Test Like an AI Rabbit, Mobile Testing and More TGNS108

[00:00:00] Joe Colantonio Have you heard of the Rabbit large action model and its potential impact on automation testing? What are the 6 software testing trends for 2024? And what are some of the biggest takeaways from the Catch Point 2024 SRE report that was just released? Find out in this episode of The Test Guild News Show for the week of January 14th. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this!

[00:00:25] Joe Colantonio First up, software testing expert Daniel Knott released his 6 top trends that he sees for 2024, and the first trend is the increased use of AI in software testing for tasks like test generation and code explanation. Next, API testing is highlighted as a must-have essential skill for all testers. Daniel also emphasizes the importance of Low-code no code, as well as the need to focus on accessibility testing, security testing, and mobile testing. I also pretty much have all these on my top automation trends with 2024 that I released few weeks ago. It was nice to see mobile testing and some of these other features that I've called out as well. A lot of people have seen the same thing, and I think more testing in 2024 is so important that I ask Daniel to join us at the Automation Guild from February 5th to the 9th to do a session on removing the pain from mobile test automation. So if you want to make sure you're constantly upskilling yourself to make sure you're more and more valuable to your company, and this time you definitely want to register, head on over to Automationguild.com and register today.

[00:01:27] Joe Colantonio All right. I just heard about this. It was random. I was on a call Friday with Moshe Milman just talking about things in general. He said, hey, have you seen Rabbit R1? I was like, no, never heard of it. Well, it turns out it's a new AI-powered virtual assistant that was just launched at CES. In that video, about 15 minutes into it, the founder of Rabbit mentioned something called LAM, Large Action Model, which was developed by Rabbit and the main takeaway from the LAM was. It was designed to interface with various applications in a more human-like way, bypassing the need for numerous APIs. It was trained by humans to recognize and interact with various app interfaces, such as identifying a setting icon or using a search bar, and it also has a way that the model can be taught a new task or retrained model. And as I was thinking of this, I thought, even though this wasn't explicitly mentioned for the application of LAM, how about its application for software test automation and its potential capabilities? So some things came in my mind. How this could be useful is LAM's ability to understand and interact with app interfaces could be used for automation testing of software applications. It's adaptive learning for test cases. If you could train the model of LAM that could allow it to learn and adapt to new test scenarios, and also how it can help maybe streamline testing processes by reducing reliance on multiple APIs and interfaces. LAM could simplify and speed up the testing of software applications.

[00:02:56] Joe Colantonio I'm always fascinated by companies that acquire other companies because it's a signal on where companies are betting where the trends in the industry are going, and one of them is Harness's latest announcement how last week, made a strategic move to acquire its venture-backed rival Armory signaling Harness's ambition to really expand its footprint and capabilities in the automation in CI/CD space. And this move is expected to enhance Harness's offering, providing more comprehensive and advanced tools for automation professionals.

[00:03:29] Joe Colantonio As I mentioned in the beginning of the show, how I think mobile testing and also Daniel Knott sees more testing as well, being a trend for 2024. I've seen a few tools come out recently, which is Sofy.AI has just unveiled Visual Match, which is a new feature enhancing their scriptless automation platform and this tool is designed to streamline the testing of visual elements in mobile applications, addressing the common challenges we all see in this industry. And as I mentioned also, once again on point, what we've been seeing for software trends in 2024, the need for more tooling and better mobile testing for automation of mobile testing apps and Visual Match allows software testers to really fine-tune click targets and automated test scripts, improving the accuracy reliability of the testing process. And this feature is particularly useful in scenarios where traditional identifiers like XML paths are ineffective, and it really offers a new approach to handling Dom structures, simplifying the debugging of visual design discrepancies, and helping to hopefully reduce flaky tests. And this platform, which is also known as a no-code solution, also includes new features like swipe until element found, manual override, assert, conditions at packages, a whole bunch more. And these additions really help empower testers and developers to maintain tests easily, making quick automated adjustments to test scripts and to ensure a flawless user experience.

