EuroSTAR Conference

How to Solve Your Recruitment Needs for Software Testers?

August 16, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to Talent2Test for providing us with this blog post.

The testing market is currently facing the same challenges as almost the entire IT industry. A lot of new projects are starting up, the challenge lies in finding the right profiles, with the right education for the right roles. Double match, win-win call it as you want. Often supplier and customer are fighting to get the upper hand in “winning the deal”: the best price, the best consultant,… and face each other’s agenda’s. These agenda’s prevent a smooth collaboration because one of both parties wants to win the deal.

From our years of experience in guiding and helping companies in their digital journeys, we developed a way of thinking that leads to a more profound collaboration. By noticing that, making a random match between request and offer is like flipping a coin, we decided to take the matter in our own hands and create a platform where both parties can meet each other and create a real win-win.

Our Answer to This Scarcity?

15 years ago, we started organizing classes for our customers. Throughout the years we started finetuning this setup and came to a format where the customer, the supplier and the consultant find the right way to go. Before the start we define the needs of the customer, what kind of profile do they need, which technologies do they prefer? Wat is the location of their offices? Based on this information, we start looking for possible candidates in collaboration with our brand “Cookie Crunchers”. The Cookies talk to the Juniors consultant’s and make a careful selection. The consultant does interviews with us as a supplier and with the customer to define if there is a match. We start the training, which is also a training based on the needs of the customer e.g. emphasis on manual testing, test automation…

Meet the friendly Carole, 23 years old, who decided this year: I want to delve into software testing. Today she is making waves as a software tester. How she achieved that, she is happy to tell!

A Leap of Faith

“During my studies Media & Entertainment I came into contact with a website for programming and front-end development, and this is where my love for IT arose. But after three years of studying, I just wanted to start working and gain experience on the job. On the advice of my aunt, I took the plunge and started applying for a job in IT without any degree or experience.”

Mission Accomplished

“Within two months I was allowed to start at a company as a functional software tester. I didn’t know anything about it, but I learned a lot in the process. Soon I felt like I could handle even more of a challenge. Quite coincidentally, I received a LinkedIn message from Merijn from Talent2Test: was I interested in a Software Testing Class? That’s how the ball started rolling.”

Software Tester of the Day

“After the class, I was able to start very quickly with a Talent2Test customer. I’m the only tester on the team so that takes a lot of responsibilities with it. It is a large, international company and there are many career opportunities. There is a lot of variation within IT and I speak English every day. I also have a very nice team that I can always turn to. When I started the Testing Class, I really wanted to go to automation, because I thought I had already seen the functional, but with my employer I really noticed that there are a lot of new functionalities and more involved.”

Career Boost

“I experienced the process at Cookie Crunchers very positively. The regular contact, follow-up and support; I had a really good feeling about it. There are also plenty of opportunities to follow training courses and take your knowledge to the next level. By starting at Cookie Crunchers, I now have so many more options and I’m glad I committed. The world of testing has opened up completely.”

Talent2Test – When Quality Matters

Want to know more about our junior classes? Are you looking for Software Tester? Or maybe you are a Software Tester looking for a new challenges or ways to improve your knowledge? Get in touch with Stijn, account manager.

a: Houtdok-Noordkaai 12, 2030 Antwerpen
m: +32 0497 64 10 25
e: Stijn.lekens@talent2test.be
w: www.talent2test.be

Author

Talent2Test

When quality matters, Talent2Test is your partner for software testing.

Talent2Test trains & supports and offer driven test engineers to help companies achieve the quality they need.

We have the flexibility of a local player, based in Antwerp. But also the ability to execute in an international environment. This due to the fact that we are part of the Nash Squared group.

Talent2Test is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023

Test Automation Strategy – Everything You Need To Know

August 14, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to Solwit for providing us with this blog post.

Is it possible to implement test automation without a specific plan? What should a well-prepared strategy entail? In this interview, Michal Zaczynski, Software Testing Domain Expert, talks about the pros and cons of test automation and the benefits it can bring to businesses.

What are the short-term and long-term business benefits of automated software testing?

Business benefits can only be weighed by considering test automation, technology, and tools used in creating the product. Software testing always brings profits.

For a simple website without complex business logic, created using a popular platform, we can find out the results of automated tests even within a few hours using commercial automation tools. On the other hand, in the case of more complex test items and the multitude of automation tools or customized frameworks used, this time will significantly expand – even to 2-3 months.

