Why this matters
Many testing adverts in Ghana and on remote boards ask for automation alongside manual skills, and testers who can automate have more options, including roles as automation or QA engineers. Automation does not replace manual testing; it takes over the repetitive checks so people can spend their time on thinking and exploring.
What test automation is
Test automation means writing code that runs checks for you. An automated test might open a browser, go to a sign in page, type a phone number and password, press Sign in, and confirm that the dashboard appears. Once written, it can run hundreds of times, on every change, in minutes.
Good candidates for automation:
- Regression checks that repeat every release.
- Important flows such as sign in, payments and checkout.
- Data heavy checks, such as trying the same form with fifty inputs.
- API checks that are fast and stable.
Poor candidates:
- Features that change every week.
- Checks that need human judgement, such as "is this screen confusing?"
- One off tests you will run only once.
What this section covers
- Enough programming to automate. Variables, conditions, loops and functions in JavaScript or Python, plus a little SQL for checking data.