What Is Intelligent Test Automation: Definition and Examples

The software testing industry has seen rapid advancement in recent years. One of the most promising technologies that has evolved and has the power to revolutionize the entire QA industry is intelligent test automation.

Intelligent test automation is an approach that enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the test automation process by incorporating technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

In this blog, we will explore intelligent test automation and its real-world examples.

What Is Intelligent Test Automation?

Intelligent test automation or ITA refers to the process of integrating technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more into test automation. By leveraging the power of this combination, ITA enhances test creation, test management, and more.

It often uses a model-based testing approach where models representing expected behavior or business logic help automate different testing tasks. The AI model that drives your automation testing process helps identify relevant components, optimize test cases or test scripts, and adapt testing strategies based on historical data and patterns.

Why Integrate Intelligent Test Automation?

Here are some of the key reasons why it’s a wise move to incorporate AI in software testing, especially in test automation, to foster seamless digital experiences for businesses:

• Improves Decision-Making: Intelligent test automation can analyze enormous amounts of test data and offer actionable insights throughout the software testing life cycle, enhancing decision-making. Predictive analytics enables testers to prioritize efforts effectively by identifying high-risk areas.
• Offers Predictive Testing: Intelligent test automation also includes predictive testing capability, which predicts potential failures and defects before they occur. Predictive testing analyzes software metrics, user behavior, and historical test data to identify high-risk areas and suggests where testers should focus their efforts.
• Provides High Speed and Better Efficiency: Intelligent test automation significantly accelerates the pace of the testing process by automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks while maintaining accuracy. Unlike conventional or manual automation, it leverages AI, ML, and other technologies to optimize test execution, focusing on high-risk areas.
• Simplifies Complex Workflows: Intelligent test automation simplifies the process of handling interconnected components and intricate workflows. ITA is capable of automating the entire workflow, adapting to UI changes, and ensuring data integrity by validating inputs, outputs, and processes.

Note

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Real-World Examples of Intelligent Test Automation

AI testing using various techniques such as AI, ML, natural language processing, and more introduces a whole new level of adaptability and intelligence.

Let’s explore some real-world examples of intelligent test automation:

• Test Authoring: The manual process of writing test scripts is a time-intensive process that calls for significant resources and some level of technical expertise. The ITA process involves using tools incorporating AI techniques like NLP to redefine this process by enabling an intuitive authoring of tests, unlike traditional script-based processes.

These tools enable testers to use simple graphical interfaces or plain language to give prompt inputs for defining test cases, which then get converted into test scripts. AI tools also facilitate the dynamic generation of scenarios, which involves the automatic tailoring of tests to cover different performance benchmarks and edge cases.

• Test Maintenance: It’s a persistent challenge to maintain test suites in highly dynamic environments with frequent software updates. ITA successfully addresses this challenge by integrating self-healing capabilities that eliminate the need for much human intervention.

During the updation of elements such as workflows, identifiers, or page layouts, AI tools are able to recognize modifications and automatically adapt the scripts. Not only does this ensure test continuity, but it also successfully reduces development cycle downtime and enables faster delivery of new features and updates.

• Test Automation Analytics: ITA and analytics are a powerful combination that fundamentally altered how organizations have been approaching QA. AI tools perform aggregation and analysis of data across the testing life cycle and offer actionable insights.

Advanced analytics are able to forecast any potential risks, highlight test execution and efficiencies, and identify failure patterns for the QA teams to make smart, data-driven decisions. Predictive analytics uses historical data for pin pointing vulnerable areas and estimating future performance of the application as it goes a step further.

• Scriptless or No-Code Test Automation: Scriptless automation eliminates the requirement for coding skills in creating test scripts. A scriptless approach also leverages the power of natural language processing, drag-and-drop functionalities, and intuitive interfaces to enable testers to create tests and execute them without having to write even one line of code.
• Self-Healing Tests: AI helps in self-healing mechanisms to adapt test scripts to any modifications in the software applications. It can easily identify changes in software applications, like changed attributes or locators, and update the test scripts automatically so that they align with the current application state.

It also reduces the effort and time spent on maintaining the test suite and facilitates uninterrupted execution of tests, despite how rapidly the software evolves. Self-healing tests play a major role in empowering QA teams to put more emphasis on strategic activities, such as creating test scripts, instead of spending all their time repeatedly catering to broken scripts.

• Voice-Assisted Tests: The trend of incorporating voice technology in software applications is increasing, which has positioned voice assisted software testing as one of the most innovative advancements aligning with growing trends.

As the prevalence of voice-enabled services and devices increases, it has become necessary to test such systems with the utmost effectiveness. ITA simplifies any interactions testers have to make with automation testing tools by integrating voice-assisted features and validating voice-based applications.

