Difference Between Keyword Driven Testing And Data Driven Testing

We can divide the application development process into four main steps. They are planning, development, testing, and production. During the early years of development, the apps were basic and simple. So, the testing phase was simple and often even skipped. As technology began to advance and the demands of consumers started to rise, the apps became more and more complex. For instance, now a single app was capable of performing multiple different tasks. These complexities in the apps resulted in more flaws and bugs. In certain cases, the apps were completely crashing at critical moments. So, developers started using modern testing methods like data driven testing to improve the reliability of these apps.

In this article, we will learn the major differences between two of the most popular forms of app testing, Keyword Driven Testing, and Data-Driven Testing.

Challenges in the Modern Testing Industry

The App development industry is filled with diversities. These diversities are present in the form of operating systems, devices, and even web browsers. For instance, while developing a mobile app, the developers have to consider the fact that more than a thousand devices are annually released only on the Android Platform. So, it becomes almost impossible to maintain a physical lab consisting of all these devices. App Developing companies can solve this problem with the help of cloud platforms. These platforms help developers to access hundreds of real devices with their cloud servers. The developers can access all of these devices by only paying a minimal license fee. To further improve our knowledge, let us use the reference of LambdaTest.

LambdaTest is a continuous quality cloud platform that enable devs and testers to perform manual testing and automated testing of web and mobile applications on an online browser farm of 3000+ real browsers, devices and OS combinations. LambdaTest also helps developers to increase the expedite their delivery cycles by more than ten times using parallel testing to execute different test configurations at the same time.

Also Read: An Exploratory Testing Tester’s Guide to Mobile Apps

The Basics of Data-Driven Testing

Data-driven testing is often abbreviated as DDT. This test is also popularly known as the parameterized test in the application development industry. Data-Driven Testing tests the efficiency of the softwares that the developers will be using to test certain computer applications. The system will be using certain parameters in the form of verified inputs for testing purposes. To improve the accuracy of the test cases it uses various methodologies that are different from the previous ones. Data-driven testing is completely dependent on the predetermined values or inputs that are present in a database. It will use this data to create an automation framework for conducting the test cases. Using this framework, the developers can solve various issues that are usually related to the time and resource consumption of the testing cycle.

To understand the functioning of data-driven testing we can consider the example of searching a student’s detail in a huge database of schools. In such a scenario all the details of the student will be available after simply entering the name of the student. Similarly for conducting the test cases in a huge database, the developers simply have to input the verified data for the particular test case. After this process, the system will automatically execute the test cases.

In data-driven testing, different varieties store the final data in multiple formats. For instance, the data in DDT can be present in the form of scripts, excel sheets, script arrays, table variables, and commonly separated value files. The primary focus of data-driven testing is on the following four major operations:

• The function of assembling various sets of data into a bunch, like a database or a file.
• Forming scripts that are present in a readable format.
• Storing the recovered data. It will also implement corrections if and when required.
• Processing the testing change by providing the relevant inputs for the execution phase.

The advantages of Data Driven testing

Now let us take a quick look at some of the major advantages of using data-driven testing

• Data-driven testing helps the developers to store the data from multiple test scripts. This data will be available for future projects and will execute the test cases automatically.
• Using data-driven testing the developers can access a clear scenario of the test results.
• Data-driven testing is very efficient in mentioning all the final test records. It is also very easy to access all the records that are maintained by data-driven testing.
• Data-driven testing plays a vital role in reducing the possibility of errors occurring in the final application.
• Human creators can easily process the data and results that originate from data-driven testing.

The Basics of Keyword-Driven testing

Another popular name for keyword driven testing is action word-based testing. Keyword-driven testing is also used for testing the efficiency of different softwares. Using this form of testing, the developers can initiate both manual and automated test cases. The main approach of this scripting technique is to restore the keywords and utilize all the data files that can be later applied during the testing phase. This scripting technique is also a combination of different high-level and low-level keywords. It also has a keyword argument that will be used by the system during the test execution phase.

Before beginning keyword-driven testing, the developers have to individually find out the keywords for their testing purposes. After this process, it is also important to identify the functions so that the keywords can work uninterrupted. Keyword-driven testing is mostly used for verifying the proper functioning of web pages. For instance, the developers can use this approach to verify whether it is possible to smoothly open and close web applications. Keyword-driven testing also helps to verify how the web application behaves to different types of user inputs. Keyword-driven testing will separate the process into two different stages. They are the design development stage and the execution stage.

Some of the important things that the developers must be aware of while using keyword-driven testing are as follows:

• It is very important to identify all the keywords and store them in proper excel sheets.
• The function library will store all the website information and login credentials. It will store all the processing data related to the test execution phase.
• The data sheets will store all the vital data that will be used during the test execution and reporting stage.
• The object repository depends on the keyword. So, depending on the specific keyword, the developers can implement an object repository for testing purposes.
• Test scripts are an important part of the keyword-driven testing process. Depending on the blueprint of the framework, the developers have to create test scripts for individual testing purposes

Also Read: Low-Code Real-Time Applications Using Apache Flink SQL

The Advantages of Keyword-Driven Testing

Some of the major advantages of using keyword-driven testing are as follows:

• Keyword-driven testing plays a major role in reducing minor errors that usually arise due to the system or system under the testing process.
• Since it is an open-source framework, the developers can access all the tools and features of keyword-driven testing without bearing any expenses.
• Using keyword-driven testing, the developers can write all the test cases in a more efficient format. It also plays a critical role in storing and maintaining the test cases for future development projects.
• Keyword driver hides all details from the end user. This means that companies do not have to worry about releasing sensitive test data.
• The maintenance charges for storing keyword-driven test cases are very low. Moreover, the developers have the ability for storing these test cases for a long period.
• It is very easy to read and understand the test cases developed with the help of keyword-driven testing. Therefore, we can see that keyword-driven testing is very welcoming for new developers in this industry.

Major Differences Between Data-Driven Testing and Keyword-Driven Testing

Now that we have finished covering the basics of data-driven testing and keyword-driven testing, it is time to take a quick look at some of the major differences between both these approaches. These differences will help the developers to decide according to their requirements:

• Data-driven testing conducts the test cases with the help of several stored values, variables, and data. On the other hand, keyword-driven testing is completely driven by specific keywords.
• Data-driven testing can store the critical data in different file formats like excel sheets, tables, scripts, and databases. On the other hand, keyword-driven testing can only store the data in the form of excel sheets.
• The developers can finish the test cases quickly with data-driven testing compared to keyword-driven testing.
• The users have to decode all the test cases while using data-driven testing. On the other hand, the encoder will decode the test cases for the users while using keyword-driven testing.
• It is possible to perform data-driven testing in several different stages. However, the developers can conduct keyword-driven testing only in two different stages.
• The developers need to have a high level of programming and development knowledge to use data-driven testing. On the other hand, it is possible to conduct keyword-driven testing without even having a basic knowledge of development and programming languages.

The conclusion

So, we can conclude that it is very important for the developers to have a proper idea about all the approaches related to the application testing process. This idea will help them to initiate the perfect approach according to the requirements of the application development lifecycle. Developing companies should also take a leading role in spreading this awareness among their developers. It is also very important to choose the perfect tool for utilizing the full potential of the automated test bench. Many experts believe that automation testing will continue to become the standard of the future application development market. Lastly, application testers should always keep themselves updated with all the modern trends that are arriving in the testing industry.

Also Read: The Key To Successful Agile Testing