RPA and Security Testing Automation

RPA and Security Testing Automation

It’s no mystery that RPA is changing the way IT works. We believe that software testing automation is the next area that will be significantly affected by this. Why? Because RPA’s technology provided and continues to provide significant advantages over more elementary automation tools as being code-free and non-disruptive.

In our latest whitepaper, we discuss the use of RPA for software security automation. We cover topics such as the differences between Test Automation and RPA, a discussion about reversing the Testing Pyramid along with a Proof-of-Concept framework for security testing using UiPath tools.

The bottom line is RPA can power business testing and save companies a lot of time.

Feel free to download the white paper and please let us know your thoughts.

What We Learned from MES Fall 2019

What We Learned from MES Fall 2019

Needless to say, it was a quite a busy start of autumn here at Euro Testing Software Solutions. And it all started with the MESS conference in Phoenix, Arizona. However, now that we are back in the office, we went over our notes and decided to share what we found especially interesting at the conference.

  • Basic needs are important: Although it’s considerably larger than Europe as a market, the US medium enterprise market seemed smaller in terms of variety of project requests, mainly consisting of lots of clients that try to find solutions to somewhat basic software testing needs. However, while the complexity of demands is not that vast, the expected scale of implementation is.
  • Cybersecurity focus: We’ve noticed that most project requests for application development revolved around cybersecurity. It remains a hot topic in the US market. Following that, the most sought expertise was software testing automation and related services (DevSecOps, RPA). Lastly, there was a lot of discussion around cloud architecture and IoT.
  • Every cent counts: Most IT infrastructure/ Development budgets seemed to be allocated towards clearly defined, fixed-price projects and less on broader service offerings (off-shoring, managed services etc.). All-in-one services were a tough sell.
  • Trust trumps hype: Regardless of project size, having great references is key for the US market. This becomes especially relevant when new(er) products & services are introduced. We were pleasantly surprised that people remembered us from last year’s conference, and this worked as an argument for new engagements.
  • Software Testing as a Pizza: Lastly, the “reinterpretation” of our services was a hit. Repackaging functional testing, regression testing, performance & security testing as types of pizza (plus positioning RPA & Automation as toppings) helped participants get a better understanding of their relevance in specific stages of an application’s lifecycle.

Fun fact: We found it very interesting that there were a lot of discussions around Arizona’s 5 key industries: cotton, cattle, citrus, copper & climate. We hope our experience can prove helpful. If you would like to know more about our mix & match software testing services, contact us for more information.

5 Things Cyber Criminals Don’t Want You To Know About How They Can Enter Your Business – Part 1 (With Recommendations)

5 Things Cyber Criminals Don’t Want You To Know About How They Can Enter Your Business – Part 1 (With Recommendations)

Risk Based Testing is all about evaluating and pointing the likelihood of software failure. What’s the probability that the software will crash upon release? What would the expected impact look like?  Think about “know-unknowns” in your software – this is what risk based testing is trying to unearth.

While it would be wonderful if we could have unlimited resources for testing – from our experience this is wishful thinking. Choices have to be made, and most of the time we go after issues that could prove critical for the business. When we define risk, we look at two dimensions as defined by HPE ALM (https://saas.hpe.com/en-us/software/alm): Business Criticality and Failure Probability. The first measures how crucial a requirement is for the business and the second indicates how likely a test based on the requirement is to fail.

Assessing risks 

While there are many ways to approach risk assessment, we usually use HPE ALM because it’s a reliable tool and saves us a lot of time. It has an integrated questionnaire that allows us to determine the risk and functional complexity of a requirement and give possible values for each criterion plus a weight assigned to each value. This allows us to evaluate the testing effort and determine the best testing strategy.

In assessing risk, comparing the changes between two releases or versions is fundamental for quality assurance to identify the risk areas, reducing the total testing efforts, managing project risks, bringing lots of value with less effort and more efficient testing.

The testing team can explore the risks and provide their feedback on the test execution and whether or not to continue testing.

Advantages vs Disadvantages

For some projects, the big challenge is to accommodate the need to reduce development time, while maintaining the scope. Under these conditions, a smart risk testing approach is key in allowing the testing team to develop their software in a timely manner, making the testing effort more efficient and effective.

Dealing with the most critical areas of the system first will counteract the additional time and costs of solving those issues at a later stage in the project. And maximize on the fact that the time is spent according to the risk rating and original mitigation plans.

A faster time to market and reduction of cost per quality are more easily achievable with this risk-oriented approach.

Proper risk identification in the analysis process, prevents the negative impact that assessing a risk as too low or based on too subjective criteria, could have.

Identifying potential issues that could affect the project’s cost or outcome, create an efficient risk-based testing work and ensure better product quality.

Overall Benefits

Using a testing approach that takes risk into account, promotes some of the best practices in risk management, while conducting fewer tests with a more focused view on critical areas, higher testing efficiency, and increased cost-effectiveness.

We invite you to test these benefits out for yourself and try on this software testing approach for size. If the size fits don’t hesitate to share some of your best practices in risk assessment software with us at Euro-Testing.

Or if you are not sure what testing approach would suit you best, let us know here! And we will tailor the best solution for your needs.