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A QA engineer from Public Sapient shares his experience of implementing automated solutions in his award-winning BRICS project developed for the National Institute of Health.
The application of AI algorithms to biomedical research is a growing trend in 2024. For example, in October, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence presented AI technology to analyze X-rays to detect broken bones, while in November 2024, the National Institute of Health developed an AI algorithm that helps match potential volunteers with clinical trials. However, while AI technology has the potential to revolutionize medical research, thorough testing is required for it to be implemented safely and beneficial for doctors and patients.
Zhenis Ismagambetov, a Quality Assurance Engineer with vast experience in QA, API testing, and automation, a creator of an original comprehensive QA methodology currently working at the Biomedical Research Informatics Computing system project for the National Institute of Health, shares his view on the growing role of automation in medical research, its benefits and the best ways to implement it. His approach provides valuable insights for QA and testing teams across all industries, not limited to this particular field of research.
The Growing Role of Automation
“Despite the growing adoption of automated methods, the lack of automation remains one of the main problems for many teams,” notes Zhenis Ismagambetov. As there are still a lot of teams that rely on manual testing, it slows down the development process and creates additional risks of mistakes. Moreover, it is difficult to scale the manual testing up, so its efficiency decreases significantly as the scope of the software grows. The only solution for this issue is developing and implementing reliable automated methods for repeating tasks.
This approach makes the testing process more efficient and reliable, which becomes crucial in projects of a larger scale or those related to health and safety issues. Since 2023, Zhenis Ismagambetov has taken the position of Senior QA Engineer at Publicis Sapient, working on a BRICS (Biomedical Research Informatics Computing System) project for the National Institute of Heals in the US. The automated testing scripts reduced the time spent on manual testing by 40%, allowing the developers to release the updates 30% faster, swiftly responding to the changing demands and customers’ requests.
Efficient Automation in Practice
The methodology developed by Zhenis allowed the team to create a modern and reliable research infrastructure that scientists and medical professionals can use for a broad range of tasks, such as analyzing patients’ data and conducting biomedical research. His contribution to process automation and developing a robust code base played a crucial role in creating a unique solution, which has become a valuable tool for researchers in the US as well as for international data exchange and scientific collaboration. As the methodology allowed the team to drastically lower the time spent on manual testing, it helped the team to provide the client with a robust platform for scientific research. Currently, the platform is used by over 5,000 researchers, with over 85$ level of user satisfaction, and over 200 international partnerships established thanks to the platform.
Moreover, Zhenis put a significant effort towards streamlining and improving existing operating processes, establishing productive cross-team communication, which, in turn, boosted their productivity. In October 2024, Zhenis Ismagambetov’s contribution to the BRICS Project for the National Institute of Health was honored with a prize at the National Business Award.
Another example illustrating the efficient implementation of automation technology is the project developed by Zhenis Ismagambetov at Freddie Mac, one of the largest mortgage companies in the US (one of the top 200 America’s largest public companies), where he worked from 2020 to 2023. The company provides financial services to homeowners, homebuyers, and renters, ensuring the stability and affordability of the housing market.
Based on his prior practical experience and knowledge of such technologies as Selenium Web Driver, Cucumber Framework, and Java programming language and working with a team of over a dozen developers, business analysts, and QA engineers, he implemented an automated solution that significantly cut the time spent on copying data to the cloud servers and verifying it, processing millions of database entries. The solution ensures that all the employees use actual and valid data in their work, which improves the operation of the company as a whole.
Importance of Collaboration and Education
“However, integrating cutting-edge automation tools, such as AI-based solutions, is not enough to ensure the testing will be efficient,” points out Zhenis Ismagambetov, “as even state-of-the-art technology can fail if it is used in the wrong way.” Consequently, along with implementing new automation tools, one needs to ensure that all members of the team get the necessary education. Cross-team interaction and collaboration play a crucial role: if developing and testing teams operate separately, the efficiency of the testing itself drops, and the detected issues take longer to fix. To combat this, the company needs to make a focused effort to improve communication between teams and establish a productive exchange of information at all stages of testing and development.
Finding it important to share his methodology with others, Zhenis Ismagambetov has summarized his expertise in quality assurance and testing in a comprehensive description of a QA methodology for QA Engineers and Testers. It proposes an integrated approach that allows for the improvement and standardization of testing processes, making them more efficient and transparent. It is suitable for teams of various sizes, from startups to enterprise projects, and applies to the newest technological developments, such as solutions based on machine learning. The methodology presents a unique approach encompassing the whole process of software development, from planning to automation, support, detecting, and fixing errors. Being flexible and scalable at the same time, it can be applied in various industries, while the reliance on modern tools and Agile practices makes it possible to quickly adapt it when changes arise, keeping up with high-quality standards. Moreover,
Zhenis participates in educating the next generation of developers and testers, presenting and teaching his methodology to students at several IT schools. His methodology had a profound impact on the software development industry, helping companies to reduce the number of software errors and accelerate the process of bringing their products to market. Through standardization of testing processes and integration of automated solutions, it allowed teams to focus on more important tasks at hand, such as exploratory testing, and gave a boost to the adoption of Agile methodology and automation across the whole industry, increasing the efficiency and scalability of the QA processes as a result.
Zhenis Ismagambetov concludes that in the future, both technological and communication skills will remain critical for those who want to be efficient QA specialists and build teams that work productively. The more technology and automation develop, the more important it becomes not to implement multiple tools and solutions separately but to follow an integrated approach that is necessary to establish a reliable testing and QA system, which is especially important in areas with a high cost of a mistake, such as biomedical research.
English (US) ·