First AI software tester, Will You Be Replaced and more TGNS116

[00:00:00] Joe Colantonio Will you be replaced by AI soon? How do you test video games deliver a bug free gaming experience? And have you seen what is being called the world's first AI software tester? Find out in this episode of The Test Guild News Show for the week of April 7th. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this!

[00:00:17] Joe Colantonio First up is a blog post by Tariq King on AI The Replacement Game. Let's check it out. In this post, Tariq goes over the common questions of whether AI should replace various professional roles, from banking and teaching to healthcare, cooking and software development and testing. Tariq argues that while AI is transforming many aspects of our lives, its role is more about augmentation rather than replacement, and he emphasizes the unique human qualities such as personal touch, empathy, and creative problem solving that AI cannot replicate. In software engineering and testing. AI tools like Dev and AI might assist but not replace human roles due to the complexity of human intelligence, a need for human-driven innovation and ethical considerations and Tariq's perspective highlights the ongoing evolution of AI as a tool to enhance human work rather than replace it. Urging professional to adopt to the transformative change AI brings to various job functions well being afraid that it's going to replace you a great message. Tariq is an expert in AI, so definitely check this out and you can find more about it in the comment down below.

[00:01:25] Joe Colantonio So this week's free Test Guild training session is a webinar on automated mobile gaming testing. So if you want to learn how to deliver a bug free gaming experience, this webinar is not to be missed. It's taking place on April 10th, so register to discover why gaming is one of the most competitive markets and the most successful apps, appeal to a wide audience by delivering consistent and high quality gameplay across different platforms. So this means developers and testers are tasked with releasing faster, with making sure that customers on every device, OS and browsers have a bug free experience. So join us at this webinar to discover how to scale your unity in unreal test with advanced test automation. How do detect more bugs through powerful object recognition? How to deliver a better gameplay and how to minimize test latency through a cloud side execution, and you get to see this all in action. How it works in a demo of Game Driver in BitBar and you get to ask all your questions live. So definitely if you haven't yet, register now for this event and hope to see you there.

[00:02:31] Joe Colantonio How do you test retrieval augmented generation systems and large language models? Well, here's a post you should definitely check out. And this is by Blake Norris from Slalom Build. And he dissects the intricacies involved in developing RAG applications, starting with the basic overview of RAG's value and addressing the limitations of LLMs, chiefly their inability to cheaply and quickly incorporate new or updated information, Blake delves into the nuanced steps required to construct a functional RAGS system. He emphasizes that while the initial setup of RAG pipelines may seem straightforward, achieving a production level quality entails navigating to amaze of design decisions, each with significant implications for the overall quality of the system, and this comprehensive overview provides a foundation for quality engineers look into really navigate the challenging waters of RAG implementation. It's something probably more and more of us are going to have to test. So take a deep dive, check it out in the links down below.

[00:03:31] Joe Colantonio Speaking about AI, here's a new development a new tool that might be able to help you as well. So Harry Rao, the founder of Test Grid, just announced the new code tester, what they're calling what is the world's first AI software tester. And this tool aims to free developers and testers from routine tasks, allowing them to concentrate and creating software faster than ever. And Code Tester distinguishes itself not only by understanding various testing frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Appium, and Robot Framework, but also by integrating smoothly into existing workflows. This page goes over how it offers capabilities that extend beyond mere testing. After training, it can autonomously generate and perform test cases, identify and assign bugs, and participating sprints, and even provides summaries and actionable insights along the way, all while continuously learning and improving. Just another use of AI not to replace, as Tariq mentioned, but to enhance your testing awesomeness. Check it out and let me know what you think.

