Definitely, Manual Testing is can never be removed from the complete testing life cycle.
Manual Testing is normally the first thing you do to gain information you need from the system/application developed.
Almost all kind of complex Testing start will Manual Testing.
Software Tester’s job is to ensure that what will be delivered would meet customer’s need and help on solving the issues. We can never skip this work – it’s just who to do it.
Automation can replace manual test effort in certain areas: unit testing, api, basic repetitive stuff. If the test is to follow some specific steps in order every time, it probably can be automated.
Some testing is not just following a script. Some things are more complex and requires a human presence. There is also a thing called exploratory testing which is beyond any test automation tool I have seen.
The more complex we build the Software, the more we need Software Testing.
Software Testing will never die; Manual Testing also will never die as it’s the first gate to Software.
It may be transformed into various of new Testing Type and Technique but it will be there for a very long time.
So, to some up, while automation can replace some manual testing it cannot, or should not, replace all manual testing. This doesn’t always stop a company trying though.
Manual testing is as important as Automation Testing. The reason we do automation testing is we want to be more efficient and be able to do more. But what we can do as a Manual tester, we cannot always express that in a automated test case.
Automated testing doesn’t make sense for short projects, because the expenses are too high. And if you test stuff that needs human touch, manual tester will be much better.
As Industry is aggressively moving towards Automation and Agile, so demand for Testers who can do Manual as well as Automation or knows a programming language or any other contributing skill is increasing but Manual Testing will always be there.
Next Topic: Comparison of Manual and Automated Testing