Use Case: Test Development Assistant – Enhancing Efficiency in R&D

Challenge:

Software testing is a critical component of ensuring reliability and safety. Testing accounts for up to 40-50% of the total software development effort, making it one of the most resource-intensive phases of the development cycle. The organization faced significant challenges in streamlining the test development process, which required high manual effort from test engineers to develop test descriptions based on system requirements. Additionally, the existing tools lacked advanced capabilities for reusing previous tests, incorporating domain knowledge, and assisting in test generation, leading to inefficiencies and increased development costs.

Solution:

Aleph Alpha partnered with the customer to develop an LLM-powered assistant specifically designed to address these challenges and optimize the test development process. Key features of the solution include:

  1. Simplified Re-Use of Existing Tests: A semantic search engine was integrated to enable the clustering and reuse of existing tests, significantly reducing the time spent on creating new test cases from scratch.
  2. Standardized Test Creation: By automating the creation of test descriptions, test engineers could focus on high-value tasks, such as leveraging their expertise to improve test scenarios, rather than spending time on repetitive manual work.
  3. Codified Domain Knowledge: The assistant leveraged detailed documentation and domain knowledge to automate test generation, ensuring that the knowledge of experienced engineers was embedded into the testing process.

Business Impact:

The implementation of Aleph Alpha’s test development assistant delivered several key benefits to the organization:

  • Improved Speed: The solution reduced test creation time by more than 30%, allowing engineers to complete test descriptions faster and more efficiently.
  • Futureproofing: The assistant addressed long-term challenges, including the growing number of projects, smoother onboarding of new engineers, and easier reuse of existing tests, ensuring scalability as the organization expands.
  • Cost Savings: By saving approximately 2 hours per test created, and with engineers handling dozens of tests per week, the organization achieved significant cost savings in both time and resources.
  • Increased Quality: The standardization of the test creation processes improved knowledge sharing across teams and reduced variability, leading to higher quality and more reliable test results.