Software systems are getting bigger and complicated. A typical application or service consists of thousands of lines of code. It uses a lot of libraries or frameworks and is used by many commercial platforms running with many users and configurations. New variants are presented to users frequently, sometimes several times a day, to keep things interesting.
APIs are the backbone of web applications and are treated as products rather than code. They are created for direct use by external customers and are well documented, managed, and monitored for scalability and performance. Trying to rate the quality of every product or feature by asking people to interact with each feature manually does not scale. This is where automation testing services come in.
This post will show you some API basics and how to build API test automation as a service.
API Automation’s Importance
API stands for Application Programming Interface, a software interface that enables two applications to communicate with each other. Every time you use some app to see a company’s current stock price or check the weather forecast on your smartphone, you’re utilizing an API behind the curtains.
By testing the APIs, you can quickly validate the core functionality of your application. You could also validate non-functional requirements such as performance and security aspects of the application. API automation allows you to change systems faster and without fear, reducing the time to market for newly created features.
Let’s look at how to create test automation in simple steps: The automation service is a Java service created using the Spring Boot framework. An API endpoint is revealed through a test automation service, which expects the name and URL of the module as parameters.
The following are the main challenges encountered in the implementation of the test automation service, which has been solved in successive iterations:
- Handling multiple requests simultaneously.
- Simultaneous processing of requests for the same module.
- Show test reports in HTML format in Jenkins
- timeout issues when test execution takes longer than expected
- Reasonable print request and response in the report file.
Challenges related to multiple/concurrent requests and timeouts were solved using the asynchronous execution support provided in spring. Async processes each request in a separate thread. Issues about reports in Jenkins were fixed using the HTML Publisher plugin.
Here Are Several Ways AaaS Can Help:
- Automatically reserve and allocate cabin space for new candidates.
- Request a suitable PC and its accessories for new candidates.
- Automatically enroll new hires in online training courses, workshops, and more.
- Send emails to security officers or appropriate personnel to inform them of the correct credentials, user IDs, and other information they need.
- Enroll new employees in software like cloud-related accounting systems, CRM tools, or anything else to provide better service management.
Benefits of Automation as a Service
Often the majority of IT resources, including staff, time, and money, are spent keeping the doors open and the lights on. Because IT departments are reactive rather than proactive, they often fail to embrace new technologies and ideas, making service management cumbersome. However, AaaS can help IT departments turn the script around.
The AaaS implementation can provide:
- Accelerated service delivery with enhanced speed and agility
- Reduce inquiries and manual processing
- Reduce IT spend
- An overall increase in productivity for each department
- Faster issue resolution
Your Most Expensive Resource is Your Employees.
Organization’s are your most valuable and often most expensive resource. However, each individual has a maximum bandwidth, and even the hardest working, most motivated, and dedicated employees have a limit.
Unfortunately, your employees often spend much of their time on tedious tasks. Automation frees your staff to focus on innovation, creative work, strategy, and other high-value areas.
According to the Accenture report linked above, they found that AaaS is already delivering tangible and proven results. For employees, as follows:
- Drastic reduction and even elimination of human nuance.
- Increases full-time employees’ ability to focus on customer outcomes by 40% or more.
- Reduced handling/cycle times. 30-80% reduction in processing costs.
While you can’t automate everything, you can undoubtedly reduce redundant business process loads and dramatically increase efficiency.
Enterprise-Scale Automation
Many companies have already found great value in small-scale automation, perhaps by automating specific and tedious tasks like data entry or implementing automation in high-value departments like finance. Automation across the enterprise, however, has proven more difficult. Implementing AaaS can be a welcome change for the above scenarios and more. AaaS is delivered as a consumption-based subscription model that allows you to categorize automation flows as per complexity, such as simple, medium, or hard. With AaaS, just pay for what you use, and as your demand for automation increases, AaaS can scale with you.
Plus, flexible monthly payments instead of exorbitant upfront payments can reduce financial burdens and upfront investment costs for businesses large and small.
Conclusion
Automation-as-a-service is basically about providing your customers. By utilization of AaaS, you could preserve precious resources (like time and money) usually spent on managing and deploying technology.