Difference between Manual and Automation Testing

Testing is an important phase in software development life cycle. Without testing the software it is not delivered to the customers. There are many types of testing which includes unit, integration and system testing etc. There are typically two ways of performing testing which is known as manual testing and automated testing. While performing testing choice is made between these two methods of testing.

Manual Testing

In manual testing no tool is involved and all the testing is done by humans. This technique was adopted in the past as it was only testing technique which is present in past. But nowadays manual testing is performed when the development team has sufficient time and has large number of people present. When numbers of testers are present in order to perform testing than manual testing is given preference.

Automation Testing

Automation testing is a type of testing which is performed using tools. With the passage of time and due to development in technology many tools have been developed in order to reduce burden on testers and time required to perform testing.  It is preferred when the development team has little or no time to spend on testing.

Manual VS Automation Testing

Required time:

In manual testing more time is required as it is done by humans who can get tired by continuous working.

In Automation testing less time is required in comparison with manual testing because tools and computer don’t get exhausted by continuous working.

Quality:

The quality of the result produced after manual testing is low in contrast to automated testing.

The results produced using automated testing has high quality as they are more accurate.

Programming:

In order to perform manual testing there is no need to write long and lengthy code.

In automation testing there is always a need to write code.

Reliability:

The result obtained from manual testing are not much reliable there is always some chances of error occurrence.

Automated testing produces a more reliable result.

Human power:

In manual testing there must be number of tester present in development team.

In automated testing there is no need for large number of testers. It can be performed with the help of few testers.

Execution of phases:

All the phases in software development life cycle are tested using manual testing.

In automation testing all the phases are tested using available tools.

Sequence of execution:

Manual testing is executed firstly and then development team moves towards the automation testing.

It cannot be performed until manual testing is performed.

Performance of Regression Testing:

Regression testing is difficult to perform when we are adopting manual testing.

Regression testing can easily be performed using automation testing.

Cost effect:

Manual testing is cheaper as compared to automation testing as there is no need of training etc.

Automation testing is costly as much cost is spending on installation, configuration, customization and training of those tools.

Usage of Tool:

In manual testing no tool is needed for performing testing.

All the testing is done using tools.

Conclusion

The choice of the testing technique is made on the basis of availability of testers and also on time. On the whole automation testing is much better than manual testing but we cannot ignore aspect of manual testing.