BSA Tool: An Experience Report of Software Automation to Perform Sanity Tests in a Global Software Development Environment

Software testing is essential to ensure the quality of a software product since it is possible to determine if the product performs its purpose correctly. However, given the speed at which new software products are developed, manual testing becomes unfeasible when the workload is increasing, and the test cycle is shorter. In addition, current technologies make it possible to create automated scripts which can support manual test approaches. The goal of this study is to evaluate the benefits of the introduction of an automated tool to perform sanity testing on Android smartphones and tablets, in a global software development context. Through data collected from surveys and observational studies, it was possible to understand the impact of using software automation as a testing strategy. The analysis concluded that there are time gains of up to 28% for beginner testers and 53% for experienced testers, showing that the determining factor for the time gain is the use of automation as a support to deal with high testing demands, allowing the number of manual activities to be reduced and effort to be concentrated only on what cannot be automated.