Test Automation:

The No-Code Way

Table of contents

3 Introduction
5 Challenges in software testing
6 Manual vs. automated testing
8 Test automation use cases
8 Functional UI testing
9 Regression testing
10 Continuous testing

11 The test automation paradox

12 Leapwork: agile and intuitive no-code automation
13 The benefits of no-code
14 Why Leapwork?

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 2

Introduction

Today, digital transformation affects businesses in every market. Either

you are driving it or being driven by it. As new business models emerge
and customer demands keep increasing, enterprises everywhere
struggle to stay relevant.

Quality Assurance (QA) and testing are at the very core of digital
transformation. They are key processes in software development with
good reason. Software defects, or bugs, are extremely costly to fix
after release compared to catching them early.

Introducing more automation – and pursuing it

vigorously – is the only answer.”
- Capgemini World Quality Report 2020-21

Proactive bug fixing requires testing and re-testing with each small
change made to the underlying code. As software evolves, the need
for repeated testing grows. And testing is costly. QA teams point to
increased inefficiency of test activities as a major factor contributing to
this rising testing cost.

In order to improve testing processes and transform them into an

efficient and cost-effective part of software development, companies
are introducing concepts such as agile and DevOps in their teams.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 3

The rising adoption of these frameworks is slowly shrinking the
gap between IT and business, allowing for more collaboration and
continuous delivery. Automation can be introduced to facilitate this
collaboration.

Test automation contributes to reduced overall application cycle

times, which helps QA teams focus on Quality at Speed, a concept
that focuses on avoiding human intervention wherever possible,
reducing costs, increasing quality, and achieving better time to
market.

However, most test automation tools are developed with a

“programming mindset”, meaning they require testers to know code
to some extent. The problem is, testers are not programmers.

Presuming that testers must learn how to code is problematic. We

ignore the fact that coding takes many years of practice to master,
and that it takes time away from the testers’ primary function; to
ensure that the product meets quality requirements through well-
written test cases.

The paradox is obvious: Test automation, which is supposed to

free up resources for human testers, brings with it an array of new,
resource-heavy tasks.

No-code test automation, on the other hand, frees up resources, and

helps reduce costs, increase productivity, and mitigate risk. Trends
in the software testing industry are pointing towards codeless test
automation. Here are the reasons why.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 4

Challenges in software
testing

The increased inefficiency of test activities and their rising costs are
well-known challenges in development teams around the world.
What is less common is the acknowledgement that software testing
is not only costly, but also very difficult. Testing requires a thorough
understanding of the application under test, as well as the product
owners’ and stakeholders’ expectations. Knowing the inherent
limitations of the product and its environment are also a key part of the
tester profession.

Testers must be able to anticipate end-user behavior and balance that

against requirements. This means creating strategies that cover as
much of the product as possible, under time and budget constraints.
But covering every single usage scenario imaginable, also when
the software changes, is simply not possible with traditional testing
approaches.

Testers are constantly balancing the need for both exploratory testing
and repeatable checklists. In fact, it is not uncommon that only about
15% of a product’s total capabilities are covered in testing.

What’s more, testers meet pressure from everywhere around them.

Product owners want faster releases, developers want continuous
delivery, and end users want new flawless product features. All of these
factors contribute to testing inefficiencies.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 5

Manual vs. automated testing

Manual testing plays a significant role in the overall testing process,

and should continue to do so even when automation is introduced. But
it can not, and should not, stand alone.

Manual testing means a tester sits in front of a computer and tries out
different ways to use or input data into a software application. Any
defects or difficulties are then recorded and compared to the results
from other tested variations. This is a time-consuming approach that is
very difficult to scale.

Manual testing can have a negative impact on project delivery and

bring a lot of challenges to an organization due to the inefficiencies it
causes, such as:

• High maintenance costs

• Errors due to repetitive tasks
• Low job satisfaction
• Complex handovers
• Slower execution time
Test automation, on the other hand, uses software robots to perform
predefined actions, compare results, and report success or failure
with great efficiency. Test automation is the use of software (separate
from the software under test) to control the execution of tests. It lets
software robots perform repetitive tasks and emulates end-user
interaction with the system under test, in order to increase the range,
depth, and reliability of one’s quality assurance efforts.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 6

 Rather than replacing the tester, test automation offloads the routine
and repetitive testing tasks, so that the tester can focus on higher-
value work. Automated testing can’t do advanced scenario testing
or provide insights into user experience, so test automation is about
relieving testers of mundane tasks so that they can use their skill set to
design test cases that increase testing coverage - both quantitatively
and qualitatively.

What manual and automated testing are used for

Manual testing Automated testing

Testing new features Repetitive testing tasks

Advanced scenario testing Tests with predictable result
User experience testing Testing tasks prone to
human error

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 7

Test automation use cases

There are many types of testing that you can automate. How you
prioritize these should be based on the business’ objectives and
resources as well as which cases are the most ideal for automation.

Functional UI testing
Functional testing is used to ensure that functionality, specified as part
of the software requirements, works as intended from the end-user’s
perspective. It is tested through the UI, as the name suggests.

It’s the tester’s job to try to anticipate and mimic the behavior of end-
users through the tests. You could say that the tester acts as the users’
ambassador in the software development process.

Clicking through an application, entering data, and clicking buttons are

examples of actions typically performed as a part of functional testing,
and this can easily be done manually. However, as the scope of the
application’s functionality grows, so does the need to test. This requires
more testers who know the ins and outs of the application. Over time, it
becomes difficult to keep up, if the approach to testing remains manual.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 8

Automating functional UI test cases increases the efficiency of testing
and makes it possible to cover more of the application in less time.
This is critical for QA teams to deliver quality features at a fast pace.

The problem is that many test automation tools still rely on code,
which means that testers must learn how to code or rely on help
from the development team to create the tests. This is in many ways
counterintuitive to the potential benefits of decreasing developer bias
and dependency. A solution to this issue is to automate functional UI
testing with a codeless automation tool.

Regression testing
Regression testing can be described as “repeated functional testing”. It
is used to make sure that a software’s existing functionality continues
to work after parts of it have been modified with new code or
configuration. In other words, when new features are built, regression
testing ensures that old features of the software still work.

The scope of regression testing grows as the product evolves; as more

features are developed, existing features remain, adding to the amount
of testing that needs to be run at every release.

By automating regression tests, it becomes feasible to cover all the

critical feature tests at every release. Tests can be run at specified
intervals, such as daily or weekly, and reports of bugs can be generated
and fed back to the product team. This reduces risk of releasing bugs
into the production environment, and frees up time for testers to focus
on product improvement or conduct manual exploration into more
unusual cases that require special attention.

When automated, these types of testing can add tremendous value to

any software delivery process and continuous testing can be achieved.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 9

Continuous testing
Continuous testing is not a type of testing, but rather a goal of
testing. Testing continuously at multiple stages of the release pipeline
supports the delivery of high-quality software. The primary objective
of continuous testing is to serve as a feedback engine in the release
pipeline to increase speed and improve quality assurance. To achieve
this, several aspects of testing – not just the execution of tests – must
be performed in a reiterative way, including the production and
refinement of automated tests.

Ideally, these tests are performed without requiring human

involvement to increase speed, lower costs, and reduce human
error stemming from repetitive work. This is called orchestrated
automation, and automated testing is an essential part of that.

In order to adopt continuous testing successfully in a continuous

delivery setup, a test automation solution that fits into the pipeline is
key. It’s important to note, however, that test automation does not in
itself enable continuous testing, but it is an absolute prerequisite for
scaling testing – whether continuous or traditional.

Not all test automation tools are created equal. Some tools enable
testing that is more continuous than others. If testers end up spending
more time programming or maintaining test scripts than they
spend on applying their highly specialized domain knowledge into
designing test cases, testing won’t be continuous. The same goes if
the automation tool does not enable easy hand-over of test cases
or provide clear debugging information. For this reason, codeless
automated tools are ideal for achieving continuous delivery.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 10

The test automation paradox

Traditionally, test automation has been closely tied with programming.

But testers are not programmers. If testers are required to code in
order to set up automation, it will take time away from their actual
job function, which includes recognizing and mapping out the various
scenarios that can occur within the application, and setting up test cases
for these, in order to ensure the highest product quality possible.

The paradox is clear: Test automation, which was supposed to free up

resources in QA teams, brings with it an array of new, costly tasks. Yet,
it is often argued that testers should “just” learn how to cobble some
code together, preferably by copying and pasting existing samples from
online repositories. This approach is usually based on the sentiment that
“our testers don’t have to become great programmers, they just have to
know enough to make automation work.”

The result of taking this approach is fragile test automation that is hard
to troubleshoot, hard to re-use and impossible to update when the
system under test changes.

