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How can RPA help improve Test Automation in times of COVID-19?

April 10, 2020 - Romil Bhalla Senior Analyst - Product Management, AssistEdge, EdgeVerve

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These are tough times we are living in. With most of us working from our homes, the economies across the world are facing challenges in terms of running operations without adequate manpower. And the IT/ITES industry is no exception to these challenges, despite trying their best to equip employees to work from the comfort of their homes while ensuring productivity. Since most application developers are working in a lesser controlled environment, the onus is on the Quality Assurance (QA) teams to ensure rigorous testing of deliverables before signing them off.

Technology has been at the forefront, navigating enterprises through this crisis. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in particular has proven time and again to be an effective ally to the Quality Assurance teams to help with the increased scrutiny of the developed applications. Using the codeless, workflow-driven configuration of test cases with RPA, the automation of functional and regression testing is made more efficient. Contrary to most test automation tools, which cater to specific technologies, RPA tools like AssistEdge RPA work flexibly across most platforms including web applications, windows applications, java-based applications, widely used enterprise applications like SAP, Oracle EBS, Siebel and productivity tools like MS Office suite, email applications, and others. Moreover, applications hosted on Citrix/VDI and Mainframe applications are also automated with increased reliability.

Here are some of the ways RPA helps enhance Test Automation

  • Supports reusability: QA teams are often required to create reusable assets like automation frameworks, rich assertions, validation reports, integrations with test management tools, and share with the entire team. And with the help of RPA, they can do it more effectively. Additionally, most RPA tools provide a repository of frequently used automation applications. AssistEdge RPA has such a repository of 200+ reusable skills that are accessible from the AssistEdge Marketplace1. These assets are easily reusable in the automation of different test cases without much hassle.
  • Simplifies test automation: RPA tools bring in a significant increase in the ease and speed of test case automation using ready integrations with different applications and the aforementioned reusable assets. Also, in case of any change in the applications being tested, only a minor tweak in the automation tasks is required. We have observed the QA teams reaping the following benefits using RPA tools for test automation:
  • ~40% reduction in configuration efforts
  • More than 50% reduction in maintenance efforts and rework
  • ~100% coverage of test cases

Once the test cases have been configured as automated tasks, these are deployed to be executed by bots with different data sets. With RPA tools like AssistEdge RPA, there is no need for the QA team to deploy bots or processes on virtual machines physically. This means that while staying at home, working on their computers, they can utilize the computing prowess of server-class virtual machines (VM).

  • Augments flexibility: These automation implementations run in an unattended mode without any manual monitoring. Additionally, RPA gives the flexibility to execute these in an attended mode where the process is configured to wait and receive inputs from the testers during runtime. The bots executing these test cases are scheduled to run at specific times/intervals or to be triggered by an incoming mail or file being placed in a folder. Alternatively, the execution is configured to be triggered as a downstream job in a DevOps model or CI/CD pipeline once a build is deployed.
  • Improves Visibility: RPA tools provide detailed logs that are used for auditing or tracking back the path of each test run/test case. Out-of-the-box dashboards and reports are used by the QA managers and leaders to get a view of the test case executions for their span of control based on the robust access management provided by platforms like AssistEdge RPA.
  • Promotes simplicity: Most of the RPA tools are quite easy to use, and members of the QA teams get themselves acquainted with these platforms using the available training and enablement programs. AssistEdge RPA has many online courses, learning modules, training videos, and detailed product documents hosted on the AssistEdge Academy2, a self-learning portal where the QA team members equip themselves with the required knowledge at their own pace. AssistEdge Community Edition3 is a good starting point for beginners to get a hands-on understanding of what the tool has to offer. In case of any questions or doubts, AssistEdge Community Forum4 with like-minded RPA enthusiasts will always come to your rescue.

Conclusion

Technology has stood the test of time and RPA, in particular, has helped enterprises thrive during unprecedented times such as COVID-19. It is only wise for enterprises to leverage RPA such as AssistEdge to share the load and set new standards of quality within the applications being developed by their teams.

References:

AssistEdge Marketplace1 – https://marketplace.assistedgeautomation.com/
AssistEdge Academy2 – http://academy.assistedgeautomation.com/
AssistEdge Community Edition3 – https://www.edgeverve.com/assistedge/community
AssistEdge Community Forum4 – https://forum.assistedgerpa.com/

Romil Bhalla

Senior Analyst - Product Management, AssistEdge, EdgeVerve

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  • Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.

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