Automated software testing solution provider Parasoft announced the release of Parasoft SOAtest Smart API Test Generator today, an AI-powered utility that aims to make the adoption of API testing simpler for organizations by reducing the technical skill required.
According to Parasoft, up to 80 percent of time spent testing is taken up by manual UI tests and fixing automated UI tests that broke after changes in the application.
“As a result, manual testing isn’t keeping pace with development, and while organizations know that API tests can more precisely pinpoint the root cause of defects because they are closer to the code, easier to automate, and more resistant to application change, due to the higher learning curve and specialized skills required to adopt API testing, organizations tend to lean on UI testing and fail to realize the benefits of API testing,” the company wrote in the announcement.
Parasoft SOAtest Smart API Test Generator aims to reduce this time expenditure by monitoring API calls that are made during manual tests, then discovering patterns and relationships between those calls with AI. This results in fully-automated, scriptless API test scenarios that don’t require the ability to code API tests to be used, according to the company. Those tests will be imported into Parasoft SOAtest, enabling users to perform a variety of functions with them from inside the software as part of a broader API testing strategy.
“Testing at the API layer represents a sweet spot on the testing pyramid, but until now it has been underutilized by most organizations due to the wall of knowledge required to understand and fully test the API,” said Chris Colosimo, Parasoft SOAtest product manager. “With the new Smart API Test Generator, we have simultaneously enabled the broader testing community to jump over that wall and empowered the power-user to accelerate their testing efforts so that organizations can fully unlock the potential of API testing. And all you have to do to get started is install a plugin on your browser.”
According to Parasoft, features include the ability to convert manual tests into automated API tests, a lower learner curve for API testing, automatic assertions and validations, less time maintaining API tests, ability to build test scenarios, and ability to scale API testing.