[00:04:33] Joe Colantonio I discovered a new Cypress plugin you should definitely check out, I follow some on LinkedIn from Philip who pointed to the Cypress Voice plugin. This plugin developed by Dennis is a plugin that provides auditory feedback on the results duration of spec file runs, aiming to support developers in local development and debugging efforts, and announced whether a spec as passed, failed, been retrieved, or skipped and includes detailed accounts of each outcome and total runtime. Additionally, users can adjust voice pitch, rate, and volume to their preferences. And this plugin, which is designed to be used with the Cypress Open Command for local runs, leverages in-browser text to speech capabilities through the Web Speech API, allowing for flexible language support based on the user's settings or browser defaults. Installation instructions and setup details are provided for developers to integrate this auditory tool into their testing workflows, which promises to be more accessible and efficient debugging process. Really cool use of speech in Cypress. Definitely check it out in the comment down below.

[00:05:40] Joe Colantonio Kristin Jackvony is back in the news with a new post on solid principles for clean coding, and how you can apply it to software testing. This post goes over single responsibility principles SRP with the focus on its relevance to software testers. The SRP is a cornerstone of the Solid acronym advocates for classes to have just one responsibility. And Kristin illustrates this principle using a logging class example, which initially combines login and navigation functionality. She argues that while logging navigation might seem related, especially in test automation contexts, they fundamentally serve different purposes. And Kristin's analysis revealed that blending distinct functionalities within a single class can complicate future updates, such as adopting multifactor authentication, potentially jeopardizing existing functionality like navigation, and this unnecessary entwining of responsibilities can lead to higher risk of breaking existing code when changes are made. And the solution that she recommends is to adhere strictly to the SRP principle by separating responsibilities into separate classes. This approach not only simplifies modification and additions, but also minimizes the risk of unintended consequences of unrelated features. Definitely something you should check out if you're not using it now, and let me know if it works for you.

[00:06:59] Joe Colantonio This week in our Private Test Guild Community, Sebastian shared a new post in a practical guide he created on implementing sessions in Cypress tests with the focus on efficiency and simplicity, steering clear of theoretical explanations. And the post is called Once Upon a Time a cy.session, and highlights common pitfalls in session management. And Sebastian advises using the before each hook for each session shared across tests, and emphasizes the necessity of explicit page visit, post session creation or restoration. To streamline this process, he recommends creating a custom command to encapsulate session creation, ensuring a consistent starting point for each test. In this method not only facilitates an easy navigation verification post log in, but also adheres to best practices and tests. Isolation and reusability. Kind of like we saw with Kristin's post. So some awesome advice that you would find if you would actually in our Test Guild Private Community. And thank you, Sebastian, for sharing.

[00:08:00] Joe Colantonio What do you think of security? Do you ever think about performance? Well, this next post may help you think this way. And in this post, Wilson goes over how performance issues often overlook play a significant role in security vulnerabilities. Wilson points out that even a tech giants like Netflix integrating performance timing logs into systems was a challenging endeavor that took years to accomplish. And he highlights that 2024 has seen significant security breaches, underscoring the necessity of meticulous performance analysis. He goes over two major incidentces and how they impacted performance and security. And he goes over how they serve as a reminder of the complexities and challenges in maintaining open source projects and ingenious methods attackers use to exploit systems. Wilson concludes by highlighting a call for heightened focus on performance analysis as a fundamental component of cyber security strategies. Really an awesome wake up call if you haven't thought about performance testing with security. Thank you, Wilson, for this. You can check it out in the comments down below.

[00:09:04] Joe Colantonio And speaking of security, I can't believe this is still a thing, but Security by Design Alert, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI are urging software manufacturers to eliminate SQL injection vulnerabilities from their products. This PDF is in response to a recent malicious campaign that exploited these vulnerabilities to compromise thousands of organizations. And despite the widespread knowledge of SQL injection vulnerabilities in the availability of effective mitigations for decades, software manufacturers and developers have continued to develop products with this defect. So the SQL injection has been around forever. Let's end it now and you can find out and learn more about it as well down below.

[00:09:47] Joe Colantonio 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 to end, full-stack pipeline automation awesomeness. As always, test everything, and keep to good. Cheers.