Artificial Intelligence in Testing: Tools and Advantages

Today, the surface area for testing software and quality assurance has never been so broad. Applications interact with each other through a myriad of APIs, leverage legacy systems, and grow in complexity from one day to the next in a nonlinear fashion. However, increased complexity also leads to its fair share of challenges that can be overcome by machine-based intelligence.

With software development lifecycles becoming more complicated by the day and delivery time spans reducing, testers need to impart feedback and evaluations instantly to development teams. Given the breakneck pace of new software and product launches, there is no other choice than to test smarter and not harder in this day and age.

Releases that used to happen once a month now occur on a weekly basis and updates are factored in almost every day. Thus, it is quite evident that the key to streamlining software testing and making it more smart and efficient is artificial intelligence.

By assimilating machines that can meticulously mimic human behavior, a team of testers can move beyond the traditional route of manual testing models and progressively move forward toward an automated and precision-based continuous testing process.

An AI-powered continuous testing platform can recognize changed controls more efficiently than a human, and with constant updates to its algorithms, even the slightest changes can be observed.

When it comes to automation testing, artificial intelligence is being widely used in object application categorizations for all user interfaces. Here, recognized controls are categorized when you create tools, and testers can pre-train controls that are commonly seen in out-of-the-box setups. Once the hierarchy of controls is observed, testers can create a technical map such that the AI is looking at the graphical user interface (GUI) to obtain labels for the different controls.

With testing being all about verification of results, one needs access to a plethora of test data. Interestingly, Google DeepMind created an AI program that utilizes deep reinforcement learning to play video games by itself, thus producing quite a lot of test data.

Down the line, artificial intelligence will be able to observe users performing exploratory testing within the testing site, using the human brain to assess and identify the applications that are being tested. In turn, this will bring business users into testing and customers will be able to automate test cases fully.

When user behavior is being assessed, a risk preference can be assigned, monitored, and categorized accordingly. This data is a classic case for automated testing to evaluate and weed out different anomalies. Heat maps will assist in identifying bottlenecks in the process and help determine which tests you need to conduct. By automating redundant test cases and manual tests, testers can, in turn, focus more on making data-driven connections and decisions.

Ultimately, risk-based automation assists users in determining which tests they need to run to get the greatest coverage when limited time to test is a critical factor. With the amalgamation of AI in test creation, execution, and data analysis, testers can permanently do away with the need to update test cases manually and can identify controls and spot links between defects and components in a far more effective manner.

Benefits of AI in Testing

Here are some of the salient benefits of AI in testing.

Improved Accuracy

To err is human. Even the most meticulous tester is bound to make mistakes while carrying out monotonous manual testing. This is where automated testing helps by performing the same steps accurately every time they are executed and never missing out on recording detailed results. Testers freed from repetitive manual tests have more time to create new automated software tests and deal with sophisticated features.

Goes Beyond the Limitations of Manual Testing

It is nearly impossible for the most significant software/QA departments to execute a controlled web application test with 1,000+ users. With automated testing, one can simulate tens, hundreds, or thousands of virtual sets of users that can interact with a network, a software, or web-based applications.

Helps Both Developers and Testers

Shared automated tests can be used by developers to catch problems quickly before going to QA. Tests can run automatically whenever source code changes are checked in and notify the team or the developer if they fail. Features like these save developers time and increase their confidence.

Increase in Overall Test Coverage

With automated testing, one can increase the overall depth and scope of tests resulting in overall improvement of software quality. Automated software testing can look into memory and file contents, internal program states and data tables in order to determine if the software is behaving as it is expected to. All in all, test automation can execute 1000+ different test cases in every test run providing coverage that is not possible with manual tests.

Saving Time + Money = Faster Time to Market

With software tests being repeated every time source code is modified, manually repeating those tests can be not only time-consuming but extremely costly. In contrast, once created, automated tests can be executed again and again, with zero additional cost at a much faster pace. The software testing timespan can be reduced from days to mere hours, which translates directly into cost savings.