{"id":340,"date":"2021-08-06T23:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T23:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainforestqa.com\/automation-test-coverage\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T13:19:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T13:19:38","slug":"automation-test-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/automation-test-coverage","title":{"rendered":"How to improve automation test coverage in 5 steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In software testing, the term test coverage<\/em> refers to how much of an application\u2019s functionality is covered by test cases. In practice, the term also often refers to the effectiveness of that testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

QA teams use test coverage as a benchmark because it tends to correlate closely with the quality of the end product. Better test coverage typically means fewer bugs get shipped to production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to make the distinction that while improving test coverage usually means doing more testing, doing more testing isn\u2019t the goal.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not testing the right things, more testing just means more work\u2014especially if you\u2019re talking about writing and maintaining automated tests. You could have a test suite of 500 super-detailed tests and have less effective test coverage than someone who is covering the most critical features of their app with only 50 tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So before you start adding tests at random, you need to develop a strategy to ensure that each test you add will actually improve your test coverage, instead of just making extra work for yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Rainforest QA, we\u2019ve developed an approach to test coverage that we call the Snowplow Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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