Software Testing: An Analysis of the Impacts of Test Automation on Software’s Cost, Quality and Time

Software testing is an essential yet time consuming and tedious task in the software
development cycle despite the accessibility of most capable quality assurance teams and
tools. Test automation is widely being utilised within the software industry to provide increased
testing capacity to ensure high product quality and reliability. This thesis will specifically be
addressing automated testing whereby test cases are manually written and executed
automated. Test automation has its benefits, drawbacks, and impacts on different stages of
development. Furthermore, there is often a disconnect between non-technical and technical
roles, where non-technical roles (e.g., management) predominantly strive to reduce costs and
delivery time whereas technical roles are often driven by quality and completeness. Although
it is widely understood that there are challenges with adopting and using automated testing,
there is a lack of evidence to understand the different attitudes toward automated testing,
focusing specifically on why it is not adopted. In this thesis, the author has surveyed
practitioners within the software industry from different roles to determine common trends and
draw conclusions. A two-stage approach is presented, comprising of a comprehensive
descriptive analysis and the use of Principle Component Analysis (PCA). In total, 81
participants were provided with a series of 22 questions and their responses were compared
against job role types and experience levels. In summary, 6 key findings are presented
covering expertise, time, cost, tools and techniques, utilisation, organisation and capacity.