Despite this, it is worth noting that this is not time wasted for business. The time saved by automated testing can be used to perform other, more complex tasks.

Among the most substantial long-term benefits is quick feedback on the quality of an application, the ability to test more often, releasing manual testers’ time resources, so they can focus on areas that still need to be tested, or the ability to repeat automated tests. All this leads to a significantly improved testing process and, ultimately, a higher quality product, assuming that the reported defects are remedied.

Is test automation required for all software projects, or are there situations where it is not?

No, it is not required, and there is no business case for doing so in many cases. This is particularly true for short-term projects, where automation can take longer than product development. Another example would include strictly hardware-related projects requiring manual actions, e.g., replacing a chip, rewiring expansion cards, etc. In this situation, the cost of setting up automated software testing equipment might be too high compared to the benefits. A project focused only on the graphical part of the application (UI), which changes.

Are there some criteria (maturity or otherwise) a company/project should meet to take advantage of software test automation?

That’s definitely an in-depth business analysis and defining realistic goals based on this that we would like to accomplish through software test automation.

Is an automation testing strategy always necessary, or can we do without it, and if so, why?

The test automation strategy should include, among other things:

defining the scope of automation and the level of testing,
defining the framework and tools for automation,
identifying test environments,
creating the tests themselves and running them.

It seems impossible to complete test automation by skipping any of the above steps. Even if you run a project that is very similar to the one already implemented, using the same technologies and resources, you still analyze the development possibilities subconsciously.

It is worthwhile to keep in mind that not having a strategy can also be a strategy.

What features should companies consider when designing an automation testing strategy?

These features are due to the steps included in the automation testing strategy, as defined in the earlier question. These are:

Test type and level.
The test team’s resources and skills.
The desired features of the framework and automation tools (how they will be run).
The purpose of test automation.

How do you know your automation testing strategy is actually effective?

A strategy is appropriate when it achieves defined objectives with an acceptable ROI. In light of these two pieces of information, we can say without a doubt that the automation path chosen is the right one.

What best practices or trends are you witnessing in the software testing automation field?

The context of recent trends suggests that many tools are adopting AI and taking a codeless approach to capture the market. Although they haven’t yet dominated the market, they are certainly growing in popularity. Their high license costs hinder their use, often linked to the number of automated tests created. It would also be worth mentioning the Playwright framework (open source), something the testing community has been hearing more and more about.

Many good practices exist, but they can all be combined into one – treat test automation like any other development project, following the same principles. This approach eliminates the need to re-solve old and familiar problems when developing applications or writing automated tests.

If you are seeking a technology partner to test your software, get in touch with us! We have successfully completed many projects that required the execution of automated tests, the choice of the right type of tests, the selection of the right tools, or creating them from scratch. We will be more than happy to tell you how to get it done. Set up a free consultation!

Author

Michał Zaczyński – Software Testing Domain Expert

Michał Zaczyński – has been with Solwit for over ten years. He’s a flesh and blood tester – his experience includes Quality Assurance activities, work with IEEE/ISO standards, and supervision of test projects. In his view, a competent specialist combines practical experience with theoretical understanding, seasoned with a dash of “that something” one must possess.

Solwit is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023, join us in Antwerp

New Track Talk Length for EuroSTAR 2024

August 9, 2023 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

The EuroSTAR 2024 Call for Submissions is open, and Programme Chair, Michael Bolton, is calling for the testing community to submit their talk suggestions for the 2024 programme.

In this blog post, Michael shares his changes to the 2024 track talk format.

Greetings friends,

There is one minor change to the EuroSTAR 2024 programme layout. Instead of the previous track talk timing, we’ll be going with 60-minute sessions to afford more time for presenters to tell their stories (up to 40 minutes instead of 30), and more time for discussion afterwards (up to 20 minutes instead of 15). The goal here is to provide more time to present the idea, and in particular, more time for discussion, reflection, and alternative perspectives.

That means as a speaker, you’ll need be prepared for comments and questions. You might find that some of those questions may be challenging. That’s normal. You’ll be talking to a room full of testers! It’s our job to learn, to notice when details are missing, to recognize inconsistencies. As testers, our work and our findings will be challenged too. Consider a presentation less as a fashion show and more like a trip to the gym.

