When I was working as a software test engineer at Microsoft, test automation was a relatively new area. The majority of software testing was still done manually in the mid 1990s. Around that time I coined the acronym "SAPES" to describe the advantages of software test automation compared to manual testing. SAPES stands for speed, accuracy, precision, efficiency, and skill-building. Speed – test automation can execute test cases much faster than manual testing. Accuracy – test automation is not as prone to human errors such as incorrectly recording a test case result. Precision – test automation executes the same way every time but manual testing executes slightly differently. Efficiency – test automation can run overnight or while you are performing more interesting testing. Skill-building – writing test automation increases your skill-set while manual testing can be mind-numbingly boring. These advantages of test automation over manual testing are of course well known, but the SAPES acronym nicely summarizes the advantages.