Learn how bqurious Test Automation & Management Suite compares with Selenium, the most popular Test Automation Framework.

1. Comparing Selenium with bqurious
Selenium is a brilliant piece of Opensource software that allows you to wirte automation tests
(programs) that drive browsers. It supports most of the currently active browsers and does a
great job. There is a firefox plugin (Selenium IDE) that allows you to record actions you perform
on firefox and generates test programs in multiple supported languages.
You might be wondering, if selenium is so great then why do we need bqurious, or any other
tool for that matter. Well, there is one big conceptual difference.
Selenium is a framework, with a set of APIs, built for programmers. If you know how to write a
program in one of the many supported languages Or have a team of developers dedicated for
this task, then Selenium is a great tool.
bqurious on the other hand, is a comprehensive platform, that leverages Selenium APIs and
other proprietary technology to eliminate the need of writing programs and bringing Test
Automation to the realm of non-programmers like Business Analysts and Manual Testers. In the
process, we built a holistic platform that fulfills most (if not all) of the Testing needs of an
enterprise. From managing Test Assets to execution and reporting, everything comes out-of-
the-box with bqurious.
With this background, given below is a comparison of Selenium and bqurious only from Test
Automation perspective.
Selenium bqurious
Framework (a set of APIs) to drive browsers End-to-End suite for creating Automation
Tests and managing Test Assets
Require programmers (knowledge of atleast
one of the many supported languages) to
create tests
No Programming required. Even non-
programmers can visually write tests.
Record Actions on Firefox browser using
Selenium IDE.
Characteristics
Recorded Actions have hardcoded UI
elements within Tests. This makes tests
brittle since any change in the UI Element
will render the test useless. To resolve this
situation, you either have to re-record these
tests OR manually change the element
locators in generated code.
Imagine the situation, when this single UI
element change impacts multiple tests.
This is one of the reasons Record & Play
tools are not in favor now.
Record Actions on any of the supported
browsers using provided Recorder.
Characteristics
Recorded Actions and UI elements are
decoupled. UI elements are stored in a
separate Object Repository with Tests only
referring to these elements. If there is a
change is any of the elements, one just has to
update the element properties in the
repository and no change is required in the
tests.
bqurious brings the ease of Record & Play
while still keeping maintenance effort very
low.

2. Since Selenium Tests are Programs, you
need to maintain two code bases. One for the
application being tested, and the other for
Selenium Automation Tests.
bqurious Tests are regular test assets,
maintained within bqurious. No code.
If you are a seasoned Automation engineer,
you will agree that, for Selenium tests to be
effective you need to plan it like a
development project. This includes choosing
and creating a framework (one of many -
Keyword driven, Library, Data Driven, Hybrid
etc.) and rolling it out to rest of the team for
test development.
So yet another development branch and a
dedicated team to develop and maintain this
framework.
bqurious comes pre-packaged with a state-of-
the-art Framework that includes all the good
features of Keyword and Data Driven
frameworks.
Reusability is normally an after-thought when
the cost of modification is higher. Its code
refactoring afterall.
bqurious tests are highly re-usable. Our
approach of Business Components allows
your testers to create and use building blocks
effortlessly, at any time. Remember, No code
at all. A lot of gain without pain.
Selenium has a very powerful component
called the ‘Grid’, that allows you to execute
tests on remote machines.
In order to really use this feature to perfrom
cross browser, cross platform testing, you will
have to modify your test programs for running
on platforms with appropriate capabilities.
Characteristics
You need to explicitly run Selenium Server
and register with the Grid as node on every
machine for it to execute Tests. Moreover,
you need to specify the capabilities of this
node. This can obviously be
scripted/programmed to avoid manual effort.
But that’s more programming.
bqurious supports remote and parallel
execution out of the box. No configuration or
manual scripting required. Just install bqclient
and you are good to go.
In the GUI you are shown a list of connected
machines with their capabilities, and
execution is just a matter selecting desired
machines and clicking on Run.
Characteristics
No special effort or configuration required. It
just works.