by Hemant Khanolkar, on Jun 25, 2019 7:34:49 PM
Estimated reading time: 2 mins
In a dynamic environment, where software application releases have an avalanche effect on business, traditional automated testing becomes a bottleneck; for example, a pending software release for a banking application has an adverse effect on customer experience.
Usually, the development schedule eats up in to the testing schedule. Besides, the build received is a tad older, such that by the time testing commences, the development instance undergoes further changes, thus introducing the risk of bugs. Quite clearly, reinventing the testing methodology becomes the need of the hour. Here, Robotic Test Automation or RTA acts as a business enabler making faster and better deliveries a reality.
What is RTA?
RTA leverages Robotic Process Automation or RPA to capture data from the systems being tested and enhances test automation. It truly democratizes software testing by transcending the barriers across departments and functions making real-time testing possible.
Where regular test automation uses only static data, RTA uses live data. While regular test automation is a lengthy process, RTA is faster.
The inherent lag between the development build and the test build results in many defects being passed into production. RTA resolves this very issue by testing in real-time thus enhancing the quality of the software iteration.
Characteristics of RTA:
The primary characteristics of RTA are:
- Shift-Left: RTA personifies DevOps and enables businesses to shorten development cycles, fixes, and updates. It thus bridges the gap and aligns the testing efforts with the business goals.
- Dashboard: RTA supports visual dashboards thus enabling real-time monitoring of the testing endeavor.
- Continuum testing: It provides a single platform for performing testing across the spectrum thus reducing the time and efforts.
RTA plus points over all other testing methods:
- Enables continuous testing: Executes automated, comprehensive tests in every test run thus embodying the DevOps paradigm.
- Eliminates error: Reduces dependency on manual efforts, which are error-prone, and enables faster creation, execution, and maintenance of test-scripts.
- Reduces cost of operations by minimizing manual intervention: Resolves issues before they become expensive errors in the production instance.
- Reduces risk: Facilitates testing coverage of the complete live data and real-life scenarios thus eliminating quality trade-offs.
- Delivers more business value: Allows comprehensive testing in real-time across the continuum thus accelerating project delivery and eliminating requirement for corrections when project goes live.
- Faster software release: Facilitates quicker release of software versions with higher quality assurance and improved user experience
In summary:
RTA reinvents the testing paradigm in more ways than one. It brings about a fundamental change in the testing approach. It offers massive reduction in time and effort and provides measurable benefits vis-à-vis the contemporary modes. It shortens testing and thereby the development lifecycle as well. RTA thus ushers in a true alignment of testing with the business objectives and epitomizes the DevOps paradigm.
