Qyrus Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Autonomous Testing Platforms, Q4 2025 – Read More

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Budgeting, a very interesting concept that some are privy to, comes down to the recording and maintenance of all monetary transactions. But all budgeters know and fear the moment that their payments don’t match their data logs. They are forced into hours on the phone with the bank, often to realize it was a relevant purchase that was improperly logged, leaving no one to blame but yourself. APIs and databases work almost identically, except instead of transaction history, the transferring and logging is of any essential application data. This week’s feature Friday is brought to you by Daniel and Joyal where we will dive into Qyrus’ API to database testing and validation feature.

Tell us more about the API to DB feature offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing and QA processes.

Daniel:
API to DB is used to validate an API’s behavior whose job is to save or manipulate data to a database.  The user maps values in their APIs request body to a column in their database and creates assertions to ensure that the data being sent by the API is properly saved or altered in their database.

Joyal:
Similar to a logbook of transactions, your database is your central point for data logging and management. Therefore, it becomes essential to test API to DB processes, ensuring that the request body passed into an API is properly saved in the database and the right transformations, if required, have been done on the data before it was saved.

Daniel:
In essence, this feature attempts to answer the question, “How can I be sure that my API properly saved the data into my database?”

A very interesting feature, API to DB, is sure to make an impact on the testing process. With a feature like this, testing databases becomes much easier and seamless. We asked Daniel and Joyal:

What is the API to DB feature’s overall impact on the testing process?

Daniel:
API test can be a little more technical than things like Web and Mobile application testing.  It is much easier for tests to fail simply because tests were not set up properly.  As such, we have focused on simplifying the configurations required in this form of testing, as well as providing clear feedback and visualizations to assist the user in the building of these tests.  One example would be our JSON tree mapping tool, which provides a visual representation of the API’s request body and is intractable.  The user only needs to click on the node they are looking for in order to extract the JSON path they want to map to a database.

Joyal:
Furthermore, we see it solving multiple problems, as you are ensuring any logic that is executed after the API is called is working properly, as well as the API itself. So, you are testing two different entities using the same test.  

Daniel:
Yes, Joyal, and that’s exactly the value, keep it simple but comprehensive.

As we’ve heard from Daniel, we want to keep it simple. Complex testing processes can lead to more errors. Having to switch from one application to another just to perform a simple task is ridiculous. The team at Qyrus sought to tie it all together.

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Joyal:
So, we have seen prerequisite API test options, but there are just a few differentiating factors. Tests on Qyrus include in-depth reporting and the ability to dynamically use responses across API tests upon execution of the prerequisite API.  

Daniel:
And it’s no secret that there are multiple ways to solve this problem without Qyrus. The automated way would require knowledge of a couple of different libraries and combining them to create a multi-step process.  The manual way would be akin to something like calling in an API in Postman, opening up something like MySQL workbench to make a database query, and then visually confirming that what you entered into the API’s request body was saved into the database correctly. Believe it or not, but this manual workflow is what we often hear developers are doing today.

Database testing has historically been a complex task that only those with high knowledge of the database would be able to properly test it. With the introduction of API to DB testing in Qyrus, we have seen that the process has been simplified to the point where even non-technical people have a use for it!

How might the API to DB feature help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can they bring?

Daniel:
Great question… we often find that a tester would first use functional testing in the API service to ensure that the API is “behaving” the way they want it to by providing adequate assertions in their functional test.  Once they know the API is behaving as expected, they then create database assertions to ensure that the API is properly storing the data in their database.  Testers would use this to ensure proper communication between their APIs and their databases. 

Joyal:
Developers could use this to make sure the API itself is functioning and the logic that is executed after the API is called is working properly. Furthermore, verifying the final output in the database ensures database functionality. Developers can run these test executions during sprints and through CI pipelines to ensure existing data processing functionality upon new builds.

Daniel:
With robust reporting and easy-to-make assertions, this feature stands as a great transition for business technologists and analysts to further understand the inner workings of their applications. Following the data transfer and storage process is made simple with robust reporting while staying in the loop is even easier with collaborative reporting options. With a codeless approach, non-technical specialists can go as far as building out test scripts to ensure application and database synchronization and functionality.

All of this being said, we know that this feature will have an impact on testing overall. The ramifications of this process being simplified mean that certain routines or testing processes will no longer be as lengthy or time-consuming. We asked:

How do you see Qyrus’ API to DB feature impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?

Joyal:
The first thing we see is that the feature mitigates redundancies in testing operations. With a prerequisite API, the tester will no longer need to manually enter pre-request credentials for every pre-request-dependent API call. Within the prerequisite API, the tester enters the pre-request credentials once, and the API will always run before a request execution takes place.  

Daniel:
Correct, and after a prerequisite API is created and executed, a user is able to dynamically reuse the response body across the entire project.

Joyal:
We also note that this feature offers you more depth in testing. You are not just testing whether you got the expected status code or response body from an API call anymore. You are making sure any transformation that is done on the request body is properly reflected on the data that is saved in the database.

Daniel:
With further developments coming, including more database options and allowing users to add logic or code snippets into prerequisite requests for specific header input requirements, we truly see this feature making an impact on testing at a day-to-day, script-to-script level.

That’s all, folks! Thanks for joining us this week for Feature Friday. The team here at Qyrus hopes you enjoy the weekend and the weather, and stop to smell the roses every once and a while! As Spring rounds the corner, dreams of summer are just right behind it.‍

 

June is finally here! And with it, summer arrives! I’m sure everyone is excited for the warm days and fun-filled evenings to come. So, let’s leave Spring in the past, just like we here at Qyrus are leaving manual testing and traditional automated testing methods in the past! Put on your shades, break out the sunscreen, and get ready for the blinding brilliance that is API monitoring. This week we are joined again by Daniel and Joyal, two members from our Chicago Qyrus team, to give more insight on the various benefits it provides users. Without further to do, let’s jump right into it!

Tell us more about API monitoring offered by Qyrus and its use cases.

Daniel:
Well, simply put, it is a service that checks the status of an API call by continuously calling that API and examining the results.

