Is Testing the Ultimate Business Activity for Automation?
For any business that sells Software or offer SaaS, the need for Automated Testing to ensure a high quality solution is clear.
For other businesses such as Manufacturing or Logistics, the amount of testing performed is probably limited to times where software is being changed.
All testing activity is by its nature very repetitive.
Automation of test activities is a clear benefit.
Outside of software testing, a manufacturing company will perform tests on the “Widgets” it creates to verify tolerances and quality.
Mystery Shoppers are used to test the Retail experience.
What tests does your business perform outside of the back office systems?
Systems and Interfaces – Mind the Gap!
Every business has multiple computer applications (e.g. ERP, CRM, HR). For a business to operate its daily processes, the data between the systems needs to be aligned that can be via formal interfaces (e.g. APIs) and people operated activities with emails, spreadsheets, forms, etc. for manual work.
Testing for gaps in the alignment is very repetitive and hopefully only rarely will a discovery be made.
The testing activity is an ideal candidate for automation.
What is the purpose of Testing?
Purpose of testing – Make sure it works?
For testing to add value, the outcome from the test must be predictable. It enables the actual result to be compared with the expected outcome.
Sounds simple but there are different reasons for different types of test.
Functional Testing – used to confirm that the operation is working. Can be used to verify daily activities particularly for portals and websites so that any issues for customers or suppliers can be identified quickly.
Regression Testing– used to verify that change does not have any unexpected impact.
Performance Testing – used to verify that the capacity of the system is able to process the workload. Placing systems under stress can also be an important part of Cyber defences as “Denial of Service” can be a business issue very quickly.
Security Testing – used to confirm the control of the environment. Sometimes called “Penetration Testing”, as the aim is to keep unauthorised activity out of the environment.
Why is more testing not carried out?
Testing everything sounds a “No Brainer” and yet most businesses only perform a limited amount of testing. Frequent reasons for not testing are:
- The need for effective test data and test systems.
- The need for “Test” accounts in Production systems.
- The effort to keep tests current during software changes.
Automation can reduce the manual effort required to execute tests.
Automation can also help with the creation of test data by extracting values from real data and then anomalizing the values.
Business Contingency Plans
The biggest test a business faces is the Contingency plan.
Creating the Contingency plan usually requires significant effort. The challenge is often the regular testing of the plans.
The classic example is the creation of system backups. The activity is important but without the testing of the backups, they are worthless if they cannot be restored. Discovering that fact at the time they are needed can be a disaster.
Tests done for Audit
Historically auditors conducted audit tests once a year.
Although audits have focussed on finance, they often look at data integrity across a business. For example, reconciliation of people on payroll compared with user logons to ERP, etc.
Consistency is expected, but when differences do occur they can be highlighted and investigated.
Some auditors have embraced the potential for automation and run regular audit tests. This reduces the overall auditing effort and provides a greater level of confidence that everything is working as expected.
Does GenAI help testing?
The potential for the use of GenAI in some business operations can be significant.
If GenAI is going to be part key processes, there needs to be testing performed.
The problem is that the same Prompt input to a GenAI system does not always deliver the same outcome! The nature of GenAI systems is that they use context, random features and constrained resources to deliver the response.
To test when GenAI is involved, the emphasis needs to change. The exact outcome cannot be predicted by calculation or previous test execution. The approach becomes one of verifying the outcome is within acceptable limits. It could be though of as a tolerance level.
GenAI can be used to help create test data and test cases with its ability to identify computer screens and the values they display.
Directors – Business Tests
On-going and regular Testing of different aspects of a business can provide the data as well as the confidence on the state of the operations.
Automation can provide a mechanism for regular testing. It can be very difficult to recruit and retain staff to perform testing activities as the roles are often seen as “Boring”.
For more information on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as well as Agentic Automation and the journey to implement automation please see our website: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/.
Manager’s Guide to Automation: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/managers-guide-to-automation-using-software-robots/
#businessbeyondautomation
Article Author
David Martin
Managing Director, Ether Solutions
https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/
