Crowdsourced testing is an innovative way to reap the benefits of crowdsourcing and cloud platform. It enlists the services of a community of testers, who collaborate online to test an application in addition to already existing testing processes of an organization. Crowdsourced testing involves leveraging on benefits of having a heterogeneous mix of people using diverse testing environments, which results in low cost, efficient and fast testing process.
Automation,on the other hand, achieves precision and speed that is difficult to match. Furthermore, integration with a CI/CD is easy with automation. However, automation, though efficient, does not have the creativity and vision of humans.
Human supervision and intervention cannot be completely excluded from the testing process. And there may be scenarios where in house resources are scarce and organizations look for suitable alternatives like Crowdsourcing as it is easier to adapt to modified test cases.
In our previous article we talked about how crowdsourcing is different from manual testing approach. We will now examine how Crowdsourced testing is different from automation testing approach
| |
Crowdsourced Testing |
Automation Testing |
| Scalability |
High |
High |
| Re-run Cost |
High |
Low |
| Device Coverage |
High |
High |
| Localization testing |
High |
Low |
| Varied End user testing |
High |
Low |
| Quality of Testing |
Medium |
High |
| Execution Speed |
Medium |
Fast |
| Cost of Testing |
Low |
High |
| Test Case Content |
Very detailed |
To the point |
| Adaptability to change in test cases |
High |
Less |
| Support for Exploratory Testing |
Yes |
No |
| Need for proficiency in programming |
No |
Yes |
| Confidentiality issues |
Yes |
None |
| Fraud Tracking |
Thorough audits |
Not required |
Conclusion
Both types of testing, i.e. Automation and Crowdsourced, have their own range of benefits at the same time they pose certain challenges as well.
Initial cost of setting up an automated process for testing acts as a deterrent to many cost conscious organizations. However, it does prove beneficial in the long term, especially with CI/CD. It is important to identify and choose the right automation tool for long term benefits.
Crowdsourced testing is a powerful approach which harnesses the power of crowd talent and wisdom.It offers different values as compared to manual and automation testing. It scales as compared to manual testing and is more flexible than automation testing . However, it comes with some challenges and for better understanding of how Webomates handles them, read “Overcoming the challenges of crowdsourced testing” on our website. Read for more Information : crowdsourced testing
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