Joyal:
Yup, it monitors the health of the API, making sure that the right people are notified whenever something goes wrong. This helps prevent long periods of service disruption where users might be dealing with interruptions for hours.

Daniel:
Certain APIs are critical to an application’s ability to serve its users. API monitoring can potentially catch errors before users do. In a way you can say it’s testing the reliability of your API.

It’s very true that certain APIs can be quite literally “mission critical” when it comes to a functioning application. I mean, imagine if the search API for Google went down. The world might literally come close to burning down.

What is API monitoring’s overall impact on the testing process?

Joyal:
Well, I’d say we see the most impact in terms of reporting. The whole premise is to provide users with constant feedback in the form of a report. Users can see a lot of different metrics here.

Daniel:
And you can take things a step further, by allowing this reporting to notify you via email about the status of your API and its overall health such as when the average response time crosses a certain threshold and if the API goes down in general.

Monitoring the health of your API sounds complicated. However, Qyrus seeks to make testing simpler for all types of users – whether they be seasoned testing veterans or totally clueless about coding. In the past, testing was complicated. Today, it’s our job to make it more accessible for all.

How might API monitoring help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?

Joyal:
It can bring a wide range of benefits for different types of people. Regular testers wouldn’t use this service to “test” APIs, but rather to keep tabs on the overall health of their critical APIs.

Daniel:
Yeah, and developers might use this service for the exact same reason. But also, they can use it to monitor any quirks or weird issues like random response time spikes that their API might be witnessing without their knowledge. And business technologists could use this service to share performance data with a client of theirs, or even internally. More importantly, I think, is that it’s so easy to set up that less technical people like business techs can set up and operate an API monitoring session.

Joyal:
That’s right, Daniel. That’s really the essence of Qyrus, isn’t it? We try to make everything as intuitive as it can be – and code free!

Making testing simple takes a lot of work. It’s not easy for us to extrapolate the complexity of automated testing in a codeless and intuitive fashion. That being said – how complicated would this be to, say, try and do this on your own?

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus?

Daniel:
In order to get anywhere near what the feature offers, it’d take a good amount of coding and prior knowledge on different 3rd party technologies to make everything work.

Joyal:
Of course, it can be done. But, like Dan said, it would take a lot of effort. On top of that, we offer a good deal of reusability on Qyrus itself. The functional API tests you build on Qyrus can be imported into API monitoring and set up very quickly.

Daniel:
And it’s also important to note that in functional API testing, you can import APIs from Swagger format or OpenAPI specifications. These additional features really help tie everything together.

The reusability and ease of use combined makes for a disruptive duo. That being said, it’s sure to make some people’s lives a lot easier. In a day-to-day scenario, what might take place?

How do you see this impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?

Joyal:
Overall, it’ll make monitoring the health of APIs easier. You’ll probably see less performance testing overall and you won’t have to manually trigger APIs to check on health. The goal is to have the developer alerted about the issue before it becomes an issue for clients.

Daniel:
Yup, and you only have to set up the API monitor once. It measures the reliability of the API, more accurately. And overall, it’ll make testing over prolonged periods of time much simpler.

API monitoring can bring a lot of benefits as we’ve seen. It represents a holistic and complete API testing experience – taking functional testing to another level – reliability testing. We won’t keep you any longer! Got your sunscreen applied? Sunglasses in hand? Get out there and enjoy the weather! Thanks for joining us for this week’s Feature Friday!

As the seasons turn, there is one thing Chicago natives love is events. A lively city constantly buzzing with farmer’s markets, plant shows, block parties, and music festivals, Chicago natives enjoy the lively summers, discovering the city as they go. But just like any parade, there is always a chance of rain. Any number of things could go wrong, including the weather, picking a noisy and isolated location, among a range of other things mitigating the desired flood of happy faces.

The same problem can be found throughout application development. With respect to application success, a range of indicators can inhibit usage and ultimately client retention. This week’s feature Friday is brought to you by Tim and Vishal, who discuss service virtualization, a feature that mitigates developmental bottlenecks and allows the testing of application functionality when certain resources are missing.

Tell us more about service virtualization offered by Qyrus, their use cases, and their impact on testing and QA processes.

Tim:
Service Virtualization is a feature that allows users to virtualize assets that may be required for testing, whether that be in an API test or an API requirement within an end-to-end business process. You can tailor the virtualized asset to be a variety of different API methods and set up multiple request/response pairs to a single API call.

Vishal:
Specifically, service virtualization handles the issue of waiting for unattainable or incomplete API assets before continuing with certain testing. It can cause a hassle, slowing down the testing process and ultimately impacting the entire QA and deployment cycle. If speed to market and quality are essential, any time waiting is time wasted.

This is a feature that truly promotes a shift left, we decided to further investigate just how impactful it can be and if used across the testing industry today.

What is service virtualization’s overall impact on the testing process?

Vishal:
Functional testing components may be unavailable for a range of reasons including security, performance, maintenance, and development. A virtualized asset of the required component to be tested can be more than enough to get the testing started. For example, you might need to test a geo-location functionality in your component that in turn uses a 3rd party payment APIs. Instead of using the payment APIs, you could use a mock that would return known results to your component. This helps you validate that the results from your component are returned correctly. An added benefit is that you keep your usage of external APIs to a minimum.

Tim:
Service virtualization can also be used to make sure that your component or system under test behaves correctly in regards to performance, SLAs, security, etc. For example, you might want to make sure that if you get an error from your back-end system that it will be logged correctly, or that your component gracefully handles situations like when a 3rd party API stops responding during a load test, etc.

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Vishal:
Some competitors offer similar asset virtualization solutions. Some might just refer them to mock APIs or mock servers, which contain similar capabilities of building out and simulating API responses.

Tim:
But what makes Qyrus unique is that Qyrus provides 2 approaches for virtualization. The manual approach allows users to create Mock API with Java, Python, or similar technology, yielding desired, static responses every time. Qyrus also offers a dynamic approach, where users can generate real-time data, using dynamic APIs, while implementing them across test scripts.

A unique feature with a range of possibilities, we wanted to figure out just how targeted this feature can get across an organization’s personas. After all, a feature is only as relevant as its usage and functionality!

How might service virtualization help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can they bring?

Vishal:
Developers are always working on writing code that requires APIs and integration with other system components via APIs. It might not always be desirable or even possible to actually access those systems during development. This is where mocking comes in. Instead of developing code with actual external dependencies in place, a mock of those dependencies is created and used instead. Depending on your development requirements, this mock is made “intelligent” enough to allow you to make the calls you need and get similar results back as you would from the actual component, thus enabling a seamless development and delivery process.

Tim:
Business analysts often like to use and validate applications before they become available to consumers. before they can try them out and commit to using them. In this case, a complete simulation of the API can be provided online or as a distributive for local deployment. The consumer can try out the API from their system, and make basic requirement assessments without imposing any cost on the actual API. With proper Swagger documentation, a business analyst can even mock an entire service with a few clicks!

Vishal:
We often find testers taking API and application functionality testing to a new level. With the ability to mock certain responses and functionalities, testers can simulate a range of different edge cases and unique test cases. In doing so, we often find testers tying up loose ends with application functionality and finding inconsistencies that may have been otherwise overlooked.

To end, we bugged our experts’ brains to figure out exactly how the implantation and usage of this feature promote regular, daily, value. A consistent feature that can provide daily value is integral to business processes.

How do you see service virtualization impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?

Tim:
Service virtualization is a comprehensive feature that can be implemented for a range of benefits. Primarily, using service virtualization, otherwise unattainable assets no longer create bottlenecks in development and testing. Testing is no longer limited to the speed of development, allowing for better quality applications and competitive release times.  

Vishal:
Furthermore, expanding testing capabilities and use cases allows for broader testing coverage and testing sooner within the development process. This enables a steadfast testing and QA process led by automation, directly promoting quality and efficiency across organizations every day.

In conclusion, we can see how powerful service virtualization on Qyrus can be. It’s a very useful feature and can help multiple different kinds of users. That’s it for this Feature Friday. Join us next week as we discuss parameterization on Qyrus and data-driven testing!

It’s Friday, everyone’s trying to get home, and the traffic is jammed.  4-lane highways quickly are filled with weary-eyed workers eager to get home for the weekend. But, as everyone is rushing out at the same time and with no semblance of organization, everything comes to a halt. Bumper-to-bumper traffic ensues, and everyone’s getting home late. Similarly, bottlenecks can be found within test building, execution, and report generation.

Without organization and the right tools, testing can experience significant inefficiencies. This week’s Feature Friday is on the Qyrus mobile test recorder and live test execution, brought to you by Qyrus team members Adhiraj and Milton.

Tell us more about the Qyrus mobile recorder and live testing features offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing and QA processes.

Milton:
The mobility recorder allows you to build mobile test scripts quickly in an intuitive manner. Simply connect to an Android or iOS device, toggle recorder mode, and start interacting with the device. All interactions in recorder mode will be automatically built out into test steps, creating robust automation scripts within minutes.

Adhi:
And as you have the phone or tablet connected already, it is possible to test your steps and script at any point. Simply select a handful of steps, or the entire script, and run a live test. Watch the phone run through the test scripting in front of your very eyes, providing pass-fail indicators per step.

What a great feature! This completely changes how the testing process will look. That being said, why do we not see these test recorders everywhere?

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Adhi:
Our mobility recorder is more of a translator than a recorder.  Its goal is to efficiently capture what you “want to do with your test” as opposed to “what you are doing to the device.”  Instead of focusing purely on device behavior, our mobility recorder provides a quick and easy way to make verifications, create variables, and inspect elements. Performing more complex actions is simple, as well. We wanted to provide the end-user with a seamless building experience.

Milton:
Our competitors tend to have recorders that try to make sense of what you are doing with the phone. These methods can be effective in capturing direct interactions and navigational steps but ignore other important things like verifiers.  Qyrus’ mobile recorder gives the user the ability to handle complex scenarios without having to switch to a different mode or add excessive steps.

Adhi:
Additionally, the way we have built the recorder means that you can edit tests easily – most other recorders require users to rebuild the test from scratch every time. This makes maintenance much simpler!

There’s no doubt that this mobile recorder is starting to make ripples that will soon grow into waves. The time of monotonous and time-consuming test building is nigh, with fast and easy test recorders coming to fill in the dots.

What is the overall impact on the testing process when using the Qyrus mobile recorder?

Milton:
Using the mobile recorder lends to an increase in overall testing efficiency. This is caused by the increase in speed in test building and the decrease of execution time for scripts.

Adhi:
We see all user actions on the phone are translated into test steps, such that the user doesn’t have to manually fill out the steps anymore. Also, the locator value that is chosen by the recorder follows best practices to help prevent against test brittleness. This is test building done right, as it promotes high-quality test building that can be done simply and efficiently.

Milton:
Furthermore, by allowing end-users to watch their tests in live execution, they are able to unit test and verify the functionality of tests prior to real execution and report generation. This prevents users from having to constantly execute tests and re-execute after you find one, little error that stops your script dead in its tracks.

How might the Qyrus mobile recorder and live test options help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?

Adhi:
Actually, with the simplicity of recording and the ability to interact with a live device, business technologists use the recorder to ensure application functionality by interacting with the phone once, creating fully automated test scripts, and live tests or executing them for visual reports. Qyrus not only provides a gateway for business technologists into automation but also enables the simple and steadfast testing of user journeys.

Milton:
Developers can use the recorder to quickly ensure application functionality through simple interaction. Taking a quick shift left, developers can now test incomplete and beta versions of applications, ensuring the app is working as expected without requiring the assistance of a tester or automation engineer. And, with the ability to live test the application, the developer is able to see the application in action with per-step pass-fail indicators.

Adhi:
We also find this feature to be a tester’s best friend. Testers often use this feature to quickly create robust and automated mobile tests.  After getting comfortable with the mobile recorder, testers utilize its deepest functionalities using the (right-click) element access menu to access advanced testing features, including dynamic variable creation and verifications. Furthermore, testers use the live test feature to catch up in test scripts. If step fifty-seven is broken, testers are left with no option but to manually navigate the device to that point in the broken test script. But, with the live test feature, testers select the steps to execute and watch the device go through each step as the device reaches that point in the script.  

