AUTOMATION OF SOFTWARE TESTING: KEY METHODOLOGIES AND APPROACHES

Abstract

The development of software testing constitutes an important component of modern software systems engineering, with more than seventy years of formation and continuous improvement. Automated testing, as a scientific and applied discipline, today plays a key role in enhancing the quality, reliability, and resilience of software products across various application domains. This is particularly relevant for national information systems of Ukraine, which operate under conditions of digital transformation, integration with European standards, and an increased demand for secure and fault-tolerant solutions supporting public, economic, and social processes. The article provides a systematic analysis and classification of the main types of software testing, including functional, nonfunctional, unit, integration, system, and regression testing. A review of modern approaches to test automation is conducted, based on current methodologies-specifically Agile and DevOps practices, as well as the shift-left and shift-right concepts, which enable early defect detection and continuous quality assessment of software modules. Special attention is given to the description of levels of automated testing and the technological tools applied in the study, including framework-based tools for automated test generation, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) environments, and practical integration with version control systems. The advantages and limitations of automated testing are analyzed in the context of Ukrainian software development projects, with emphasis on the need to adapt testing strategies to constrained resources, dynamic changes in requirements, and the necessity for rapid implementation of updates. The research results substantiate that the implementation of automated testing contributes to improving the efficiency of engineering processes, minimizing the number of errors in production environments, and strengthening trust in software products among both internal users and international partners.