Test automation is the use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions. Commonly, test automation involves automating a manual process already in place that uses a formalized testing process.Although manual exploratory testing can find many defects in a software application, it is a laborious and time consuming process. In addition it may not be effective in finding certain classes of defects. Test automation is a process of writing a computer program to do testing that would otherwise need to be done manually. Once the testing has been automated, a large number of test cases can be validated quickly. This is most cost effective for software products that will have a long shelf life, because even minor patches over the lifetime of the application can cause features to break which were working at an earlier point in time.
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