Milton:
On top of that, after a tester creates a test script using the recorder, he can then use additional Qyrus features, such as parameterization, to cover more test cases and scenarios.

This thing packs a lot of punch in a small feature! With it providing benefits to all types of users, from technical to non-technical, testing practices are sure to see a shift!

How do you see the Qyrus mobile recorder and live test feature impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?

Milton:
We find that this feature redefines test building, mitigating step creation requirements altogether. The feature translates interactions into test steps while maintaining best practices in selecting locator types and values.  

Adhi:
Removing a lot of repetition, the mobile recorder sheds step-building time. Scripts that would otherwise take a half hour to build are now cut down into 5-minute, interactive tasks.

Milton:
It’s quite simple, if test building is as easy as playing with an application and yielding repeatable test scripts with robust reports, QA teams can focus their time and energy on more important tasks like user experience and application integrity, producing quality applications with best-in-class user experience and an emphasis on speed to market.

So, with the week coming to a close, hop in your cars or on the buses/trains and have a safe trip back home. Like test building with Qyrus, we hope the ride home is speedy just as much as we hope you enjoyed this installment of Feature Friday!

Test Automation – Overview

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), and Automation are game-changing technologies that will transform the testing world over the next decade. These technological trends have become even more important with the COVID-19 pandemic changing the tech-driven landscape in a manner never imagined. 

With the global pandemic changing workforce dynamics, the reliance on cutting-edge software, web, and mobile applications has grown substantially. To support this ever-growing demand, businesses turned to technology increasing the need to release fully functional, feature-rich, and flawless products and software to their end-users. As a result, in came test automation bringing the promise of extensive test coverage, scientific test accuracy, streamlined testing operations, lower cost, and increased resource efficiency.

Due to various factors, employees began queuing up at the exit door in record-breaking numbers, now coined the “Great Resignation,” causing major disruptions across all industries. This further increased the reliance on remote interactions and fully functional applications. And, with resources now spread thin, businesses and software development firms no longer have to pioneer these shifts alone due to the complimentary development of test automation technology and solutions.

The test automation market in 2021 was valued at 15 billion USD and is projected to grow 16% per year to 40 billion USD by 2027. The adoption of advanced testing methods such as DevOps and Agile methodologies continue to contribute to this growth.

Challenges for Management

The Great Resignation presents particular challenges for people who manage developers and QA teams. These market conditions have driven an acceleration in the use of AI and machine learning to combat the ongoing shortage of testing resources. 

The momentum for test automation is being driven by necessity, as many enterprises find it challenging to operate under the current conditions. Therefore, it now makes sense for companies to make the required capital investments and build the infrastructure to support more automated testing solutions. This is required to ensure that their products and services remain bug-free and cater to rapidly-evolving customer demands.

Test Automation and the Great Resignation

As “quality at speed” has become a crucial business requirement, testing and quality assurance have also become a necessary area of focus. However, given the scenario that companies are in at present, the biggest challenge is managing resources effectively.  With evolving business scenarios and the need to push product lines in quick succession, the software development life cycle (SDLC) time frame has also shrunk. This newfound speed in development poses a major challenge when considering the of lack of resources.

The need of the hour is to have a strategic approach towards testing where less is more. For an organization to be truly agile, they need to focus on flexibility, fast response times, and rich reporting. Testing automation is a boon in this regard as it enables organizations to build and execute tests  at scale with minimum latency. This frees up resources allowing them to use their expertise on more important things like research and development, new product ideation, and much more. Certain daily requirements that used to take a large amount of effort are now simple and easy to complete much faster.

For projects that require rapid release cycles, it is a time-intensive process to create test environments, allocate resources, and figure out the testing scripts and other mechanics to keep pace with development. To add to the problem, existing tools for testing require testers to embark on a steep learning curve. Conversely, the very purpose of automation is to lessen the burden on testers and shorten the testing phase of the development cycle. Also, less code means less complexity which ultimately translates into lower storage and maintenance costs. Practitioners have for long championed the idea of high quality and accurate testing with little to no code involved, thus paving the way for “codeless automation.”

Codeless Testing — The Testing Trend That Changes Everything

The Great Resignation has made organizations and especially the testing industry realize the true potential of codeless testing. The idea of codeless automated testing is to abstract the test creation and execution process through an intuitive UI coupled with a form-fill methodology thereby eliminating the need for time-intensive coding requirements for testers and developers.

The codeless approach enables broader participation in the testing process from developers and business analysts. Some of the tactical benefits of codeless testing include:

The broader goals are faster delivery of quality software that enhances customer experience, increases revenue, and reduces cost, all achieved with minimum human intervention.

At the same time, the codeless platform must provide the flexibility of embedding code where the tester has a more efficient solution, an edge case, or chooses express specific creativity. The usefulness of codeless environments erodes if they cannot handle complexity, cross-platform processes, omnichannel requirements, easy integrations to CI/CD processes, or scaling test infrastructure.

Using the right product and process, testers, developers, and business analysts can push efficiencies beyond the traditional scripting and maintenance activities. DevOps is still a challenge for many organizations, and often the inefficiencies in the pipeline lead back to test coding, flakiness, and/or script maintenance challenges. Reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and abstracting the current coding practice frees up time that is better spent automating end-to-end processes.

The codeless model extends well beyond record and replay and taxonomy-driven automation. Self-healing tests to address flakiness are part of the codeless model. Natural language voice and text interfaces are the latest innovation that are transforming test scripting into a conversation. Using these approaches, the timeline to design, script, and execute has been reduced. And the effort required to maintain functional tests and add layers of performance and exploratory testing also has significantly declined. What used to take days and hours can now be completed in minutes and seconds. Furthermore, because the testing participants and reusability have increased, code coverage and test coverage have also expanded. 

As per Forbes, investments in automation have grown by 26%. Let’s learn how Qyrus, a simple, smart, scalable robust, and resilient test automation platform can help you do more with less in these trying times of the Great Resignation.

Augment The Capability of Your Testing Teams with Qyrus

Enable your teams to respond to these unprecedented challenges with Qyrus, the most powerful low-code/no-code test automation platform. 