Scope of Intelligent Test Automation

Intelligent test automation provides smarter and more efficient ways to ensure software quality. Here is what intelligent test automation covers:

• Creating Test Scripts: AI testing tools help automate the creation of test scripts, making the process faster and reducing human effort.
• Automated Test Execution: Test cases are executed automatically across different browsers, devices, and platforms, ensuring comprehensive coverage.
• Self-Healing Tests: When elements in the software application change or fail, intelligent test automation can adapt and update test scripts automatically, reducing maintenance effort.
• Predictive Testing: AI-driven predictive analytics identify potential issues before they occur, helping teams address them proactively.
• Model-based Testing: AI leverages a well-defined model of the software product to design and execute tests, ensuring a thorough and structured approach.
• Reports and Insights: Intelligent test automation generates detailed reports that provide an in-depth analysis of software quality and highlight areas needing improvement.

To perform intelligent test automation, it’s important to choose the right AI testing tool. However, when it comes to AI tools for test automation, be it low-code or no-code, they often have some limitations, including a lack of customization, occasional need for manual coding, and challenges in maintainability as applications evolve. Interoperability issues and bugs in auto-generated scripts are other challenges that can lead to invalid test results.

However, various AI-powered software testing assistants like KaneAI can streamline and make your intelligent test automation process easier.

How Does KaneAI Help in Intelligent Test Automation?

KaneAI by LambdaTest is an AI-driven test agent for high-speed quality engineering teams in creating, debugging, and enhancing tests using natural language. It simplifies test automation by reducing the expertise and time required to get started.

Features:

• Simplifies test creation with intelligent generation using natural language.
• Translates actions into plain language instructions, enabling the effortless building of robust tests.
• Exports test scripts in multiple languages, supporting various major programming frameworks.
• Automates test steps based on high-level objectives, streamlining the testing process.

 
Let’s look at an example of verifying the add-to-cart functionality by adding products to the cart by using the LambdaTest eCommerce Playground.

1. Choose the KaneAI option from the LambdaTest dashboard.



2. Select the Create a Web Test button, which will open a browser. You can write test cases on the side panel.



You can either interact with the browser manually while your actions are recorded or use the text area for writing test steps.

3. For the demo, press Enter after writing the steps in the Write a step text area and the test step gets recorded.

For example, let’s use the test scenario:

1. Go to this link https://ecommerce-playground.lambdatest.io/.
2. Use the Search For Products search box for typing the search query canon.
3. Select Canon EOS 5D.



4. Click on the Finish Test button located at the top-right corner to complete this session. Follow it up by saving the test case.

AI auto-populates fields such as Test Name and Description, thus saving time. You can organize tests in folders and reuse them later as per requirement.

To get started, refer to the KaneAI documentation.

Shortcomings of Intelligent Test Automation

ITA also poses some challenges that, if left unaddressed, can cause hindrances to the successful implementation and adoption of ITA.

• Test Maintenance Challenges: Frequent changes, such as the addition of new features or UI updates, can result in broken test automation scripts. It can be resource-intensive and time-consuming to update and maintain these scripts on a regular basis.

But if you leverage the power of self-healing test automation, it can automatically update scripts by detecting changes. AI-powered tools are also capable of identifying and fixing broken locators which reduces the requirement for further manual intervention.

• Limitations in the Availability of High-Quality Data: ITA heavily relies on enormous volumes of high-quality data to train predictive models and accurately simulate real-world environments. Insufficient or inaccurate low-quality data can lead to unreliability and results.

Therefore, you should focus on implementing robust data cleansing and collection practices, which increases the chances of having high-quality data sets available at the QA team’s disposal. Whenever actual data seems to be insufficient, it’s crucial to leverage tools generating synthetic data for creating realistic test data.

• Ambiguities and Measuring ROI: Determining ROI when it comes to ITA implementation can turn out to be a complex task. While it definitely has proven long-term benefits like higher test coverage and reduced maintenance, it may not give results instantly.

Therefore, it’s crucial to have clarity in defining precise KPIs to accurately measure ITA success like reduced manual effort leading to cost savings, defect detection rates, and testing cycle timelines.

• Over-Dependence on Artificial Intelligence: Even if an organization accelerates the integration of ITA, it might be under the wrong impression that AI completely replaces any manual efforts. If the QA team relies too heavily on AI to an extent where decision-making is hampered, AI models would probably fail to perform as per expectations.

It’s important to combine AI-powered intelligent test automation with careful human oversight to ensure the adoption of a balanced approach. Make sure that the team members are regularly validating AI models with updated data sets to maintain accuracy. You should have fallback mechanisms in place to handle any scenario where there’s a trace of unreliability and results generated by AI, just in case.

