From Science Fiction To Reality: Visual AI Paves Path To Autonomous Testing Posted on : Oct 07 - 2021

As we shift to an “everything is software” reality, automating the entire software delivery cycle becomes crucial. As mentioned in my previous article, automated testing has fallen short of delivering the quality and speed needed to meet today’s innovation delivery. Automated testing is still a bottleneck for many software engineering teams, as test planning and authoring, test maintenance and analysis of test results are still done manually.

Current test automation tools widen this bottleneck by delivering tools and scripts that minimize manual intervention. However, as applications become smarter, software is being deployed faster than ever before, and companies must ensure that user experience is exceptional on an endlessly growing number of different computers, mobile devices, browsers and applications.

From Automated To Autonomous

The only way to win that constant battle over the long run is to automate each and every step of the process, then automate the interfaces between the different steps so that the process can run automatically from end to end. This is where “automated” becomes “autonomous.” What the software industry needs is autonomous testing, where all the steps are automated: test creation, test maintenance, test results analysis and the reporting of the test results.

This kind of autonomy is already unfolding in other industries where data is injected and human-like behavior is simulated in order to achieve the desired outcome. Machines can now simulate various functions of the human brain such as vision, motion, sensing and analysis. While there is skepticism that autonomous testing is even possible, the use of simulated human-like behavior such as computerized vision is infiltrating industries.

On The Road To Autonomous Testing

One industry where autonomous solutions are already in place is the automobile industry. It began with automating specific functions of driving like assisted parking and automatic braking systems. It has since transformed into autonomous vehicles that can go from point A to point B independently under different road and weather conditions. View More