Build and deliver higher-quality applications faster and more efficiently while saving time and money and increasing speed to market. Optimize application functionality and user experience by utilizing codeless and efficient test building, automation and infrastructure, and AI/ML capabilities. Qyrus can be your go-to test automation partner, and here is why:

How Can Qyrus Help You Address Your Testing Bottlenecks?

We have established that Qyrus should be your go-to test automation framework that can help you stay intact and navigate the Great Resignation with ease.  

To summarize our Great Resignation series of blogs, Qyrus helps enterprises with a cloud-enabled, low-code/no-code test automation platform that is backed by exceptional AI/ML capabilities. Less time to market, great customer experience, cost, and resource efficiency, driving research, innovation, and bridging skilled resource gaps are some of the precise benefits that differentiate Qyrus from its counterparts.  

We hope you have enjoyed our Great Resignation series. We look forward to hearing/reading your thoughts and perspectives. Utilize the power of Qyrus automation testing and face the Great Resignation head on!

The Need for Research, Innovation, and Testing Differentiation – Overview 

The testing ecosystem has witnessed major shifts in the past decades courtesy of technological advancements, innovations, disruptive trends, and a rapidly growing community of testers and QA engineers. While research, innovation, and continuous learning are essential across industries and organizations, these have even stronger implications in testing. Using online banking and the financial service industry as an example, we can see exactly how research and development (R&D) is integral to business growth and success.

Originally, banking applications would let users access accounts online for basic banking functionality including checking balances, depositing, withdrawing, and transferring money, alongside providing basic account information like daily, weekly, and monthly expenditures. However, as online banking grew, market-leading banks understood that more and more capabilities would be required from their users as well as offered by their competitors. Fast forward to today, there are many more functionalities behind a banking app including loan and credit card application processes, account creation and management, and even advanced budgeting and investing options. The list is sure to grow further as these trends continue.  

In this blog, we will provide insights on how the era of the Great Resignation is impacting the R&D landscape for testers and QA professionals. 

How the Great Resignation is Orchestrating the Need for Research and Innovation

If you have been closely following our latest blogs on the Great Resignation, you already have plenty of details on how the shift-left in the workforce started and how it is influencing the ways businesses operate today. These impacts are going to be felt well beyond 2022 and the post-pandemic era. 

With resignations reaching record levels, the challenges are also felt by those who stay behind after their colleagues leave. As per Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, 41% of the workforce across the globe are looking to change their jobs. In a A similar survey of 3,400 enterprise workers done by Adobe, more than 50% of Gen Z workers plan to switch jobs.  These trends present substantial challenges throughout the technology industry, specifically throughout testing and QA.

Though these statistics portray both the severity and impact of the Great Resignation well, it is essential for businesses to further understand the motivation behind this movement.  

Pandemic Epiphanies

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has been instrumental in causing a multitude of disruptions in both social and cultural aspects. Change is good and, as said by John D. Rockefeller, “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” However, with every change comes the element of uncertainty followed sometimes by apprehension.

The workforce, especially in health and technology, has been at the receiving end of job uncertainties and remuneration cutbacks, forcing adaptations and change. Meanwhile, more and more professionals are burnt out due to the increasing workloads, potentially viewing this as an opportunity to jump ship and improve their quality of life. 

Remote Work Culture 

After a prolonged period of working from home, a vast majority of employees are reluctant to return back into the office. While the work-from-home culture has benefited enterprises immensely, employees have also been cashing in on it. With the Great Resignation in its full force, employees are encouraged to continue the hybrid or completely remote model of work. And, if asked to do otherwise, they might be tempted to quit too. 

Work-Life Balance 

If this global pandemic has taught us all one common thing that is to live life to the fullest. No amount of remuneration, recognition, rewards, or achievement will be able to replace work-life balance and good mental health. Thus, today’s workforce is preferring better balance and are leaving organizations with a toxic and “all-work-no-play” work culture. 

This is not going to stop here. In fact, it might have a snowball effect. Here are some of the key challenges that are anticipated in the foreseeable future:

Connect the dots – how this great attrition is influencing research and innovation:

  1. Skilled resource gaps are taxing and thus necessitate the adoption of robust, smart, and scalable test automation tools that can streamline and expedite testing effort and support the release flawless products.
  2. The understanding that manual testing efforts can be augmented by leveraging test automation tools cannot be ignored. Research and innovation require QA professionals to invest more time in continuous learning, and perform research to drive innovation at work.
  3. Considering the wide-scale popularity of test automation, the landscape is crowded with a multitude of options. Enterprises have to ensure that their test automation tool, testing processes, and outcomes remain cutting-edge. For this to be achieved, research and innovation have to take center stage.  

Navigating the Continuously Evolving Business Territory with Automation

By adopting a “shift-left” approach to automated testing, enterprises can ensure rapid feedback on their app. This helps facilitate innovation while removing risk factors like introducing bugs, security risks, hindering customer experiences or impacting business processes. Furthermore, enterprises can improve the quality, speed, and efficiency of their web and mobile apps, giving them a leg up on the competition through supercharged digital innovation.

Here are some statistics shedding further light on the topic:

How Qyrus Can Help 

Enable your teams to respond to these unprecedented challenges with Qyrus, the most powerful low-code/no-code test automation platform. 

Build and deliver higher-quality applications faster and more efficiently while saving time and money and increasing speed to market. Optimize application functionality and user experience by utilizing codeless and efficient test building, automation and infrastructure, and AI/ML capabilities. Qyrus can be your go-to test automation partner, and here is why:  

Still, looking for more reasons to embark on your automation journey? Connect with test automation experts at Qyrus right away! 

As a Chicago-based company, we often get queries about the weather and statements like, “No way it’s snowing in April!” And we explain to others that this is what we deal with every year. As we all know, seeing is believing, and one can never truly understand Chicago weather until experiencing it. Much of the same can be said about testing. Visual testing is at the forefront of innovation as it holds the ability to clearly show problems in action.

This week’s Feature Friday is brought to you by Jorell and Ameet, who will discuss Qyrus’ manual testing feature, which uses real devices located in device farms across the globe to promote visual and interactive application testing.

Tell us more about the manual testing offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and its impact on testing processes.