• Compliance and Security Concerns: Testing environments involve handling sensitive and vulnerable data. Using AI-powered tools might raise some concerns about data compliance and security and whether it adheres to regulations such as HIPAA or GDPR.

Adopting ITA tools that have built-in security features like audit trails, secure access controls, and a high level of data encryption can ease security concerns to a great extent. Using synthetic or anonymized data for testing can also contribute to protecting sensitive information. Organizations should ensure regular auditing of ITA implementations to ensure regulatory standard compliance and mitigate any security-related vulnerabilities.

Best Practices for Adopting Intelligent Test Automation

Adopting ITA can have a significant impact on the enhancement of test automation processes. Nevertheless, transitioning to an AI-powered testing system or integrating ITA calls for tactful planning and execution if an organization wishes to realize its full potential.

On that note, let’s check out some best practices for adopting Intelligent Test Automation in detail.

• Having Clarity in Objectives and Goals: Start by defining clear objectives and goals before you even think about adopting ITA into your testing process. It’s important to establish clarity in goals and ensure that they’re in perfect alignment with the broader technology and business strategies of an organization.
• Choosing the Right Technologies and Tools: It’s pivotal to choose the right ITA tools for successful implementation. Organizations should evaluate a tool based on its existing system compatibility, scalability, ease of integration, support of AI, and so on.

Businesses can also run pilot projects with the tools they shortlisted so that they can get better insights into suitability and performance. It’s also crucial to consider the availability and support of community resources for updates and troubleshooting.

• Fostering Collaboration and Upskilling Teams: Intelligent test automation comes with the introduction of new workflows and technologies that need the acquisition of specialized skills by team members.

Fostering a healthy collaboration between operations, development, and QA teams is equally crucial for creating a unified approach towards test automation. Familiarizing non-technical team members with scriptless and user-friendly platforms leads to the democratization of the software testing process.

• Starting Small With Gradual Scaling: The most effective approach to implementing ITA is to adopt a phased method of implementation. Start with pilot projects focusing on automating well-defined and specific areas such as regression suites or smoke tests. These projects allow teams to evaluate the effect of ITA on quality and efficiency by serving as a proof of concept.

Once you have evident benefits, it’s time to scale up the implementation to incorporate more end-to-end scenarios, performance tests, and complex workflows.

• Prioritize Risk Areas and Test Coverage: Effective implementation of ITA involves prioritizing high-risk areas that are crucial to user experience. Intelligent tools are capable of identifying coverage gaps and suggesting additional test scenarios that offer comprehensive validation.

Businesses can easily reduce the risk of defects seeping into production by automating these vital areas while offering more resources to free up edge cases and exploratory testing.

• Continuous Monitoring and Optimization: Instead of being a one-time implementation, ITA is an ever-evolving process that needs continuous optimization and monitoring. They should also be using advanced analytics tools that offer actionable insights into overall test coverage, failure rates, and execution trends.

It enables QA teams to fine-tune their processes, set up regular reviews, and establish feedback loops to ensure the continuous delivery of value by ITA as testing requirements and applications evolve.

• Aligning ITA With CI/CD Practices and DevOps: You can seamlessly integrate ITA into your CI/CD pipelines and DevOps workflows to maximize its benefits. It should automatically trigger automated tests, which ensures fast feedback on any changes in code.

Moreover, by aligning continuous integration and delivery practices with ITA, QA teams can successfully accelerate the release cycle while maintaining high-quality standards without any compromise in speed.

Future of Intelligent Test Automation

It’s no secret that intelligent test automation is on its way to completely revolutionize various industries through the combination of advanced AI technologies.

As businesses continue to adapt to quickly evolving technological landscapes, intelligent test automation will drive innovation, boost productivity, and transform operations. In the future, we can foresee a greater integration of AI and ML into test automation tools, which will empower them to go far beyond basic rule-based operations.

Conclusion

ITA exhibits high speed, accuracy, and efficiency, which promises to change the way QA teams work. They bring some considerable benefits, such as adaptive test maintenance, AI-based test optimization, self-healing, etc.

While AI automation might not be a core reality for some organizations right now, it’s going to capture the testing landscape, and for good reason. All in all, quality assurance professionals will function with greater efficiency as long as they have the right technologies and tools to implement ITA.

Citations

• Intelligent Test Automation: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374776889_Intelligent_Test_Automation

Veethee Dixit

I’m a Computer Science Engineer by degree and a passionate writer by choice. The credit for my profession as a web content writer goes to the knack for writing combined with a technical background.

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