Every time i meet someone who had mostly worked on back end, I had a hard time explaining them about UI Automation tools. All they think of UI Automation tools is that they are just a record and playback tools which checks the fields from UI and nothing else. This is same for a person who had only manual testing experience and never looked at UI Automation tools. Mostly they think these are some fancy tools for marketing purpose within the company. This is really not the case. If that's your experience or opinion, I think you did not actually use the tool properly or never worked on automation. Here are some misconceptions on UI Automation/tools.
UI Automation doesn't mean:
- Checking Button's and field's status
- A Record and playback tool
- Breaks for every simple change in UI
- Doesn't touch actual functionality
- Back end still needs Robust tests
- Starts only after the release or after everything is frozen
- Involves lot of maintenance
- Needs a lot of manual intervention
- There will be inconsistencies in runs
If any of your automation matches any of the above, then it's a pure misuse of the tool. Maybe you are not using the right tool or doesn't have the right plan. It all depends on us and not the tool, tools just does what we ask.