Jorell:
That’s a great question, the purpose of this feature is to allow users to manually test applications, generating reports based on different use cases. Simply select a device, launch your application, and start testing.  

Ameet:
And upon termination of test, a session report is automatically generated with detailed metrics and device specifics. Manual testing using device farm is a multi-purpose feature optimizing test building, live visual testing, alongside user experience, and functionality testing.

Manual testing is one of the most common testing methods, and it’s been around for quite some time. As there are a multitude of manual testing options, it becomes integral to differentiate feature specifics and offerings that Qyrus contains.

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Ameet:
You are correct, there is no shortage of manual testing solutions. Although Qyrus focuses on automated testing, the manual testing feature is still powerful. It gives you the freedom of live device interaction with the power of a device farm at your fingertips. Qyrus’ manual testing is a feature-driven, comprehensive manual testing solution.  

Jorell:
You can seamlessly switch from testing Android devices to iOS, from phones to tablets, and use built-in features to simplify mobile interactions and enhance the test-building process. Not every testing and QA team has started their automation journey, and our manual testing solution is a good transition to understand the Qyrus UI, devices, and device farm, even if automation is later down the pipeline.  

Ameet:
Do manual testing options exist? Sure. But Qyrus’ feature-dense UI, extensive coverage, robust reporting, and scalability truly differentiate the platform from the competition.

We’ve established the relevance of this feature and some unique qualities in relation to competition and other industry tools. And though being unique and relevant is important, nothing is more important than practicality and usage. It is essential that the feature promotes value, leading us to ask:  

How might manual testing with Qyrus help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can it bring?

Jorell:
Business analysts gravitate toward this feature because, when we say device farm and live testing, we mean it with emphasis. Interact with a real device that’s running your application in real time, taking notes and screenshots along the way. This level of visual testing allows business analysts the ability to test application functionality and user experience, enabling the development of quality applications.

Ameet:
Developers love saving time and money on application testing. Qyrus gives users the ability to login and start interacting with their application across a range of devices and operating systems. Afterward, they are provided with a session summary with vital test device metrics, including CPU usage, RAM usage, and network usage data. All of this data is stored on Qyrus and easily visible to any team members; additionally, test reports of defects and their evidence can easily be added to Jira with our native integrations.

Jorell:
Let’s not forget testers. We find testers downloading their applications across Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. Further utilizing the device freedom to test websites and web applications across mobile device browsers, testers have the freedom and resources to test edge cases and take a shift-left in the testing lifecycle.

Understandably, this feature produces value for multiple personas across a business or organization. But what establishes the quality of a feature is its reusability. The difference between a good and a great feature comes with usage. In other words, is this a one-time-use feature, or is this a feature that will be referred to consistently throughout the testing and QA lifecycle?

How do you see manual testing impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?

Ameet:
This depends on the maturity of the user’s automation journey. If there is no prior automation, this is the perfect stepping stone to achieving test automation. With a device farm full of testing options, interactive and feature-dense testing, alongside rich visual and data-driven reporting, Qyrus’ manual testing option with a device farm provides a robust solution.

Jorell:
And, assuming there is a level of automated testing, the manual testing solution still offers a location for visual testing, robust visual reporting capabilities, and device metrics upon session termination. Automation is not perfect, and a quick connect manual testing feature offers an advanced troubleshooting option.

What is manual testing’s overall impact on the testing process?

Jorell:
Qyrus’ manual testing feature is continually optimized with features to promote the best manual testing option. As one of our original testing solutions, it has developed in succession with the entire platform. As our knowledge of testing and automation increases, we continually monitor and innovate our manual testing solution.

Ameet:
Our original automated testing solutions were created with the knowledge and understanding brought about by years of manual testing. These fundamentals can be seen throughout Qyrus’ manual testing solution. We find using the UI and familiarizing yourself with the device farm leads to a swift automation journey when implemented, especially when using Qyrus.  

Jorell:
And with these thoughts in mind, we see manual testing as not only a powerful, well-built solution but a gateway for companies who have yet to begin their automation journeys to optimize their current testing and QA lifecycle and streamline their road to complete test automation.

That concludes our interview with Jorell and Ameet about manual testing using the Qyrus device farm. We’ve discussed use cases and specifics, how manual testing can help different users, and the overall impact of this feature on the testing process. Join us next week on Feature Friday as we speak about more new and exciting testing features that help mitigate stressful situations. Until then, relax and enjoy the weekend!

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Great Resignation and Its Impact on Testing Cost – Overview 

In our latest blogs on the Great Resignation, we have extensively discussed how this nascent workplace shift is gaining momentum every day while leaving enterprises across the globe struggling to survive. The testing community is no exception to this shift. While on one hand test automation technology is improving by leaps and bounds, the talent pool of testers and QA professionals is deteriorating, leaving organizations to boost their automation, AI and advanced technical knowledge to meet demands.

With lucrative positions and opportunities on the horizon, QA teams might be encouraged to leverage their knowledge to attain greater career growth opportunities. The requirements created due to the attrition seemingly need to be filled out by recruiting new personnel. This adds to the cost to the company. On top of that, onboarding, training, and equipping new staff has its own set of challenges and resource/cost implications. 

The Great Attrition, a by-product of the Great Resignation, has also been impacting enterprises in terms of prolonged testing and development phases, which ultimately leads to slower time to market and an increase in resources and expenses. In today’s ever-competitive market, being next in line also has crucial implications for an organization’s productivity and culture.

If you want to learn about the implications of the Great Resignation, check out our first blog here. Understanding the root causes of these staggering statistics is highly crucial. Let’s get started!

Resignation Rates are Highest Among Mid-Career Employees

Many studies have indicated that the highest resignation rate for employees is for those between the ages of 30 and 45. And, surprisingly, this trend has gone up by 20% in 2021 compared to 2020. Interestingly, and contrary to the notion, the resignation rates were quite low for the millennial population as well as the 60 to 70 age group. 

Highest Resignations in the Technology and Healthcare Industries

Although resignations slightly decreased in the manufacturing and financial industries, there was an increase by 3.6% in the health care industry compared to the previous year. In technology, resignations increased by 4.5%. And, these statistics just reflect the heightened turmoil employees in the tech, and health spheres were contending with during the pandemic. 

