Crowdtesting has become an essential part of the software quality process

The software industry is witnessing numerous developments, from manual coding to codeless software and application development. Most software testing tools are developed with a programming mindset, and the problem is most of the testers are not programmers. Codeless test automation can solve the challenges and can enhance the overall testing process.

We speak to Mark Granot, VP & GM, Applause Israel, to understand the codeless test automation benefits, crowdtesting solutions and impact of COVID-19 on the industry.

Why should one consider codeless test automation?

With the technological landscape changing faster than ever, the quality of digital experiences and the speed at which they can be delivered has become paramount. Brands must get exceptional digital assets into the hands of their end-users, quicker than competitors or they risk losing market share.

This requirement for quality at the speed of development has led test automation to take on greater importance across all industries. However, building and maintaining a complete automation framework takes time, and hiring SDETs – who are in high demand and low supply – can be cost prohibitive. That is where codeless test automation comes in. It enables anyone to create test automation effectively, thus saving cost, time and resources.

How are crowdtesting solutions lowering entry barriers and increasing testing velocity?

Applause Codeless Automation (ACA) lowers the barrier to entry to automation by providing a SaaS product that makes it easy to create test automation scripts. Anyone can do it, regardless of programming expertise or automation experience. That’s because codeless test automation enables anyone to create test automation without writing a single line of code. A user simply clicks through the pathways of an app within the product, which captures the steps and creates a test script. From there, users can run the tests on real devices and execute tests within the codeless test automation product.

ACA is the only codeless automation offering that is truly enterprise-grade. It also offers support for mobile (iOS and Android) applications, which is unique in the codeless test automation market. With Applause Codeless Automation, users can execute test automation on real devices, export to their bug tracking systems and maintain compliance with both Appium and Selenium. By enabling any employee at an organization to create test automation, lowers the barrier to entry to automation and helps businesses mature their entire test automation strategy at a much faster pace.

How crowdtesting is suitable for industry giants as well as SMEs and startups?

Today, the quality of digital experiences can help win or lose customers. And with the costs of switching practically, non-existent and end-users won’t hesitate to move to a competitor if a digital experience does not meet their expectations. This is true across all industries – from healthcare to financial services to media and entertainment – and for companies of all sizes.

This need to deliver exceptional digital experiences to end-users is why crowdtesting has become an essential part of the software quality process for brands across the globe. Crowdtesting leverages customized testing teams sourced from a globally dispersed community of digital experts, who are highly vetted and ready to stand up testing at a moment’s notice, in any language, on any device and operating system.

These testers serve as proxies for an organization’s customers – delivering detailed and authentic real-world feedback on the quality, user experience and functionality of their digital assets.

The distributed, remote and on-demand nature of crowdtesting gives brands unparalleled scalability and time-to-results when compared to traditional testing methods. It also delivers unmatched and nearly limitless coverage across testing scenarios. Since testers are available on-demand and around the globe, testing can be scaled up or down to meet the needs of both internal teams and end-users.

How are you ensuring quality while crowdsourcing the testers?

At Applause, we take the professionalism of our uTest Community very seriously. Testers build skills through our Academy Program, which features increasingly demanding coursework, as well as through Centers of Excellence that provide rigorous training in highly specialized areas such as accessibility, automation and payments testing.

We also use AI/ML capabilities within our community selection process to ensure that our customers are always matched with the right testers. Our AI/ML capabilities curate the best testing team for the project based on client requirements – i.e., location, language, device/OS, etc. – and our testers’ profiles.

How COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the software testing industry?

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the software testing industry in many ways. Because of lockdown measures, many consumers turned to digital means in order to complete regular activities like depositing a check to their bank account via mobile app, visiting their doctor through a telehealth platform, and ordering groceries online and picking them up in a contactless way. All these digital experiences that became mainstream throughout the pandemic had to be tested before they could be launched successfully to market.

Not only did these daily digital experiences proliferate and become more widely used, but they also needed to be tested in different ways. The pandemic forced in-house QA teams to work remotely and placed enormous strains on outsourced QA teams based in offshore locations. As a result, more and more brands turned to the crowdtesting model.

The coronavirus pandemic exposed the difficulties of offshore testing, as many vendors dealt with the complexity of moving to a fully remote workforce. Lacking both the required infrastructure (laptops, in-home Wi-Fi capabilities), as well as the cultural familiarity of working remotely, these vendors were not able to deliver the business continuity that their customers needed. However, because Applause is the global leader in distributed, remote and at-home digital testing, we were able to support our partners and their clients throughout the pandemic to help them deliver business continuity, release velocity and exceptional digital experiences.

We experienced no slowdown in meeting our customers’ needs for digital quality testing. In fact, it was the opposite – we’ve seen a substantial spike in testing activity, as clients increasingly turn to us to help them release on schedule in a distributed work environment.

Mark Granot, VP & GM, Applause Israel

How does crowdtesting help deliver seamless and safe digital payments transaction experiences and what are the complexities behind it?

Payment methods are only getting more complex. Just think of how we’ve seen more contactless payment options pop up – especially at retail shops – over the past year because of COVID-19 protocols. And as companies look to expand into foreign markets and scale their businesses, testing will become even more crucial because of the cultural or infrastructural differences and the complexities of cross-border regulations they may encounter.

The best way to test these payment transactions is with real users on real devices in the locations that customers will actually be using them.

Dummy credit cards and sandboxes simply aren’t able to accurately replicate the payment experience like crowdtesting can. Only by testing with real, live payment instruments can brands be confident in the fact that each customer, regardless of payment method, can transact successfully. With a global community of testers with thousands of personally owned payment instruments, Applause is able to match the scale, geographic and demographic requirements that today’s payment testing demands.

What are some of the disadvantages; can you highlight some of the improvements which you are looking for?

When it comes to codeless test automation, it is really meant for less complex test scenarios. This is true for all existing codeless test automation products. For those less complex scenarios – think smoke testing and portions of a regression testing suite – codeless test automation is a great fit. And, because it is a great fit for these types of testing, teams can focus on the more complex scenarios with traditional automation, which is better suited for more expertise in automation and programming.

How codeless test automation works and its architecture or process?

With Applause Codeless Automation, users simply click through the pathways of the app within the platform to follow pre-defined test steps. ACA records the steps and creates a test script. Users can go back to add logic via assertions that confirm the application functions as intended.

From there, ACA merges the test steps and assertions into a test script, which users can execute on real devices within the platform. ACA users can run tests on real browsers and mobile devices, not emulators, to get a true picture of how the app will function in the real world — no device lab required.

ACA reflects Applause’s commitment to openness, with test scripts compliant with Appium or Selenium and test results exportable to Jira. Finally, ACA fits into customers’ existing QA frameworks to help reduce bottlenecks and expand test coverage quickly — all without requiring an engineer to create and maintain scripted automated tests.