Imagine yourself an attendee sitting in the audience. What would you like to hear (or not)? What would make you feel your time was well-spent? Share your powerful ideas, case studies and the most innovative initiatives, solutions, or projects. Be useful! The EuroSTAR audience will want actionable content – learnings they can apply or make a difference with when they get back to their jobs. What have you learned that can be useful to them? How can they apply it? Advanced sessions perform well at EuroSTAR and usually draw larger audiences.

Of course, as testers, it’s also part of our job to be respectful and helpful to people who have created things, and a conference talk is no exception. EuroSTAR has its own code of conduct. In addition, I’d like to add to that by borrowing from my colleague Ilari Henrik Aegerter: Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative offers suitable instructions on how to act: ‍“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”. ‍Or, if that sounds too wordy, here is a simpler general heuristic: ‍

“Always act in a manner your parents/mentor/spiritual leader would approve of”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be sharing more tips shortly and in the meantime, the EuroSTAR team have added some helpful guidelines below.

Michael

EuroSTAR 2024 Programme Chair

Start Your Submission

Every year there are hundreds of submissions so to help guide you when considering what to propose, the EuroSTAR team have gathered their top tips of what the audience have told us they want in a Track Talk.

EuroSTAR Track Talks ideally:

Tell your stories of trials and triumphs, successes & lessons learned
Detail the methodologies or approaches that have helped individuals and organisations
Bring new information, emerging and/or innovative approaches or techniques
Introduce case studies of real projects
Show how you’ve addressed technical or non-technical pain points
Avoid sales pitches
Allow for discussion time – this is where a lot of the learning takes place
Include actionable takeaways for attendees and their teams

Start your Submission

If you’re inspired to submit a track talk – or indeed, one of our other talk types – check out the Call for Speakers details.

Here are some dates to bear in mind:

Call for Speakers deadline: 17 September 2023
Speaker selection notification: Late November 2023
EuroSTAR Conference: 11-14 June 2024 in Sweden

We look forward to reading your submission, and if you have any questions, please get in touch with us.

Orchestrated Testing Within Continuous Delivery

August 7, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to Sixsentix for providing us with this blog post.

Over the last few years, the market has put great effort into delivering solutions as fast as possible. The software has transitioned from having a supportive role in business to becoming a crucial part of the business itself. For instance, e-banking platforms have enabled clients to complete the job on their own. For many companies, this meant building new layers of software applications on top of the previous system of record, like CRMs or ERPs.

So, what’s the motivation behind this? Firstly, they are trying to differentiate themselves from the competition with faster and more flexible solutions. Secondly, they are disrupting the market with new innovative solutions. To go back to the banking example, many financial institutions are nowadays creating new brands (companies, applications, services, etc.) to target new segments of the market or even to create new niche markets.

The Problem: Excessive focus on the system of innovation (and disregard for other systems)

On the one hand, utilizing the systems of records to create a new service can be challenging to facilitate a quality release in a short period of time. For example, systems of record can be heavily impacted by regulatory mandates or using legacy technologies with old software architecture patterns.

Then, companies have rolled out the Agile Delivery Frameworks used in the systems of innovation, expecting to have the same outcome. But is this really possible? Are all the organizations able to become the next Spotify? In our experience, it’s not so easy. There are some serious challenges that need to be overcome:

The systems coexist, but some of our clients do not even notice that.
The same Agile Delivery framework does not suit all the systems, even in the same company or organization.

The Solution: Orchestrating testing between all systems

On the other hand, a new app can be done overnight within system innovation. Thus, time constraints, as well as the level of dependencies, are crucial attributes for a faster release among the three system platforms.

So, what do we do? Should we slow down the innovation to onboard the systems of differentiation and record onto our model? Definitely not!

Sixsentix’s approach is to use QA and specially the test architecture discipline as the orchestrator between systems. The main purpose of test architecture is to prepare the systems of differentiation and record to keep up with the pace of the system of innovation or even increase it! Our client portfolio consists of mid-sized and large companies from diverse business domains with one thing in common – most of them have developed new systems of differentiation and innovation very quickly. Here are some of the crucial lessons we’ve learned so far:

Risk-based testing brings two main benefits when testing applications within the system of record. On one side, it plays the role of guardian of quality for the system of record. On the other side, it helps the system of innovation to get faster evidence and, consequently, make early decisions whether to release to production or not.
Each system needs a different type of testing strategy, and each test strategy must consider the coexistence with the other systems. One testing strategy (i.e., approach, infrastructure, tooling) does not fit all the systems.

