testing triumphs over automation testing. Only a human is capable of assessing an application in terms of the quality of UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) - that is, whether all its visual features are intuitive and pleasant enough for the user. As things are now, I cannot imagine a computer doing the same thing.

4. The costs

   Automation testing is certainly more expensive than manual testing. Not only does an automation tester need to have roughly the same knowledge as a manual tester, but they also have to know all the ins and outs of the process of automation testing itself. It all makes the cost of their services respectively higher. What is more, automation entails the costs of the introduction of proper tools, which manual testers, on the other hand, do need at all.

   However, You pay only once for designing an automation test. Testing the same functionalities over and over again manually (e.g. before every update) means paying repeatedly for the very same thing.

5. The test results

   Writing test reports is more or less similar to the process of testing itself. In the case of manual testing the reports are created with the use of proper software testing tools, but still, much information needs to be entered by hand. When it comes to automation testing, the framework we use automatically creates reports, records the tests, and captures the screen. Automation seems to be a winner in this category!

Manual vs automation testing - a conclusion

To sum up, the topic discussed seems to be rather complex. Both manual and automation testing have their pros and cons. To pick the right one, we need to consider numerous different aspects of our application. Manual testing is unequalled when it comes to the so-called exploratory testing, while automation testing is great at verifying overall performance and functionality, and at regression testing. It seems safe to claim that almost every project needs a hint of both types of testing to work properly.