Summary
This book excerpt from “Implementing Automated Software Testing” provides many reasons for AST in the context of software testing practices. “Why AST?” begs the question “Why not AST?” Inherently many software testing activities lend themselves to automation, because they are often too tedious to implement using manual methods.
The market demands that software products continue to be delivered faster and cheaper with increasing reliability and usability. Testing is a big part of the time, cost, and quality equation, and without changes in how testing is done, software projects will not be able keep up. In fact, there is much evidence that this is already the case. AST can play a big part in addressing these needs. More specifically, AST provides an opportunity to reduce the time and cost of software testing, improve software quality, and improve software test programs in measurable and significant ways.