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Although it’s not a panacea for all configuration and testing scenarios, automation can truly be an incredible timesaver and increase the consistency of complex dependent deployment and testing scenarios. An enterprise best practice is to look at processes that are frequently repeated and then automate them. Automation minimizes the chance of errors tremendously because the same script is always running every time.

Repeatable deployment
Automation provides the support for repeatable and reproducible results every time a deployment occurs. Deployment can be done rapidly and in a consistent manner each time it’s executed, yielding the same results and configurations in less time. The key term here is ―same results.‖ Deployment can be one of the most error-prone operations, and it’s typically done many times over the lifetime of an application. For example, deployment occurs before a product is released but also to re-create a test environment post-release during regression testing. An application in a test environment is typically deployed repeatedly. Automating the process makes perfect sense to ensure it happens consistently and quickly each time a deployment occurs.

Consistent testing configurations
Variations in testing are a common requirement and can be a significant nuisance at times. For instance, a test configuration might require a scenario with multiple replicated database servers. To set these up manually over a number of runs is a very time-consuming process. As testing progresses and becomes more complex, being able to tweak a base configuration script according to the stage in testing is a significant timesaver. Automating test cases via scripting allows quick configuration and setup of an environment for a test team. Often, there is more than one test team within an organization working in similar environments. Via automation, multiple test teams in an organization can share and modify workflows to fit the requirements of their applications. For example, for testing within an organization, sharing a base automation script across multiple units improves the time taken to plan, design, and deploy multiple test scenarios. In addition, shared automation scripts allow you to more accurately compare results across different applications with teams that might be using the original, or slightly modified, shared testing automation script. This is because when running the same scripts the output is of the same type and can be equally compared with a relative accuracy across different organizational units.

Integrating automation into testing minimizes the time for setup and execution of different and complex test scenarios. For example, consider testing a complex multi-server configuration with SQL Server or Microsoft SharePoint using a replicated Active Directory. As a key part of the testing configuration, automation allows simple setup and teardown of that environment many times in a test cycle. In a test scenario, automation allows you to focus on the processing flow and the value of the data instead of the configuration setup and management.

Source of Information : Azure Automation