[00:04:54] Joe Colantonio If you're dealing with RPA and you want to see how AI can help you with your automation process there. Here's an announcement that you might be excited about and it's how Automation anywhere has unveiled a Generative AI-powered process automation solution as well. And this technology was created to help speed up automated development to hopefully reduce cycle times. It's built on top of an advanced large language model and trained with data from over 150 million automation processes, enabling businesses to develop and run complex workflows across various applications automatically. And the solution named automation copilot for automakers offers a suite of Generative AI-powered capabilities that really streamline the creation of enterprise-grade automation, and it allows users to describe their automation needs in natural language, which the software then translates into efficient personalized automation. And this technology is not only expected to enhance employee productivity but also promises substantial financial benefits with potential returns according to them of up to nine x. I don't know how they got that number when considering implementation, development, and management costs. And the generative AI automation model is designed to learn and improve from user feedback, ensuring continuous enhancements. And so once again, another use of AI and this one apply to robotic process automation.

[00:06:19] Joe Colantonio And another news item that helps justify my automation trends for 2024. I know I keep harping on this, but if you see my trends of 2024, one of them is on the need to develop for observability. How observability is really going to become more mainstream in 2024. And this next news article kind of highlights this as well. So Lambda Test has announced its integration with New Relic, and this collaboration aims to tackle the challenges in observability and streamlining the software development process, ultimately leading to faster product delivery. And this integration makes a notable advancement in the field of test automation, promising enhance efficiencies and effectiveness in software testing and monitoring, and this development is particularly relevant for professionals to test automation as it represents a step forward in addressing some of the key hurdles in the software development lifecycle, and especially in 2024. This move is on trend for what I predicted in my 2024 automation test and predictions with the rise of observability. When I see a testing company or a company known mostly for software testing investing in this as well, I have a feeling that we're on the right track of where we're going in 2024 and beyond, and that is observability. As a software tester, if you're not dealing with observability, if you don't know anything about it, you definitely should learn more about it in 2024. One great way to do it is to join us at this year's Automation Guild, where we have a great session on observability and telemetry from a tester's perspective, this is another news trend going over some innovations in mobile test automation as well.

[00:07:50] Joe Colantonio And so here's a company I stumbled across when I was doing some research, and they just announced a new feature that ensures mobile apps function seamlessly across various devices and operating systems. And they also focus on the performance and reliability of mobile applications. And this service also employs AI-driven testing to simulate real user interactions and identify issues that could impact app functionality. And a key feature is its focus on real-world scenarios, testing apps under diverse conditions to guarantee optimal performance. And it's also another solution that is mobile-focused with a Low-code no-code testing approach. It also includes object recognitions for easy identification of UI elements, AI-powered self-healing, and adaptive test UI changes in cloud-based testing, eliminating the need for extensive infrastructure that large teams struggle with. So if you're a software test, I believe you should be involved in any sort of testing or be at least aware of it. And one of those areas is Site Reliability Engineering.

[00:08:51] Joe Colantonio Here's a report on the realities of site reliability engineering in 2024. And this report was drawn from insights from over 400 IT professionals globally. And the report underscores the pivotal role of SRE in maintaining and monitoring digital services and applications. And some key findings of the report reveal a paradigm shift in the field, with a significant 64% of respondents agreeing on the necessity of monitoring productivity or experiencing disruption endpoints even those outside the direct control, and this reflects a changing mindset towards greater visibility in reliability practices. And also, the report delves into the impact of AI in SRE, with the majority of 53% view AI as a tool that will ease their work, with only 4% fairing replacement by AI.

[00:09:41] Joe Colantonio And for links of everything of value, we covered in this news episode. Head on over to the links in the comments down below. So that's it for this episode of the Test Guild News Show. I'm Joe, my mission is to help you succeed in creating end-to-end full-stack pipeline automation awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers.