What are the Benefits of Automated API Test Integration?

Timothy Joseph
Timothy Joseph | December 18, 2018
What Are the Benefits of Automated API Test Integration?

“I want it all, and I want it now.”

Isn’t that the sentiment you most want to express when you assess your release cycle? After all, you’re just craving quality and speed. One of the biggest benefits of automated API test integration is that you get a quality product quickly. It also lets you stay focused on meeting your own standards for quality, functionality, reliability, performance, and security.

Just how quickly you’ll see those benefits depends on choosing the right partner. But the speed advantage means faster bug fixes and faster time to market for your product. Let’s look at some of the other ways it can help keep your product on schedule and within budget.

What Are the Benefits of Automated API Test Integration?

Automation is No Longer Out of Reach

If you’ve taken an application through to delivery before, you’ve probably encountered the belief that automated API test integration is expensive and time-consuming.

That’s no longer the case. The availability and reliability of open-source tools, global shared-information platforms, and access to cost-effective engineering talent has created a new, less expensive QA test reality. There’s still an upfront resource and time-cost in setting up the automation process, but for the majority of companies, automation test projects are well worth the effort.

Here’s a quick skim of the headline advantages of API test automation:

  • Comprehensive coverage - Automation increases the depth and scope of tests

  • Quicker bug fixes - API integration lets you run tests every time new source code and developer feedback is input

  • Real-world simulation - Simulate thousands of virtual user network and application interactions without placing demands on your core personnel

The bottom line benefits, however, remain cost and time savings.

Outsource and Save

Outsourcing doesn’t mean handing control of your QA process over to an unknown entity. The right outsource team should seamlessly integrate with your own DevOps practice to maintain the smarter Agile approach.

Digital technologies are now readily available to link you and your QA partner in real-time conversation and constant, instant contact. That’s one of the keys to making automated API test integration work. The integration component matters as much outside the test and development process as it does within. It’s now practical and cost-effective for North American companies to find a QA partner regardless of geographic location.

The industry has long held trust in the southeast Asian and Indian markets, but opportunities, and the associated cultural benefits, are also opening up in nearshore nations including Mexico and Canada.

Those opportunities present valuable cost savings, but automated API test integration brings even more benefits through time efficiencies.

Save Time and Release Faster

There will be a place for manual testing within the QA process for the foreseeable future. In fact, you can’t run comprehensive user interface and usability testing without it. Can Manual Testing Be Completely Replaced by Automation Testing? Integrated automation testing, however, gets you to GUI and other resource-rich components of your app release faster and more comprehensively. You’ll also cover areas like memory data and program stats that manual testing can overlook.

Even when you hit the GUI stage, automation continues to save time. When testing your application’s core functionality, for example, you can get through 3,000 API tests in 50 minutes, or 3,000 GUI tests in 30 hours.

That speed can be applied across industries as well. Be it financial, health, legal, or any other field, the same basic automated API testing benefits apply. In each case you can build a portable and extendable test automation suite, complete with repeatable automated test scripts and regression testing to take you through each individual test cycle.

Automated API test integration gives you an efficient mix of coverage and speed. You can have it all, and have it now.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the benefits of automated API test integration, so if you’d like to hear more, contact QASource today. You can get a Free Quote, or call us at +1.925.271.5555.

Disclaimer

This publication is for informational purposes only, and nothing contained in it should be considered legal advice. We expressly disclaim any warranty or responsibility for damages arising out of this information and encourage you to consult with legal counsel regarding your specific needs. We do not undertake any duty to update previously posted materials.