Another report emphasizes that when skilled workers leave their jobs, the workload increases – and the remaining employees have no choice other than to pick up the slack. An overworked and stressed team can only mean lower morale, reduced productivity, and an even higher percentage of turnover. 

The global skills gap and talent shortage only add to this problem of losing many seasoned employees in the aforementioned industry verticals. Businesses are increasingly finding themselves at risk of not being able to fill open positions altogether. The growing war for talent has forced employers to take a more proactive approach than reactive when it comes to employee retention. Furthermore, this sea of unknown directly leads to an increase in cost.

Great Resignation and Testing Cost Augmentation 

The scarcity of skilled employees is causing an influx in employee costs – paying workers is more expensive than ever

Skilled testing resources are indispensable for organizations as they play crucial roles in overall product/application development and launch to market. They also pave the way for how the customer is going to perceive the application. All of these have quantifiable business impacts. Losing seasoned testing resources can add to the above challenges and cost businesses dearly. 

The general work mentality has shifted – people are no longer willing to sacrifice comfort and life for work

The pandemic has brought significant change in terms of work psychology. Opting for better mental health has become a priority. Resignations are at an all-time high leading to holes in required & established business processes, especially in QA. Integrating new personnel into already existing test infrastructures can be costly and time consuming. Lack of proper infrastructure and personnel requires compromises on release times or application quality/integrity both of which can also be costly. 

So, now the question is, how do businesses sustain in these trying times? Can test automation be the real answer and will it be enough?

How Can Qyrus Help Reduce Costs by Solving Infrastructure and Operational Constraints?

The pandemic and the consequent work-related shift have been the key drivers for encouraging enterprises to consider investments in automation to streamline processes, ensure operational efficiencies, productivity, and ultimate ROI. But the question remains – can automation really address the infrastructure and operational constraints? Let’s take the test ecosystem for more understanding. 

With test automation, the QA and manual testing resources can be freed up to engage in core competencies and address critical, and complex testing challenges. Test automation may incur costs at the beginning, but it’s a cost-effective measure for businesses in the long run. Businesses can bring together manual and automation testing to enhance their workflow efficiency, and test ROI. Additionally, some of the key benefits that businesses can cash in on with automation are increased test coverage, ease of automated test scripting, test reusability, and self-healing.

Qyrus is a state-of-the-art, low-code/no-code, AI/ML-driven test automation tool that can be your go-to test automation partner. 

Some of the key features/capabilities of Qyrus include:

  1. A one-stop, low-code/no-code automation solution for building test scripts to test data generation, and test self-healing
  2. Quick test building using recorders for web & mobility 
  3. Easy-to-navigate UI 
  4. Customizable Infrastructure & testing options (live devices & extensive browser versions) 
  5. Concurrent, performance-oriented automation testing
  6. Rich reporting – visual reporting (screenshots & videos)
  7. AI/ML capabilities – Healer, rover, scheduled runs, and many more
  8. Mitigate costly release delays – promoting efficient sprint cycles
  9. Identify bugs and inconsistencies – mitigating further development and debugging (saving money, resources, and time)

How To Stay Ahead of Latest Industry Innovations 

No matter how seasoned your business or how experienced your testing team is, there ought to be room for improvements. And, staying ahead of tech trends, innovations, and staying adaptable for a wider learning curve is the need of the hour. Qyrus automation enables your business to shift-left and be prepared for these oncoming challenges. In our upcoming and last blog on the Great Resignation, we will touch upon how you can make the most of innovations and research and development in the test automation sphere despite the challenges that the Great Resignation presents.

Inhale. Hold. Release.  

As we submit our sprint updates and reports, and find our headspace sprinting towards a relaxing dinner, it’s important not to lose sight of the tasks at hand. In that respect, you can thank me or just thank yourself later for tuning into this week’s Feature Friday discussing in-sprint automation.  

You’ve heard it around, the “shift left” everyone’s endlessly imploring, and it makes sense why. Testing simultaneously along development poses a range of benefits but typically costs an arm and leg in testing resources. But, with recent strides in automation testing, Qyrus has created a testing environment that enables just that: in-sprint automated testing.  

To better understand this powerful capability, we interviewed Meghana from our team based in India and Parth from our team based in Chicago, asking them a few questions about in-sprint automation and how it works.

Tell us more about in-sprint automated testing offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and impact on testing processes?

Meghana:
In-sprint automation aims to automate user stories at a unit, API, and UI level. Unit tests form the foundation of a solid test automation strategy. API testing can start early, even before the UI is ready or finished. This enables users to identify issues early in the development cycle. And lastly, users can come up with a plan to map locators at the beginning of the sprint to effectively test changes.

Parth:
Those are great points, Meghana. To add to that, in-sprint automation also creates a better way for testing teams to collaborate with development teams. In-sprint automation has a huge impact on the overall SDLC of an application. If we are able to effectively test alongside sprints, a huge chunk of testing is taken care of early on.

Are we dreaming? Without the addition of automation, in-sprint testing seems like an impossibility or at the very least a near insurmountable task. So, we had to ask:

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Parth:
Most competitors do not allow users to organize tests into a sprint to enable in-sprint testing. With Qyrus, you just have to set up the sprint and make sure to give it a start and end date.

Meghana:
On top of that, previously to perform in-sprint testing you needed to have a combined approach of TDD (test-driven development) and BDD (behavior-driven development). Testers would most likely also have to track the development cycle in another application or even manually.

The workplace is full of different people, positions, and requirements. So, we took a finer comb to understand the fundamental impact of this technology across a range of user personas:

How might in-sprint automation help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value does it bring?

Meghana:
For testers and developers, collaboration becomes much easier. Testers are able to automate acceptance criteria for new features within the sprint itself and developers are able to write unit tests quickly and get extremely fast feedback on code quality.

Parth:
And for business technologists, they get a better understanding of the progress of the application. Looking at the specific sprint reports, they can get an idea of what areas of the sprint are finished and what areas are still in progress.

Looking to the future, we want to know what else Qyrus has planned for in-sprint automation testing.

