The future of test automation in software development
Test automation with artificial intelligence
Amazon Web Services deploys code on average every 11.7 seconds and Netflix deploys code thousands of times a day. Big bang releases that are worked on for months or years, that go live with a big bang all at once, no longer meet the demands of today’s world. The ever-shortening release cycles make it clear that constant, rapid updates are the new normal for software applications, and that any company that can’t keep up risks losing out. In the end, this affects not only the giants, but also smaller organizations.
To accelerate software development and thus increase the frequency of releases, automated processes are needed that save resources while ensuring quality. Test automation tools are already used in the software testing phase. Test automation in software development takes place in various areas in application technology. Depending on the technology, there are specific tools for test automation. Even within the respective technology, the tests are not platform-independent. Different tests may need to be developed for different environments.
Simple, better and faster
In practice, standardized test management without artificial intelligence often involves a large amount of maintenance. Test management usually requires experienced individuals for test development. In the process, everyday and recurring tasks can be taken over by an artificial intelligence (AI).
Intelligent test automation simplifies and improves test creation, execution, and maintenance through AI-powered automation. AI-based machine learning and advanced OCR provide advanced object recognition. Combined with AI-based mockup identification, recording, text matching, and image-based automation, teams can reduce test creation and maintenance time and increase test coverage, resilience, and testing resources.
Advantages of test automation with artificial intelligence
- Intuitive test scripts
- Technology-independent tests
- Visual object recognition
- Easier maintenance of the tests
- One test for all platforms
- No need for programming skills
UFT One - The Tool for Test Automation with Artificial Intelligence
The tool
UFT One
from Micro Focus is used for these purposes. Within this tool, tests based on artificial intelligence can be recorded, repeated and maintained. Test maintenance is easy because an object that changes location, UI framework, or even shape will not damage the test script as long as the object remains visually similar or its purpose remains clear. The resilient tests reduce the overall test maintenance effort. In addition, test automation with UFT One is designed intuitively, so no programming knowledge is required.
Case Study
With UFT One and UFT Mobile, the testing effort could be reduced by more than 35%.
Download the case study here.
What we can expect in the future
So far, only mobile or web applications can be tested with artificial intelligence in UFT One. Because of all the positive impact Artificial Intelligence has on test automation, we are convinced that in the future the majority of automated test cases will be based on AI technology and more and more desktop applications will be supported.
The general requirements, for AI-based web and mobile testing with UFT One can be found here.
This post was co-authored with Nikolay Peshev, one of our technical consultants for Micro Focus products.
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