AI can now write a test script faster than a human engineer can type. Ask a large language model to generate a sequence for a new board revision, and it will deliver working code in seconds. But AI hasn't made test frameworks obsolete. It's made the case for them clearer: the faster tests get written, the more a test program depends on the structure that makes those tests reusable, comparable, and trustworthy.
Keysight Technologies is launching an OpenTAP Training and Certification program. The program delivers a hands-on learning experience that teaches test and QA engineers (and others) how to design, execute, and scale automated test solutions using OpenTAP.
Use of AI in testing digital products is soaring, but human input remains hugely important. Testing managers express concerns about the need to accompany rapidly changing requirements, dealing with unstable testing environments, and insufficient time for adequate testing. This blog lays out the pluses and minuses of integrating AI into test design and testing workflows, and highlights when and where human oversight is required.
LabVIEW is a graphical environment developed by National Instruments. Used for data acquisition, instrument control, and industrial automation, LabVIEW enjoys popularity for developing automated test systems, validating designs, and conducting research. The LabVIEW OpenTAP plugin makes it is possible to call LabVIEW VI functions from OpenTAP test plans by mapping LabVIEW VI functions to OpenTAP test steps.
The intersection of AI, open source, and test automation is defined by the use of community-driven AI tools to automate, optimize, and scale software testing. Read how open source platforms make advanced AI capabilities accessible, while AI transforms traditional test automation into a smarter, more adaptive process, enabling faster, higher-quality software delivery.
The OpenTAP platform, and Keysight PathWave Test Automation products built with it, consume and interpret Test Plans. Test Plans don't spontaneously spring into existence, and they almost always evolve over time, requiring tools to compose and maintain them.
This blog reviews options for building and modifying OpenTAP test plans, including open source, and community-licensed and commercially-licensed tools from Keysight.
A blockchain is distributed ledger with records securely linked using cryptographic hashes. Blockchains offer multiple applications in test automation for enhancing the testing process itself, providing secure, transparent, and automated mechanisms for optimizing the testing life cycle, and of course for testing blockchain applications. Blockchain-based test automation is particularly relevant in industries with high compliance needs (e.g., medical devices, supply chain) and where transparency, traceability, and trust are critical.
6G-SANDBOXÂ is a European research project to support an experimentation ecosystem for next-generation technology and research needed for the emerging 3PPP 6G communications standard. The 6G-SANDBOX targets technologies and research that span the entire 6G service provisioning chain, with reference to user/data, control and management planes. This blog provides a high-level view of the SANDBOX and highlights the role of OpenTAP and Keysight technologies in it.
Test plans play a central role in test automation. Plugins extend the functionality of a test automation platform and enhance the functionality of test plans. But should test plans and plugins be treated as intellectual property (IP) on a par with other types of software, patented tech and methods, and trade secrets?
Concern for product quality, system security and standards compliance serve to highlight the importance of rigorous testing.  Test automation with OpenTAP is key to meeting QA/QC goals, especially in today’s environment of short lifecycles for increasingly complex products and services.
The OpenTAP team caught up with APT tool set R&D manager Haran S. earlier this year for a chat about the advantages of using OpenTAP in off-the-shelf products. This interview focuses on the role of OpenTAP (and its commercial version, PathWave Test Automation) in creating and delivering the 5G Advanced Performance Test Toolset.
The CRA explicitly addresses open source software (OSS) but with important nuances and exceptions: open source software is generally exempt from CRA requirements if it is developed or supplied outside the context of a commercial activity; shared freely for public use, without direct financial gain. This exemption aims to protect non-commercial contributors, such as community-driven and academic OSS projects, from regulatory burden. However, given the actual mix of commercial and non-commercial OSS development, this language is highly contentious.
