Test automation aims to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of software testing by using various techniques and methods. Other benefits are consistency and accuracy, reduction of overall test cycle time, risk mitigation of manual testing, and increase in overall product quality. Recording test activities as test scripts and playing the test scripts or record and playback are the common methods. More advanced methodologies include data-driven, keyword-driven and hybrid methods as well as framework-based methods. Among tool development, interoperability remains a major challenge.