Agentic Al Taking Over Automation Testing? AI Code Quality and more TGNS148

Is agentic AI taking over automation testing? What is Perfomecology? And did you hear of the AI security company that has just raised $13 million? Find out on this episode of the Test Skill News show for the week of February 23rd. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this. Hey, before we get into the news, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Zap Test AI, an AI driven platform that can help you supercharge your automation efforts. It's really cool because their Intelligent Copilot generates optimized code snippets while their plan studio can help you effortlessly stream your test case management. And what's even better is you can experience the power of AI in action with their risk free 6 month proof of concept featuring a dedicated Zap expert at no upfront costs. Unlock unparalleled efficiency and ROI in a testing process. Don't wait. Schedule your demo now and see how it can help you improve your test automation efforts using the Link down below. Want to know an awesome resource to learn how to master robot framework? Let's check it out. So I'm really excited to be hosting robocon Online again happening next week. So if you're into the robot framework, you need to register for this event now. Why? Well, I just released a new podcast episode with Guido, Manana and Kelby who are all seasoned experts in automation testing and robot framework enthusiasts, and we take a deep dive into the world of Robot Framework and robocon. So in this episode our guests share their unique journeys with the robot Framework and the intriguing reasons behind their choice of using this powerful framework automation tool, one which I think a lot of people don't know enough about. We also go over some of the must attend sessions as well as Explore the upcoming RoboCon online event with insights into the Style Guide workgroup, diverse session highlights and we also give you a sneak peek into the engaging community dynamics facilitated by the virtual Gather Town platform that robocon has put together. Sound cool, right? So grab your ticket using the Link down below to immerse yourself in this vibrant community of like minded automation enthusiasts as we explore, connect and share robot framework awesomeness. Don't miss out. Register now and join us from the comfort of your home using the Link down below. Do you want to know how you can enhance web accessibility testing with Playwright? If so, check this out. So this blog post by Mudhar on Medium covers integrating PLAYWRIGHT behavior driven development and acts as a way to enhance your web development accessibility testing. As you know, Playwright is a robust open source tool for browser automation. When combined with BDD's clarity and functionality and peered with Axe's accessibility testing capabilities, he goes into a deep dive on why this powerful trio enables testers to automate accessibility checks in web applications. He also goes over why combining these tools allows testers to better simulate user interactions across browsers, incorporating accessibility checks at every stage of development to ensure that web services comply with with accessibility standards. And the Playwright BDD framework provides a really user friendly syntax that makes it simple to write and manage test cases, while Axe delivers comprehensive accessibility insights. And this approach not only improves the speed of your test procedures, but also ensures more reliable results, contributing to the development of more exclusive web applications. And I know, I know, I know many tests are really wary of using bdd, but when used correctly you do get some really cool benefits that based on your situation might warrant the extra layer overhead Is it time to rethink Page Objects in Playwright or Cypress? I don't know. Let's find out. So in this blog post, Mara actually breaks down key discussion differences between two popular test automation patterns, Page Objects and Functional Helpers, and he provides a detailed analysis of each approach emphasizing their respective advantages and limitations when it comes to test automation. So as you know, Page Objects is a widely adopted pattern that encapsulates the data and behavior of pages within an application defined as a class, and this structure promotes code reuse and maintainability. However, it can lead to bulkiness and over complexity, particular as applications scale. On the other hand, functional helpers focus on reusable small functions or methods that streamline specific tasks within tests and this approach fosters simplicity and can be more flexible and efficient for certain testing scenarios, but potentially sacrificing some structural clarity and standardization that Page Objects provide. So I think software testers should evaluate the applications specific requirements and scalability needs before choosing between whether you use a page object or a functional helper method based on your unique development situation. Definitely another must read that you should check out. Let me know your thoughts down below. So is automated testing going to be replaced by a genting AI? Well, let's find out. So in this blog post, a senior QA Test manager Apollo is questioning the future of traditional test automation due to all the recent advancements in AI. In this latest LinkedIn post, Hollow suggests the specialization of AI testing agents may soon replace conventional testing frameworks. He also points out the several recent developments accelerating the shift. Like LLMs now run locally and offline, AI models are evolving weekly and small language models are gaining prominence for business applications and AI systems are becoming increasingly specialized with the Gentex capabilities. Palo proposes a new testing paradigm deploying multiple specialized AI testing agents directly onto systems onto test, each focusing on specific areas like accessibility and to end business testing integration and performance. And according to him, this approach could really fundamentally disrupt QA practices. Rather than maintaining large testing teams, he suggests human testers would pivot to validating AI agents findings requiring sharper critical thinking and deeper technical expertise. He also highlights that while costs might be considerable to current testing methods, AI powered testing would deliver results significantly faster, which is a crucial advantage for many businesses nowadays. So with all this talk about AI and AI code generation, should it be trusted? So I found this on Lorentz LinkedIn post, which is a new report that highlights a dramatic increase in AI adoption among developers. And while AI is credited with boosting productivity and coding speed, its impact on software quality raises concerns in this report. Some things in this research that popped out to me is the rising code duplication and declining maintainability due to all this AI generated code. It also goes over Defect rates climb alongside AI adoption and the correlation between AI generated code and software defects is becoming apparent. Data suggests that AI tools often prioritize speed over structured development, increasing defects rates and the report recommends shifting focus to maintainability, emphasizing long term software quality over raw output. However, AI generated code trends suggest that many teams still prioritize speed even as defects remediation increasingly consumes development resources. So as testers, we should always be on the lookout and educating our team on how AI generated code often introduces hidden quality risk. So as the study points out, there's a lot of key areas testers should focus on. What do we do? Well, here's another post that goes over how how we could scale human evaluation of AI infused applications. Try to get over some of these issues that this study pointed out. In this article by AI expert Tariq King reveals an approach for systematically testing AI infused applications through scaled human evaluation. So he details how Test IO has spent 14 months implementing human evaluation processes for various enterprise clients AI systems. So he goes over a framework that emphasizes four practical techniques user centric testing with real user feedback, fact check in panels of subject matter, experts bias assessments by diverse reviewers, and human scoring based on specific quality criteria. So once again, if you're a tester, you may want to develop your own CLAIR evaluation rubrics with specific quality criteria. VR AI applications and I think he has a figure in his article Figure one that goes over this hey, what is performacology? Well, let's find out in this Performance Testing News segment so one of my Go to performance testing experts, Mark Tomlinson, just announced a new program to help you study performance called Performacology. So in this video and in his website he outlined some key aspects of this resource. First one is continuous learning. This is going to help empower performance testers and engineers through diverse learning opportunities. It offers free resources such as tutorials, webinars and podcasts from experts. It's also going to have a research library with cur generates knowledge from leading performance professionals in the industry, open source certifications. So definitely a cool initiative. I think everyone should be involved in performance testing and here's a great resource that you definitely should check out as well. All right, it's been a while since we had a Follow the Money segment, so Gombe AI, a company innovating in cloud security, has secured 13 million in funding aimed at advancing its deterministic AI technology and I'm always looking for new tools and this is the first I'm hearing in this particular company. This technology promises to streamline and secure cloud environments by providing precise and deterministic solutions to cloud vulnerabilities, which is a significant challenge for many organizations. And this company asserts that this approach can substantially reduce the time and efforts required by security teams to manage and remediate cloud security issues by offering automated, accurate and actionable solutions. And this could represent a significant improvement over traditional methods which often rely on reactive and manual processes. Alright, for links of everything value we covered in this news episode, head on over to the links in the comment down below. So that's it for this episode of the Test Guild News Show. I'm Joe Amish help you succeed in creating end to end full stack pipeline automation awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers.