Codeless test automation with Usetrace

This article is a follow-up to two earlier posts about automatic functional testing: Test automation for start-ups and How to run your Robot Framework test suite on Heroku.

In late 2014 after opening up our service to beta users we were faced with a dilemma that I suspect is pretty common to many startups. Automatic functional testing is almost a requirement to run a modern Agile software process. But building those capabilities takes time and money, both of which are in short supply at a typical software startup.

After setting up our initial functional testing system using Robot Framework we continued to build on that for a while. Writing test cases wasn't too difficult, and it was convenient to run the tests in the cloud. Our product didn't have that many features so it wasn't a big chore to keep the test cases up-to-date.

A few months ago we launched the self-service dashboard setup tools and started adding new features on a weekly basis. Tests started lagging behind because adding new cases meant more programming to our already busy schedules. We also had recurring issues with the stability of the Robot + PhantomJS combo that added lots of frustration to the process.

So we were back to square one. How to do automatic functional testing in a cost effective manner?

The promise of codeless test automation

The solution was closer than we thought.

Usetrace is Helsinki-based startup and they provide a tool that let's you create and run automatic tests on your web application – without writing any code.

Instead you teach the tool how to do the testing by recording workflows. Just check out the video below.