Source: Sixsentix’s adaptation of Gartner’s PACE Layered Application Strategy

The Sixsentix Way: Using test architecture service to bridge the gaps

To further illustrate these ideas, let us consider the situation at one of our client companies, where we identified a lot of dependencies between the system of innovation (i.e., mobile apps) and the system of record (i.e., core business CRM).

Before implementing our test architecture service, we spotted the following symptoms:
Overload of delivery backlogs
Dependencies between agile teams consumed almost all the development capacity
Delivery objectives (time to market) could not be accomplished
Detection of side-effects in production environment
Huge effort on consolidating test evidence for audit-relevant systems

But after implementing the service, we could observe a number of improvements:

Quality Assurance supports faster releases with risk-based testing
Test automation degree was massively improved, allowing Continuous Testing
Audit-relevant test evidence is delivered efficiently thanks to methodological test coverage
Throughout business-facing testing, the dependencies are better understood and therefore the backlogs of all three systems are better aligned and prioritized
On an organizational level, shift-left has been enabled

This perspective on frequent SDLC challenges is the result of Sixsentix experience, by consulting and operationalizing QA solutions at large scale organizations. If you wish to find out more about how test architecture can help bridge gaps between the three systems, find us at the Sixsentix booth. We look forward to discussing this topic and exchanging ideas about QA and software testing with you at the EuroStar conference!

Author

Sixsentix

Sixsentix is a leading provider of Software Testing Services, QA Visual Analytics and Reporting, helping enterprises to accelerate their Software Delivery. Our unique risk-based Testing and QACube ALM Reporting and Dashboards, provide business with unprecedented quality and transparency across Software Delivery projects for faster time-to-market. Sixsentix customers include the largest banks, financial services, insurance, telecom providers and others. Sixsentix Onsite, and Nearshore (SWAT) services deliver optimized testing outcomes at significantly lower costs and help customers with scalability to keep pace with digitalization.

Sixsentix is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023, join us in Antwerp.

Why Crowdtesting Should be an Imperative Pillar of Quality Assurance

August 2, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to MSG for providing us with this blog post.

Users are looking for products that inspire – or at least don’t bother them

Future generations – all of them digital natives – will no longer enter their business relationships as traditional customers. The changed demands and the constant transformation through digitalization are turning customers into users. But where no human interaction can create trust, dispel doubts, and answer questions, the product alone is in the spotlight and must have the ability to convince in a very short time and with a reduced attention span.

Attractive, easy to use and – best of all – with a higher range of functions.

Constantly available and nearly unlimited offerings are no longer disruptive but common standards. This applies to products, services, and public offerings at the same time. So, whatever your offer is, you must make sure, the users find it attractive, easy to use and with a suitable range of functions.

The users – not a homogeneous mass

Another challenge is to meet the different target groups and to create a digital infrastructure that covers their different needs equally. Those of Generation Y and Z, which have the purchase power and demand of the future expect modern forms of interaction, purchasing products and services fully digital. The future “everything is now” generation, which is no longer tied to long-term contracts and is used to getting whatever they are looking for on demand.

The competition among web-offerings, which compete without ties and with the promise of a “change of supplier in minutes”, meets this need. The time span to inspire or disturb new users is accordingly very short. Not at least because the tolerance for errors also decreases with the rising use of digital products. By now, most users have gained so much experience with apps and online products that they have a clear expectation of functions and usability. If these expectations are disappointing, they simply download the next app. And even if this is sometimes tied to opening an account, today this can be done quickly enough and with reasonable efforts.

The subjective experience counts

As good as product design and functionality may be, the product experience is and remains subjective. Every product will always create a subjective use case for the user, and this must work to store a positive experience.
A subjective use case could be that a user carries out his transactions exclusively while commuting on a mobile device and expects for instance a banking app to be compatible with his mobile device. The app should be so intuitive to use that external distractions do not disrupt the user flow and ideally the data flow should adequately handle the switch from 3G/4G mobile networks to WLAN networks. If all this fits, the experience is consistently positive.

This in turn not only brings the advantage that the individual user is satisfied, but providers also benefit from the fact that an experience is always communicated to others.

Position yourself on the market through assured quality

By assessing the product quality, you may influence your positioning on the market towards an outstanding product experience. This inherits the following to be ensured:

The smooth functionality of the product on the most popular devices in the market.
The provision of the appropriate range of functions with the right characteristics for the target group.
Covering as many subjective use cases as possible to avoid negative surprises after go-live.

