QA companies strive to keep up with the latest technologies to ensure a product’s quality, including adopting AI tools. In recent years, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has spread throughout the internet and software testing industry, bringing new tools and frameworks to perform tests throughout the software development life cycle. Testers employ these tools and frameworks to aid them in numerous time-consuming and repetitive tasks.
We at BetterQA are no strangers to the benefits of AI in software testing. For today’s article, we asked our QA team to recommend us their favorite AI tools while also sharing how these tools have assisted them in QA-related tasks.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an AI-based chatbot program launched by Open AI. As its description says, users can use ChatGPT as a ‘chat bot’ to interact with the program by initiating human-like conversations, providing its users with solutions from multiple sources, such as textbooks or web articles.
“I use ChatGPT along with Cypress daily,” says one of our colleagues. “Each time I’m walking on an unknown ground with Cypress, I just type some details about what function I need to write, and ChatGPT will teach me how to write it and more! Whenever I write a function that feels like it can be improved, I ask ChatGPT either to refactor it or give me some alternatives based on Cypress Best practices.”
ChatGPT taught our colleague some important Cypress practices, such as:
– set up Cypress.env,
– lay down the base for using Cypress Fixtures,
– learn several options for cy.contains
– become more knowledgeable about cy.clock() and cy.tick()– create a download function that verifies the content of the downloaded file without downloading the file (via API cy.request)
To sum up, our colleague finds ChatGPT “the right tool at the right time because online, you have access to a lot of information, but it can be tough to find or choose what you actually need. With enough details, ChatGPT can filter out the information for you.”
TabNine
Tabnine is a generative AI technology that predicts and suggests lines of code based on context and syntax. It serves as a helper that provides developers with whole-line code completions, full-function code completions, and natural language by suggesting code for your functions.
Automation testing can also benefit from Tabnine. One of our testers says, “Tabnine helps me by providing code completions when writing automated tests. It is slightly better than just copying and pasting alone. For example, if you already have made some connections in the code, such as defining elements: name, address, and date, and you have to write lookalike functions for each of them, TabNine will predict 8/10 times the entire line of code or even the function.”
Our QA team also benefited from TestProject’s AI tools. “We have an AI tool for TestProject which helped us re-identify elements that are no longer found on a web page. Instead of having the tests fail, the AI bot fixed the test and helped us save time.”
– Self-Healing: this feature automatically finds several ways to locate a broken element, saving testers from needlessly debugging tests that are guaranteed to fail;
– Adaptative wait: just like the name suggests, it automatically optimizes the waiting time for different automation actions to ensure tests are running smoothly without failures caused by time-outs. It also handles the long wait between test steps;
– Automation Assistant: while AI cannot replace testers, it can act as an assistant by making suggestions for valuable and stable tests;
Our QA team also benefited from TestProject’s AI tools. “We have an AI tool for TestProject which helped us re-identify elements that are no longer found on a web page. Instead of having the tests fail, the AI bot fixed the test and helped us save time.”
QuillBot, Wordtune, and other AI tools
Testers can benefit from AI-driven technologies that aren’t strictly IT-related. Text editing tools can be beneficial for a last-minute grammar check-up, paraphrasing an awkward sentence, or looking for more information on a topic you’re unsure about. “When I want to write a formal email, these tools help me make sure it’s well written without spending too much time, which I can put to a better use,” a colleague says.
Despite its usefulness, we also agree that AI has its limitations and will not replace human resources in the software testing industry anytime soon. Instead, it will become an assistant to ease repetitive tasks, provide a means of proofreading and help QA engineers to deliver functional products. We look forward to seeing what AI has in store for us in 2023.
For more information regarding quality assurance, don’t hesitate to contact us and check out our services page.
