1. What is Automation?

Automation is any action which can reduce human efforts.

2. What is Automation testing?

Automated testing or test automation is a method in software testing that makes use of
special software tools to test the application under test and then compare the
actual test results with the expected results. Test automation is used to automate repetitive
tasks and other testing tasks which are difficult to perform manually

3. When do we go for automation testing? / When will you automate a test? / What
Are the Criteria for Selecting A Test Case for Automation?
 Based on the execution frequency of a test case. Do you run it often for every new
build or once with large input?
 Business critical test case that could be a blocker for a major feature or
functionality
 Regression testing (is defined as a type of software testing to confirm that a
recent program or code change has not adversely affected existing
features. Regression Testing is nothing but a full or partial selection of already
executed test cases which are re-executed to ensure existing functionalities work
fine)
 Tests with multiple data set
 Smoke and sanity tests
 Load, Stress and Performance testing (simulating large no. of users, expensive to
execute manually)
 Time consuming test cases that require considerable amount of time to perform
manually
 Applications with a long-life span

Smoke Testing Sanity Testing

Smoke Testing is performed to ascertain that the Sanity Testing is done to check the new
critical functionalities of the program is working functionality/bugs have been fixed
fine

The objective of this testing is to verify the The objective of the testing is to verify the
"stability" of the system in order to proceed with "rationality" of the system in order to proceed with
more rigorous testing more rigorous testing
 This testing is performed by the developers or Sanity testing is usually performed by testers
testers

Smoke testing is usually documented or scripted Sanity testing is usually not documented and is
unscripted

Smoke testing is a subset of Acceptance testing Sanity testing is a subset of Regression Testing

Smoke testing exercises the entire system from end Sanity testing exercises only the particular
to end component of the entire system

Smoke testing is like General Health Check Up Sanity Testing is like specialized health check up

Sanity Testing as a test execution which is done to touch each implementation and its impact but
not thoroughly or in-depth, it may include functional, UI, version, etc. testing depending on the
implementation and its impact.
Smoke Testing is not exhaustive testing, but it is a group of tests that are executed to verify if the
basic functionalities of that particular build are working fine as expected or not. This is and
should always be the first test to be done on any ‘new’ build.
Smoke testing is the initial testing process exercised to check whether the software under test is
ready/stable for further testing. It is also known as Build acceptance testing.