What’s in store for the future of in-sprint automated testing on Qyrus?  

Parth:
Currently, in-sprint automation only exists in our Web automation service. It’s directly connected with our test repository and test case management solution. Essentially, you’re able to pull a set of specific tests from a repository that would coincide with your sprint.

Meghana:
Yes, Parth. And with that being said, we are in the progress of bringing it to all of our other services.

With a unique perspective to offer as daily users and testers of Qyrus’ in-sprint automation feature, we grasped the opportunity for some expert testimony to understand the scale at which this feature impacts quality assurance.

What is in-sprint automation’s overall impact on the testing process?

Parth:
Well, overall, in-sprint automation enables the testing process to start earlier. Instead of having to wait for the development to finish they can start pretty much right away. Furthermore, test reports are better organized which helps everyone involved in the process.

Meghana:
And one last point, once the sprint ends, the automated tests become part of a regression suite, making everything effortless.

That concludes our interview with Parth and Meghana about in-sprint automation testing on Qyrus. We’ve discussed use cases and specifics, how in-sprint automation can help different users, and the overall impact on the testing process. Join us next week on Feature Friday as spring begins to bud and bloom lets figure out just how many more solutions Qyrus test automation has for you!‍

Like snowflakes, no two work weeks were created equal. With the number of projects and maintenance tasks at hand, certain weeks can leave technical specialists feeling like circus jugglers. Deploying features spanning multiple release cycles across a range of applications can become cumbersome. When you consider all the external manual resources and testing applications required for Quality Assurance (QA) testing, it all seems unmanageable.

This Feature Friday covers Qyrus’ automated end-to-end business process testing feature, Component testing. Component testing enables users to connect and reuse automated Web, Mobile, and API tests. Validate cross-browser and cross-platform functionality that cover complete customer journeys by seamlessly transferring data between web and mobile tests. Qyrus is an all-in-one solution that provides method within the madness through a central solution for all testing and QA needs.

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To take a deeper dive into the feature, we interviewed Prince and Tim, asking them a few questions about Qyrus’ Component testing.

Tell us more about Component testing offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and general impact on testing processes?

Tim:
Component testing is a solution that combines Qyrus’ Web, Mobile, and API testing into a singular end-to-end testing feature. In component testing, we can import “components” from our other services. Using any number and combination of those components, we are able to then stitch together a test. Components can pass data to other components enabling the validation of complete end-to-end business processes.

Prince:
For example, an eCommerce company might want to test that when an item is added to the cart on their webpage the same item will appear in the cart on their mobile application. In fact, you could build an automated test for the entire online order to mobile pickup process. As an example, you can automate a curbside pickup order where the customer starts the order online, requests in-store pickup, and once they arrive the store receives a notification from the user’s phone. This way, you’re testing a fully end-to-end flow.  

Tim:
With cross-browser and device testing options and rich feedback and collaboration options this feature directly enhances test building, execution, reporting and maintenance.

As automated testing itself has not seen many years in the light, when discussing a truly end-to-end automated testing solution it is all the more important to ask about innovative factors and surrounding technology. After all, nobody wants a reinvented wheel, no matter how pretty.  

Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?

Prince:
You are correct. End-to-end testing is no new topic of conversation, but the approach is entirely different. Prior to Qyrus’ Component testing, true end-to-end testing required the integration and combination of multiple applications. Achieving this requires custom code and a complex infrastructure configuration. Just to consider the reporting feature, prior developers and testers would have to stitch thousands of lines of code to capture separated reports which would simply “mirror” behind the scenes activity.  

Tim:
Exactly, and it is common for competitors to offer individual testing solutions, but to stitch it together within one comprehensive package is different. It is even harder to find one built on the basis of no code, self-healing, AI/ML-driven capabilities, and robust visual reporting on a ready-to-scale infrastructure.

The repercussions of Covid-19 leading into the “The Great Resignation” have altered the foundations of society. Tasks previously needing manual, human interactions have since been offloaded to web and mobile applications with zero human presence. It is times like now that make us effectively question who this technology is built for and its direct impacts:  

How might Component Testing help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can it bring?

Tim:
Testers often utilize the reusability and quick import functions within Component testing to their advantage building and importing tests from other services. After making necessary modifications, testers could quickly stitch these components into larger end-to-end, cross-platform tests.

Prince:
And the beauty of Component testing is that it caters to more than just testers. Test building requires no coding background. Selecting components, linking them together, and choosing the data to transfer is all built into a form-like process. Ease in test building, on-click execution options, and visual reporting features draw the attention of business analysts who want to both test and visualize end-to-end user journeys.

Tim:
Whether developers are testing an individual application or a unit of new applications, Component testing allows for steadfast and comprehensive application coverage.  And with data logging and reporting, developers have various avenues and insights to debug  all potential issues.

As applications become more relevant, a solution that can productively map and test end-to-end user journeys gains prominence daily. This leads us to ask a few questions regarding just how much of a cluster-lock this technology can be.  

How do you see Component testing impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?  

Prince:
This feature, alongside many within Qyrus, promotes collaboration. We see developers building individual components to test application features and functionalities as QA members quickly stitch together these components to create end-to-end business flows. These reports are then sent out to business analysts who can visualize functionality and run their own variations of tests as necessary.

Makes sense, but no matter how revolutionary, well coded, or aesthetically sound a feature may be, functionality and practicality speak for themselves.

What is Component testing’s overall impact on the testing process?

Tim:
The concept in its simplest form was to create a one-stop-shop for all testing and reporting needs. Giving testers the ability to import previously built tests which can be used as components to mitigate excess work while providing recorders for steadfast test building, parallel execution capabilities, and rich visual reporting, Qyrus did that and then some.  

Prince:
With the addition of automation, Component testing also becomes a single point of creation. The idea that you can build these component scripts once and execute them daily is revolutionary!

That concludes our interview with Parth and Meghana about in-sprint automation testing on Qyrus. We’ve discussed use cases and specifics, how in-sprint automation can help different users, and the overall impact on the testing process. Join us next week on Feature Friday as spring begins to bud and bloom lets figure out just how many more solutions Qyrus test automation has for you!‍