We all know that testing plays a major role in the development of new software or systems. Testing engineers work efficiently and closely with software developers and managers to smoothen and improve the quality of the final market product. In this blog, you will understand the various roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers in 2024 and if you are interested then you can also enroll in the Automation Anywhere Training for Certified Advanced RPA Professional course.
Who is an Automation Test Engineer? Do you fit in the profile?
Automation Test Engineers are none other than developers who work on the designing, programming, simulation, and testing of new or existing software. Automation Testing, however, is a technique to test software in order to check and compare the output received with the output assumed or expected.
Testing software in this manner can become redundant, which is why developers create and generate programs so that this task can be performed automatically without much human effort.
To get a brief understanding and an overview of Automation Testing, check out our video below:
Before going into details about the important roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers, we will explore the skills that professionals need to become Automation Test Engineers.
Skills Required for an Automation Test Engineer: Automation Test Jobs in 2024
The basic and obvious requirement for an Automation Test Engineer is good technical knowledge and experience. In addition, a good Testing Engineer should also be tactful, as well as diplomatic, so as to maintain good relationships with colleagues in the workplace. These are just the basic skills that are required in order to be a good Automation Test Engineer. Having experience with Selenium IDE is also an add-on. Some of the other skills include:
- You need to have a good business approach for the software or the system
- A good understanding of the development life cycle of the software
- Good analytical skills
- Good decision-making ability
- Precision
- Ability to pay attention to minute details
- Ability to work individually and also in a team as and when required
- Working well even under pressure
- Meeting deadlines
These are just a few of the most basic skills required to be an Automation Test Engineer. There are a lot more.
Do we really need an Automation Test Engineer?
It is a very common belief that since the software or the system is automated already, there is no requirement for an Automation Test Engineer. It is a false belief! There are a number of roles and responsibilities of an Automation Test Engineer. For the software to work perfectly and exactly how it is expected to, Automation Test Engineers are required to test and validate it, regularly. Here is a glimpse of the process of developing software wherein testing plays a major role.
Step 1: Requirement
In this step, you need to figure out and understand the various needs and demands required to be fulfilled in the end product.
Step 2: Design
The second step in the development of the product is to meet the required specifications as per the request from the customer.
Step 3: Implementation
In this step, developers begin writing and executing codes with respect to the software and its specifications.
Step 4: Testing
The most important step in developing software is testing. In this step, the program is checked repeatedly to get the best outcome while fulfilling the wishes of the customer. This phase acts as the key factor in the software development life cycle (SDLC) through the improvement of the quality, reliability, and performance of the product.
Step 5: Maintenance
Once the required result is achieved in the testing step, it is maintained regularly post the product.
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Why become an Automation Test Engineer?
In this blog on the roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers, let us first understand why you should become an Automation Test Engineer. With many roles and responsibilities of an Automation Test Engineer that you will read about further, there are also some benefits and creativity that come along. It is one of those careers that is growing and excelling at a great rate. It is not becoming popular because it reduces human effort by a huge amount but rather because of its demands.
You can also refer to the Automation Tutorial before enrolling in our course to get a better understanding of the basics.
Here is a list of a few reasons and advantages as to why you should choose the career of an Automation Test Engineer:
- Every step of the process is creative and challenging. Results or outcomes are never the same in testing these products before their launch. The errors vary in every test until it is perfectly working. You will face different issues every day and you will have to solve them continually. There is no in-between. You need to figure out creative ways to understand the issues that users face and work on those accordingly.
- Another reason that you should opt for this career is the fact that you will always be learning in this field. With the advancements in technology, you need to keep yourself updated and learn new things constantly while working on software.
- A major reason to learn Automation Testing and choose this career despite the roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers is that it is simply rewarding. By building these products efficiently at a pace faster than ever before, you help not only the business or your company but the world at large by providing products that fulfill the requirements and specifications of the users.
12 Key Roles and Responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers
As mentioned earlier, there are many roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers. Some of the major roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers include:
- Identifying and selecting the automation test cases
- Applying various designs and documenting the automation test strategy
- Creating an automation test plan and getting approval
- Configuring Selenium Test Environment (STE) in order to set it up
- Participating in Selenium Environment Setup with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Automating the design of a framework
- Implementing it as per the structure of the project
- Creating, enhancing, debugging, and running the test cases
- Collating and monitoring the defect management process
- Managing the changes and executing regression tests
- Coming up with exact solutions for problems related to object identity and error handling
- Interacting with customers/clients to solve the various issues they face and updating on the situation
These are just a few important roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers, not all. There is more to know about.
Automation Test Engineer Job Description: Automation Test Jobs and Salary
Today, there are over 15,000 job opportunities for Automation Test Engineers in the US alone. Recruiters throughout the world mainly focus on your skills and experience in the field. They are looking for professionals who can build and enhance test automation frameworks for various software. Recruiters are preferring software test engineers and job seekers who can ensure the delivery of high-quality products through software testing principles, test automation, collaboration, framework design, and test execution using Selenium.
As mentioned above, there are over 15,000 job opportunities offering approximately US$80,000/year for every person, 10,000 companies offering an average of US$100,000/year, and around 4,000 companies who are willing to offer over US$120,000 mean annually in the United States alone. The average Automation Test Engineer salary in the US is about US$59,000 per year while that of a QA Analyst ranges up to US$101,000 per year. Therefore, there is immense growth and a set of rewards in this career field.
In order to give a head start to your career, accepting all the roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers, you should have a resume built in such a way that it stands out among other applicants. With the market and the demand for a testing engineer growing at this rate, you need to build an Automation Test Engineer resume in order to grab your chance to work in leading companies.
6 Stages of Automation Test Life Cycle
The automation test framework revolves mainly around the following six stages:
- Determining the scope of test automation
- Selecting and using the right tool for automation
- Documenting test plans, test designs, and test strategies
- Setting up a test environment
- Automating and executing the development of the test script
- Analyzing and generating test reports
Manual Test Engineers: Roles and Responsibilities of Manual Test Engineers
As compared to the roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers, Manual Test Engineers have to do a lot more work. The roles and responsibilities of Manual Test Engineers include:
- Requirement analysis
- Creating test plans
- Writing and documenting test cases
- Reviewing test plans and test cases
- Identifying the requirements of the test data
- Testing automation
- Testing execution
- Keeping and maintaining a log of defects and follow-ups
- Reporting and Summarizing test results
In this blog, you have read and understood the various roles and responsibilities of Automation Test Engineers. If you are looking for a career transition or you are just beginning your career, then this is a great opportunity. In Intellipaat’s Automation Anywhere Training for Certified Advanced RPA Professional course, you get access to the courseware and learning support from our lecturers throughout your lifetime. You can also learn and understand the concepts at your own pace at a reasonable rate with our self-paced Automation Test Engineer course.