Why automated software testing fails?

Automated software testing has plenty of benefits and a lot of challenges. Despite the availability of a broad array of tools for software automation Silk Test, Selenium, HP QTP, Watir and etc), almost every QA Testing teams struggle with the similar standard architecture issues. In my opinion most of the issues are due to a lack of a preparation and training for building automated software testing framework.

The most common problems with software automation are

• QA Training - automation testers have to study a lot before they would able to use software test automation tools
• Tests fail under change - usually automated test would break when the application under test changes. It means QA Testers have to spend valuable time to fix existing automated software testing frameworks.
• Person dependency - an amazing QA Tester is in charge of the all test automation efforts, but when this person leaves the company no one would support and maintain scripts. In the best case the framework and script would be rewritten by newly hired testers, in the worse case QA Team would abandon test automation and completely switch to manual testing.