Hundreds or even thousands of automation cases are created and, in

the beginning, they are all good and green. But within a few months
they start failing because the product changes and, after a few more
months, half of them are red. Not because the product is full of bugs,
but because the automation cases no longer match the product. The
problem then is that no one knows how to make it work again. Since
no one trusts the test cases anymore, they are discontinued, and a new
batch of automation cases are created to replace the old ones.

So, what can be done to eliminate one of the biggest burdens that the
test automation industry is experiencing? The answer is no-code test
automation.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 11

Leapwork: agile and intuitive
no-code automation

Leapwork is an advanced test automation platform that enables your

agile project team to accelerate the development and execution of
the QA test automation process. Leapwork uses an intuitive, visual
language, rather than code, to describe test cases.

Example of Leapwork Automation Platform flow

Leapwork was built with team collaboration and agile development

in mind. This means that professionals in any role and at any business
level are able to automate repetitive testing tasks in order to achieve
higher productivity and increased job satisfaction.

Leapwork makes it easy to design and understand test cases, and

removes dependencies on developers for test creation, letting teams
flow through bottlenecks. Because it’s code-free, it’s much easier to
maintain test cases as well, whether they were set up by you, or by
another tester.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 12

 With its unique no-code approach, the Leapwork Automation Platform
hides all unnecessary complexity from the end-user, works across
technologies, and comes with on-demand, personal support from
automation experts.

Leapwork thereby enables QA teams to match the development

cycle and deliver high quality at speed, letting the business release
innovations faster with less risk.

The benefits of no-code

Lets testers match the pace of the development cycle,

because it’s significantly easier and faster to set up.

Lowers the maintenance burden and lets teams scale

automation much more easily because it doesn’t
require endless amounts of scripting.

Frees up resources and enables better testing at lower

costs because testers don’t have to spend their time on
coding, or learning to code, and developers don’t need
to learn how to automate. Testers can focus on testing,
and developers can focus on developing.

The no-code
Allows teams to extend the scope of test automation,
approach
as it’s easy to scale and can work across platforms, as
opposed to code-based solutions.

Improves adoption and collaboration across teams

due to its ease of use and its visual language.

Eases documentation and reporting processes, as tests

are automatically logged and can be reviewed more
easily thanks to the visual interface.

Speeds up the release pipeline and supports CI/CD by

allowing much more efficient testing, thanks to all the
points above.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 13

Why Leapwork?
Leapwork’s completely visual, no-code automation platform makes
it easy for business and IT users to automate repetitive processes, so
enterprises can adopt and scale automation faster. For rapid results, at
lower cost, and requiring fewer specialist resources than traditional test
automation approaches.

A visual, no-code language that anyone can

understand
With Leapwork’s easy-to-use automation platform, both
technical and non-technical people can build, maintain, and
scale test automation. A visual drag and drop or recording
approach means Leapwork is easy to learn and start using
The ability to group and reuse test components means
testers spend less time on maintaining tests. And you don’t
have to learn a new programming language or interface to
scale the solution across technologies and applications -
you’ll find it all within the same solution.

An extensive, unified enterprise solution

Leapwork works across multiple technologies, making it
scalable in enterprise organizations that work with an array
of applications. Leapwork also integrates seamlessly into
your DevOps ecosystem.

World class support

Our specialists will support you throughout your
automation journey. From understanding your unique
challenges and technology stack to providing onboarding
and subsequently supporting as needed, our highly skilled
test engineers will make sure you get maximum return on
your investment.

Quick and efficient troubleshooting and debugging

Workflows work both as a visual description of a process
and as a documentation of how that process is executed.
With the Leapwork Automation Platform test runs are
documented in three ways: A video recording of the entire
run, a debug version of your design canvas, and an activity
log with debug information from the building blocks.

Test Automation: The No-Code Way | 14

 All three are correlated and inspected simultaneously.
When you do a replay, building blocks are highlighted to
ease troubleshooting as you move through the flow.

Data-driven automation done easy

Run test cases with automated input from spreadsheets,
databases, and web services. You can also call external
sources through APIs and HTTP requests and use the
results live. Enter data sources and dynamic values with
visual connectors to instruct Leapwork to iterate through
records of data while repeating the steps of test cases.

Integrate with CI tools

Your CI/CD pipeline should dictate the test automation
solution and not the other way around. Leapwork comes
with a fully documented REST API, native plugins for most
common DevOps tools and pipeline orchestrators. You can
even build your own custom integrations with third-party
systems.

Try Leapwork for yourself or

book a demo today.

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