voke Data Brief Report: API Testing

Your software engineering methodology has to be fast, yet high-quality. Just-in-time software delivery is essential to delighting your customers. Plus, your software product should make engaging and doing business with your company a breeze. If it’s causing roadblocks from a time, cost or quality perspective, you’re lagging. To move fast and deliver well, you need an agile, thorough software testing process.

Here’s the problem:

High value testing practices that can handle frequent changes are necessary.
Currently, most testing is focused on user interface testing, which requires a stable interface before testing even starts.
This is counterproductive to agile software development.
To reduce risk and increase quality, you should expand your API testing.

An application programming interface allows one piece of software to interact with another piece of software through a set of programming instructions and standards. Thanks to APIs, software developers can create products powered by their service.

APIs lack a graphical user interface and are comprised of two elements:

A specification for how information is exchanged between two pieces of software
A software interface written to the specification and published for use

API testing is part of integration testing and ensures the expected conditions for functionality, performance, security and reliability are achieved through the call.

Increase coverage
Reduce risk
Reduce defect leakage

APIs are the most stable interface to test, whereas UIs change constantly. You’ll increase quality and provide a strong foundation for more productive UI testing by upholding high standards at the API level.

50% of high priority defects are identified and remediated within a week.
64% of organizations struggle with defects leaking to the next sprint or phase.

The remaining 50% of detects that aren’t identified or remediated within a week are costing your organization—a chance you shouldn’t take. There’s no telling when an unidentified or unremediated defect will manifest in production and wreak havoc.

When you don’t identify defects fast, they leak to the next development phase. When defects leak, they cost more to remediate. When defects are found in production, you risk losing customers, brand damage or worse.

36% spend most of their time on manual UI testing.
60% spend between 10% and 40% of their time on automated UI testing.

UI testing is here to stay, but testers need to learn other skills, too. Your software team has to stop avoiding unit and API testing.

67% of developers spend little to no time on unit testing.

Developers responsible for coding software usually handle unit testing, but research shows it’s underserved. If you don’t conduct adequate unit testing, then you can’t completely assess your business risk. If you’re struggling with quality and your developers aren’t conducting unit testing enough, QA should consider heading up unit testing. This will establish a foundation for other testing.

62 percent of developers spend little to no time on AI testing.

API testing is part of integration testing. It ensures the API call achieves functionality, performance, security and reliability. APIs are the foundation of technical systems, and quality ensures the proper foundation for your application. You need stable, quality code at the unit and API level. This allows tests to assure quality and meet the needs of customers.

Earlier detection of defects
Higher quality
Earlier remediation of defects
Improved time to market
Less test maintenance
Lower cost of testing

Training
Development skills
More time
More resources
Better tools
Budget

API testing is crucial to deliver on the size, scale and complexity of today’s applications. Your team should focus on expanding API testing as much as possible. By delivering on the above factors, your team can amplify your organization’s API testing efforts.

About Parasoft

Parasoft helps organizations continuously deliver quality software with its market-proven, integrated suite of automated software testing tools. Supporting the embedded, enterprise, and IoT markets, Parasoft’s technologies reduce the time, effort, and cost of delivering secure, reliable, and compliant software by integrating everything from deep code analysis and unit testing to web UI and API testing, plus service virtualization and complete code coverage, into the delivery pipeline. Bringing all this together, Parasoft’s award winning reporting and analytics dashboard delivers a centralized view of quality enabling organizations to deliver with confidence and succeed in today’s most strategic ecosystems and development initiatives — security, safety-critical, Agile, DevOps, and continuous testing.

Data Brief Report: API Testing

API testing increases quality and reduces risk, but developers aren’t spending enough time on it. Without API testing, you risk leaking defects.

Download the data brief report for detailed statistics on API testing practices today, including risks of inadequate testing and the benefits of adopting proper API testing.

About Parasoft

Our technologies reduce the time, effort, and cost of delivering high-quality software.

Start a conversation

Software Testing Tools

Visit

Learn More