Top 10 Reasons to Learn Selenium

Back in 2013, I wrote a blog post reasoning why a software tester should learn Selenium. I made few predictions and those still hold true. In the past year the popularity of Selenium has increased day by day. Selenium is known as the best tool for testing websites and web applications. Obviously, there are plenty of other tools that can help you accomplish the same results, but Selenium is becoming the most preferred tool among all the others.

If you start counting the pros of using Selenium, it might take a while. Therefore, to make your job easier, here are top 10 reasons to why you should learn Selenium.

Open Source/ Free Tool/ No License

The most amazing part of Selenium is that it is an open source tool, which basically means that the source code is freely available to all. Users can easily make changes in the code and tweak its features according to their own needs.

Another important point is that Selenium web testing tool is completely free, while many web application testing tools may charge you a hefty amount as subscription charges to do the same work. Selenium is freely available for both individual parties and even companies.

Also, Selenium is not a licensed tool and can be freely distributed too. It is driven by Apache Foundation and is backed up by Google, which obviously is one of the biggest developer communities in the world.

No Operating System/ Browser Demands

The most attractive reason to learn Selenium is that it does not have any operating system specifications or any specific browser demands. Selenium does not even require a powerful hardware, such as computers with high RAM or a lot of free hard disk space.

You can comfortably run Selenium on your computer with whatever operating system you may be using and test websites and web applications using any browser present on your computer. Selenium supports all the operating systems like Windows, MAC, Linux, etc. and supports all the web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.

Multiple Programming Language Support

This is probably the most important reason for every developer to learn Selenium, it supports multiple programming languages. There are numerous programming languages in the world, like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, etc.

For any developer to have a career in testing and automation, it is important to be specialized in at least one of the programming languages. Also, most testing tools available in the market need you to be specialized in the particular programming language used by them.

However, Selenium overtakes this concept completely. You can start your testing career easily using Selenium, even if you are specialized in just one programming language as this tool supports multiple programming languages.

Availability of Frameworks

Frameworks are more like templates to software and since, Selenium has various frameworks available, it is constantly being adopted by many major organizations. Using these frameworks, users can make slight modifications in the code for different conditions, instead of making wholesale changes.

This ultimately reduces “time to code” and “time to test”. Common Selenium frameworks that are used worldwide are

• Data Driven Testing Framework
• Keyword Driven Testing Framework
• Hybrid Testing Framework
• Module Testing Framework

Used for continuous testing in DevOps Lifecycle

Lot of companies are making their move from Agile Lifecycle Model and Waterfall Lifecycle Model to DevOps Lifecycle and Selenium works as an integral part of continuous testing phase in DevOps lifecycle.

A very few testing tools actually qualify to be a part of DevOps lifecycle because it puts major emphasis on using open source tools and this is where Selenium fits perfectly into the system.

Easy integration with other tools

Another major selling point for Selenium is that it can be easily integrated with other open source tools like Jenkins, Cucumber, Maven, etc. Now, when these tools are integrated with Selenium, we can achieve automation.

This is where other testing tools lag behind. With no flexibility, they are just not as good as Selenium web testing tool.

Parallel and Distributed Testing

When multiple test cases are executed, it is known as Parallel Testing and when test cases are executed in a Remote Machine, it is known as Distributed Testing. Selenium can easily perform parallel testing and for distributed testing, Selenium Grid is used.

Using these parallel and distributed techniques, testers can save time in testing without any need of extra machine power. Moreover, these test cases can also be executed again on different web servers.

No dependency on GUI based systems

Another reason to why you should learn Selenium is that it does not depend on any GUI based system. Also, since Selenium does not need a GUI to work, the test cases can be executed on web servers and automation can be achieved by scheduling the execution of these test cases.

Moreover, since there is no GUI involved, there will be no system overhead, which in turn will drastically improve the performance of your computer. In case of other testing tools, GUI is required for scripting and execution of tests, which can be done only with GUI provided with the tool.

Flexibility while designing test cases

Selenium provides great flexibility in designing test cases. You can design your test cases using the Programmatic Approach, which is provided by the Selenium WebDriver or using the Record & Playback Approach, which is provided by the Selenium IDE.

If you happen to be a technical person, who prefers to write in a programming logic, you can use WebDriver. However, if you are a non-technical person, you can use Selenium IDE to record your tests and export that programming logic to an equivalent programming language.

Increasing demand for Selenium Testers

Finally, you should learn Selenium because as of now, there is an increased demand for Selenium professionals in all the major software firms. As the popularity of Selenium is increasing, numerous software firms have started considering the use of Selenium in their own firms. This in turn has hugely increased the demand for Selenium testers.

If you wish to learn Selenium, then this is the most perfect opportunity to have a successful and uplifting career. This open source tool is surely the next best revolutionary web testing tool that has the potential to take on the entire software testing industry.

Learn Practical Lesson, not Just Theory from Video Courses

Many testers who are moving from traditional manual testing to automation are trying to learn the skill from online courses designed mostly mass consumption. I know there are 10 dollar courses available in websites like Udemy and free videos in Youtube. Learning a skill which involves heavy hands on and technical capabilities requires more than visual simulation.

When you are learning something like Selenium, my suggestion would be to join a class room training or an online training where you can actually speak to the trainers, pause and ask question, practice what you have just learned. Find a trainer who actually works in the industry, not the one who only teaches. Like many practical skills, it is important that the trainer solves the day to day problems of Selenium automation implementation in a real project. Do you want to learn driving lesson from someone who himself does not drive (but only knows the rule of driving by reading a driving book)?

We at Talent Plus Plus offer classroom Selenium Training in Gurgaon, and also online live classes for Selenium for those who are not physically present at Gurugram.

Talk to us today for learning the best practical Selenium lesson.

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