While the first point can still be tested internally and in the laboratory, for example with emulated devices, as part of a verification, the other two points can only be tested as part of a validation.

Crowdtesting offers solutions

Crowdtesting is the validation of digital products involving your target group – remotely via the internet. Leaving this rather rigid definition behind, this method offers good tools to meet the three challenges of digital assurance. It allows positioning towards the upper right quadrant of digital excellence and thus can serve to stand out from the masses with an outstanding product.

Figure. 1: The quadrants of digital excellence

Crowdtesting helps you to cover subjective use cases and perceptions in any phase of the life cycle. You get a direct insight into whether your target group feels heard and can adapt at any time. In addition, with the variety off devices and mindsets added to your testing process you will be enabled to find functional and technical issues which wouldn’t be uncovered in the lab. And if there are no functional problems, that’s worth a pat on the back for your development and builds confidence in your product.

Feedback will always be a part of this testing process and even if the insights and “bugs” gathered in this process may not be fixed, they can be incorporated into the further development of the product. In the meantime, the results help customer support to prepare for possible enquiries and to create meaningful FAQ lists.

Conclusion – Crowdtesting is useful in any phase of a products lifecycle

It gives a good insight into the technical and functional stability of your product and provides the opportunity to understand the (future) users from the beginning and develop with a focus on their added value. You don’t have to wait for feedback from customers who may be disappointed once, not return to your site at all and not using your app a second time.

Author

Johannes Widmann

Johannes Widmann has been working in the field of software quality and digital assurance for over 22 years. He is a dedicated desciple of crowdtesting since 2011 and has built up passbrains, one of the leading service providers for crowd-sourced quality assurance. Since January 2021 passbrains is part of the msg group.

MSG is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023, join us in Antwerp

No-Code & Low-Code: The Inclusive and Effective Way to Test Automation

July 31, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to Maveryx for providing us with this blog post.

The field of software testing has seen significant happenings in recent years, with the emergence of new testing methodologies, tools, and techniques. One of the most relevant trends in automated testing is codeless (no-code and low-code) testing, which enables users without or with low programming skills to create and execute automated tests without writing a single line of code.

Automated testing has traditionally been highly technical, requiring specialized skills and expertise in programming languages and testing frameworks. Unfortunately, there need to be more testers to do this job. For this reason, we assisted in the progress of the codeless testing, where non-technical (business) users can participate in the testing process.

Low-code testing typically provides users with a visual interface that enables them to generate automated test scripts by dragging and dropping components (test code snippets).

No-code testing tools provide users with predefined keywords that enable them to create tests using natural language, like writing a document.

So, what are the benefits of a codeless approach to automated testing?

Productivity: no-code and low-code testing enable users to create tests quickly and easily, in most cases, without writing a single line of code. These increase productivity and reduce the time and effort required to develop the tests.

Reduced costs: no-code and low-code testing eliminate the need for specialized testing resources, such as expert testers or programmers, which can significantly reduce the costs associated with software testing. Also, they significantly reduce the time to create tests; saving time means saving money.

Faster time-to-market: more people involved in software testing and more (automated) tests enables organizations to test their software quickly, reducing time-to-market and increasing the speed of delivery.

Extensive functional coverage: codeless testing allows organizations to write more tests faster, thus improving their test coverage and enabling more frequent and extensive testing, which can help identify defects and issues earlier in the development process.

Easier maintenance: codeless testing, but more in particular no-code testing, makes it easier to maintain tests over time, with users able to update and modify tests using natural language without the need for coding expertise or specific technologies.

Easier collaboration: in particular, no-code testing tools enable teams to collaborate more effectively, with non-technical team members able to contribute to the testing process without requiring specialized skills or the knowledge of a specific technology. Also, no-code testing allows non-technical stakeholders to participate in the testing process, enabling a broader range of users to contribute to software testing.

Combining a codeless approach with intelligent object recognition at runtime technology (without GUI maps, object/image repositories, code instrumentations, recorded actions, and so on) can further boost test automation.

For example, the Maveryx Test Automation Framework offers both codeless test creation and runtime inspection. Users can create No-code automated tests by Keywords. For example, everyone using Excel can participate in test automation.

Also, this framework provides low-code blocks programming IDE, supporting testing through the drag-and-drop of visual blocks.

Author

Alfonso Nocella Co-founder and Sr. Software Engineer at Maveryx,

Alfonso led the design and development of some core components of the Maveryx automated testing tool. He collaborated in some astrophysics IT research projects with the University of Napoli Federico II and the Italian national astrophysics research institute (INAF). Over the decades, Alfonso worked on many industrial and research projects in different business fields and partnerships. Also, he was a speaker at several conferences and universities.

Today, Alfonso supports critical QA projects of some Maveryx customers in the defense and public health fields. Besides, he is a test automation trainer, and he takes care of the communication and the technical marketing of Maveryx.

Maveryx is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023, join us in Antwerp

Testing and QA Key to Cloud Migration Success

July 27, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to iOCO for providing us with this blog post.

In the global rush to go serverless and in the cloud, many organisations neglect quality assurance and testing – an oversight that can seriously impair performance and increase organisational risk.

There are numerous reasons for this, but a key one is that cloud migrations are complex projects usually managed by infrastructure teams. Those tasked with driving it aren’t always quality focused, and their views of what QA is might differ significantly from what QA should be.
Should the organisation neglect thorough testing as part of its application cloud migration plan, the smallest mistake left undiscovered, could cause major failures down the line.

Lift and shift migration, the most popular approach and the second-largest cloud services sector by revenue, should not be seen as a simple copy-and-paste operation. Without a concerted effort, accurate planning and coordinated migration testing, a copy-and-paste approach could have devastating consequences for scalability, databases, and application and website performance.

Cloud Migration Testing and QA Priorities and Pillars

Thorough cloud migration testing uses quantifiable metrics to pinpoint and address potential performance issues, as well as exposing opportunities to improve performance and user experience when applications are in the cloud. However, teams should be cautious of scope creep at this stage – adding new features during migration could have unforeseen impacts.

Proper testing and QA rests on four key pillars – security, performance, functional and integration testing.

Security testing must ensure that only authorised users access the cloud network, understanding who has access to the data, where, when and why users access data. It must address how data is stored when idle, what the compliance requirements are, and how sensitive data is used, stored or transported. Suitable procedures must also be put in place against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

To realise the performance and scalability benefits of the cloud, testing must validate how systems perform under increased load. Unlike stress testing, performance testing verifies the end-to-end performance of the migrated system and whether response times fulfil service level agreements under various load levels.

Functional validates whether the application is ready to be migrated to the cloud, and whether it will perform according to the service level agreement. In complex applications, it is necessary to validate the end-to-end function of the whole application and its external services.

Even in basic applications where microservices architecture is not required, we see some sort of integration with third-party tools and services, making integration testing important. Therefore, cloud migration testing should identify and verify all the dependencies to ensure end-to-end functionality, and should include tests to verify that the new environment works with third-party services, and that the application configuration performs in a new environment.

With well-architected testing carried out, the organisation can rest assured that cloud migration risks have been mitigated and opportunities harnessed across security, operational excellence, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimisation and sustainability.

A Testing and QA Framework for AWS Cloud Migration

As an AWS certified partner provider, iOCO has tailored our Well Tested Cloud Framework (WTCF) for cloud migration to align with the AWS Well Architected Framework, to ensure customer migrations to the AWS cloud are not only successful, but actually exceed expectations. iOCO resources will lead and manage execution from initial assessment, risk identification and recommendations; through a comprehensive set of checklists and guidelines across each of the four QA pillars; to full migration testing.

In tandem with the AWS Well Architected Framework, iOCO’s WTCF is designed to fast-track AWS migration testing using clear and structured guides and processes and customised options to suit the organisation’s budget and needs.

Author

Reinier Van Dommelen, Principal Technical Consultant – Software Applications and Systems at iOCO

As a seasoned Technical Consultant with a wealth of experience, Renier Schuld has a proven track record of delivering successful IT projects for a diverse range of clients. He excels at bridging the gap between business and technical requirements by identifying and implementing systems solutions, guiding cross-functional teams through the project life-cycle, and ensuring successful product launches.

Renier’s expertise in Testing is extensive and includes developing functional specification documents, designing test strategies, creating and executing test scripts to ensure accuracy and quality, developing project and organizational software test plans, providing user support, and building automated test frameworks. He has a passion for continuously improving processes and ensuring that quality is always top of mind throughout the project life-cycle.

iOCO is an EXPO Exhibitor at EuroSTAR 2023, join us in Antwerp

Moving Beyond Traditional Testing: The Need for Autonomous Testing in Software Development.

