Despite being relatively new, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is evolving rapidly and proving its essential value in software testing. In the coming years, it is possible that RPA will become a vital part of the technological and automation landscape.

What is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation is an automation tool with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities that can automate high-volume and repetitive tasks usually performed by humans. It enables codeless testing as well as performs tasks such as queries, calculations, and maintenance of records and transactions.

RPA technology is composed of software robots (bots) that can mimic a human worker and log into applications, enter data, calculate, complete tasks, and then log out. There are three categories of RPA technology:

• Probots: bots that follow simple and repetitive rules to process data
• Knowbots: bots that search the internet to gather and store user-specified information
• Chatbots: a virtual agent that can answer customer questions in real-time

What are the benefits of RPA?

An RPA software allows a company to implement the technology quickly and effectively without having to change the existing infrastructure. Moreover, an RPA software can adapt itself to any changing circumstances, exceptions, and new situations, as well as manipulate data, trigger responses, initiate new actions, and communicate with other systems on its own once it has been trained.

By implementing RPA technology, organizations can benefit from better customer service, better efficiency with the digitalization of process data, quicker processes, fewer costs, more productivity and, can ensure that their business operations and processes conform to regulations and standards.

Hence, RPA enables organizations to remain competitive by automating their workflow – including tasks performed during software testing.

RPA’s rising value

RPA’s role is quickly growing within the world of automation. Indeed, it has already made its mark in software testing by slowly replacing regression, performance, and load testing, thus, allowing testers to focus on exploratory, usability, and ad hoc testing. It is also possible that many components of RPA tools will be formalized in large-scale systems in the future – such as Design Studio, process execution environment, management environment, process analysis environment. RPA tools might also have an important impact on offshore operations, leading to more organizations adopting RPA as a solution.

Furthermore, RPA enables businesses to generate a testing environment and test cases by monitoring the activities of humans and automating their processes. That way, RPA is able to mimic a real-life environment and testing the applications in it, allowing testers and developers to save money and resources as well as be more efficient.

Conclusion

Robotic Process Automation is clearly gaining more and more value in the technological world and is evolving rapidly, making it a vital part of software testing and test automation in the coming years. Organizations should start adopting RPA into their testing fold in order to save resources and money, decreases the possibility of defects, and remain at the top of the competition.