In this expert series, we bring you the concepts related to chatbot trends, Chatbot types, and Chatbot testing standpoints so that you can have a good understanding.
Technologies related to artificial intelligence, such as chatbots, have increased the level of interaction between a computer and human beings. A natural language processing mechanism is used to operate chatbots for both text and audio conversations. The most important aspect that defines the quality of chatbot is the user experience. Therefore, the user experience is directly proportional to the value of a chatbot. An effective chatbot can be achieved by performing chatbot testing.
The graph depicts that all major sectors are following the rising chatbot trend
Reference: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/chatbot-market
These scripted chatbots trigger predefined responses and are used for B2B applications. These chatbots use the natural language processing for understanding the intent of user input, but always give a predefined response. Therefore, AI is being used only on one side.
Chatbots understand the past conversation and draft a customized reply for the user. Two-way chatbots use AI for understanding user's intent as well as for creating appropriate responses as per its learning and understanding.
Chatbot testing is conducted to analyze how the bot engages with user inquiries. Ease of interaction and accuracy of responses are the two key factors for a chatbot test. This testing is different from conventional mobile and web testing, as the QA team needs to act as a closer user group for multiple unexpected inputs.
A chatbot testing cycle includes validating the responses as well as the use case scenarios. Incorrect set up cases are narrowed down during these test cycles so that engineering teams can work on the development process for problem areas.
Fetching the incorrect conversation flow
Identifying the use cases for potential user inquiries
Testing multiple requests handling for a session
Validating the user navigation to corresponding webpage/contact department
Errors/negative scenario testing
Authentication, authorization, and encryption of sensitive data
Measuring bot response time
Speech recognition for voice chatbots
Performing localization testing for supported platforms
There are limitless permutations and combinations of test scenarios
There is a need for regression testing for each build
Just like Selenium is a preferred automated testing tool for testing web applications and Appium is ideal for testing mobile apps, Botium is a recommended tool for the automated testing of Chatbots.
Botium Core
Botium Core used for handling chatbot testing through JavaScript program
Botium CLI
Botium CLI helps in the preparation and execution of test suites through command line
Botium Bindings
Botium Bindings is a bridge between Botium and Test Runners; used for integrating automated chatbot testing into the CI/CD pipeline
Botium Box
Botium Box is the management and reporting platform
Botium supports a large number of chatbot technologies like Watson, Dialogflow, FBDirect, WebdriverIO, etc. Apart from the mentioned technologies, custom chatbot technology can also be plugged into Botium.
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