July 24, 2023 by Lauren Payne

Thanks to Hexaware for providing us with this blog post.

Software testing is struggling to keep up with the fast-paced and constantly accelerating rate of releases. According to a survey by Gitlab in 2022, seven out of ten developers reported that their teams release code at least every few days, with many doing so on a daily basis. In today’s world, customers and end-users expect new features and functionality at an increasingly rapid pace. Companies that lag behind on new software releases risk being displaced by competitors who can keep up with the latest updates.

When testing fails to keep up with the release pace, organizations face well-known risks associated with releasing software that hasn’t been adequately tested and may contain bugs. For instance, in July 2022, former Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess was forced out of the company because the automaker’s software unit was unable to produce software of sufficient quality, delaying the launch of its new Porsche, Audi, and Bentley models. Even more recently, in October 2022, Nintendo had to take Nintendo Switch Sports’ servers offline for nearly a week due to a bug that caused the game to crash.

Development teams have attempted to address this dilemma of either issuing potentially buggy software faster or slowing down to test sufficiently with test automation. However, there are significant challenges associated with how test automation is traditionally implemented, and automation still requires highly skilled testers who are always in high demand, making them difficult to hire and retain.
Testing organizations face challenges beyond just automating the creation of tests. Maintaining tests is equally challenging as automation scripts can become outdated and fail to test the required functions in the desired ways. Even with enough testers available, analyzing the impact of changes and configuring the test suite is too complicated to be performed manually. However, the problem extends beyond maintaining automated tests as human analysis cannot identify all areas that require testing.

To overcome these challenges, organizations need to move beyond automation and embrace autonomous testing.

AI-Powered Autonomous Testing

Autonomous testing is the solution to the challenges faced by testing organizations as it enables faster decision-making about which scenarios to test based on the impact of a change without relying too much on human involvement. This dramatically increases testing depth and scope while simultaneously speeding up the process.

In contrast, traditional test automation only addresses one stage of the testing process, which is the automated script execution in the DevOps pipeline, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Autonomous testing has the potential to significantly reduce the need for human involvement throughout the testing process (as shown in Figure 2), unlike traditional test automation, which only impacts script execution in the DevOps pipeline (as shown in Figure 1). By utilizing natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies, organizations can automate the generation of feature files and autonomous scripts. With the addition of deep learning through a support vector machine (SVM), tests can be auto-configured, and cases can be identified for execution when there are changes to code or requirements. Autonomous testing can also perform failure analysis and take corrective action.

As the AI continues to learn from development behavior, test results, and other data, it becomes smarter and more accurate. For example, post-production logs are rarely used, but AI can analyze them and match them to post-production to identify previously unidentified “white spaces” that are likely to have bugs in the future and therefore require testing.

It is crucial to understand that autonomous testing is not a one-time fix, but a continual process of improvement, one case at a time. Organizations can start by identifying a specific bottleneck in the testing process that autonomous testing can address, such as the generation of UI/API scripts or identifying sensitive columns that require masking or synthetic data replacement. Ideally, the case should involve different functions for a particular phase to have a more significant impact. Once the solution has been successfully implemented and shown results, organizations can leverage that success to expand to a new case and continue to improve their testing process over time.

Think of it in terms of autonomous driving. Automakers first rolled out discrete capabilities such as automatic breaking to avoid hitting a stationary object, lane assist, and adaptive cruise control. Implementing autonomous testing requires a similar approach.

Organizations are under pressure to conduct extensive testing within a shorter time frame and with fewer resources, all while delivering high-quality software on schedule. Autonomous testing, powered by AI and ML, can help organizations achieve this goal, but it requires a strategic, long-term approach to implementation. The ultimate outcome is that development teams can release new features more frequently, leading to a better customer experience and a stronger bottom line for the organization.

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Nagendra BS, Vice President – Digital Assurance, Practice & Solutions at Hexaware

Nagendra has around 21 years of experience in Software industry and is passionate about Quality and Testing and have helped number of customers in their testing transformation journey. He is currently responsible for Go to Market function of the Digital Assurance (Testing) business which includes creation of all service offerings, global presales support, alliances, analyst and marketing functions for Digital Assurance services.

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