Software firm Harness is further embracing AI with the launch of multiple new AI solutions for its QA and code generation platforms as the firm’s rapid growth is gaining further momentum.
One of the newly launched tools, the QA Assistant, creates self-healing test suites and can enable 10x faster test creation, the firm claims, in addition 70% less test maintenance, and 5x faster release cycles.
Another solution, the Harness AI DevOps Assistant, has AI capabilities embedded that aim to optimise workflows and track deployments, and is able to make recommendations with regards to improvements and potential errors.
“Crafting pipelines can be challenging. You need to consider your core build and deployment activities, as well as best practices around security scans, testing, quality gates,” according to company CEO Jyoti Bansal.
He stressed a third new offering, the AI Code Assistant, offers intelligent code completion, functionality generation, code refactoring and debugging, interactive explanations of the code, semantic search, and pull request generation.
“These AI-powered tools are more than just productivity boosters, they are virtual expert collaborators embedded into every stage of the development process,” Bansal continued. “
“By weaving AI deeper into the core of our platform, we’re enabling engineers to transcend routine tasks, focus on creativity, and push the boundaries of what’s possible in software delivery.”
San Francisco-based Bansal firmly believes “this is the future of development: developers working hand-in-hand with AI to achieve more, faster, and with greater satisfaction.”
Bansal, who also co-founded the API security platform Traceable, said “it is early days for AI and software development, so this dramatic change hasn’t swept through the ranks just yet.”
Nevertheless, “as the founder of three software firms, I see it coming sooner rather than later,” he stated.
Loops
Bansal makes a distinction between the so-called inner and outer loop. While any testing process is not always formalised, many software teams apply a similar division of labour when it comes to making their products, Bansal explained.
He added the so-called Inner Loop encompasses the high-value creative tasks involved in developing software. They include designing, writing, building, and debugging code—work performed by individual developers before they share it with fellow team members.
By contrast, the Outer Loop is home to the repetitive tasks that drain attention away from the high-value work taking place in the Inner Loop.
That includes testing the code, doing security, reliability, and quality assurance so it’s ready to use, Bansal clarified. So how does AI shift the balance between the two, he wonders out loud.
“Intelligent agents help developers create code more easily. The mental heavy lifting of translating a concept into strings of code, so work that can consume days or even weeks for humans, is accomplished in seconds by AI,” Bansal sums up.
“But the results are more akin to stream of consciousness than a polished novel. All that raw material needs an editor to prime it for publication,” he pointed out.
As an example, Bansal singled out developers using GitHub’s Copilot AI assistant are 55% more productive.
“The catch? Copilot yields code with security bugs and design flaws 40% of the time,” he stressed. “Combined with the increase in code volume, those vulnerabilities turn the Outer Loop into a bottleneck.”
Impact on QA teams
How will that situation change development teams? A common ratio of developers to testers is three to one, Bansal highlighted.
At a big bank with 40,000 software engineers, 10,000 might do security, reliability, and quality control.
“But the AI effect is like squeezing a balloon so it expands on the other side,” he said. “The coding productivity jump is offset by a dramatic increase in cycles spent on testing.”
Bansal argued that, for software teams, the pressure is on to adapt. “Companies that want to stay ahead of the game should first get a handle on a long-time adversary: toil,” he said.
Toil refers to the tedious, repetitive tasks that already consume too much of developers’ time and sanity.
“Whether they are testing code manually, waiting around for builds to finish, or seeking approval to move things along, software engineers find themselves frustrated, slowed down, and pulled away from the creative work that drives innovation,” Bansal explained.
“The coding productivity jump due to AI is offset by a dramatic increase in cycles spent on testing.”
– CEO Jyoti Bansal
As AI automation makes the Inner Loop ever faster, the Outer Loop threatens to get bogged down in more toil than ever, he continued.
“The answer: automated, scalable systems for security, reliability, and quality. Many people regard all this as a boring afterthought,” Bansal wrote.
“Indeed, I’ve seen plenty of engineering teams who are happy enough to hack together their own DIY fixes.”
Having said that, professional tools are essential to eliminating the toil that still plagues the software development life cycle. Continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) is a crucial one, Bansal emphasised.
“High-performing software teams use it to automate much of the labour needed to push new code through production,” he said.
“Building, testing, deployment—CI/CD takes care of what has historically been a tedious series of manual tasks.”
Security testing
A big part of the manual tasks is security testing, one of the most time-consuming jobs.
“Besides giving a clear picture of vulnerabilities, CI/CD can prioritize the most urgent ones and recommend quick, efficient fixes,” Bansal said.
Cloud cost management is another Outer Loop task ripe for automation, according to the Harness chief.
“The right tools can track cloud usage in a high level of detail, shutting down idle resources to cut costs. In my experience, the savings can be as much as 70%,” he noted.
“Even something as simple as internal developer platforms (IDPs) can be game-changing here,” Bansal continued.
“These self-service portals help speed up production by gathering together tools, services, and information, including an inventory of software components,” he said.
“Folks who specialise in testing might also start commanding bigger paychecks.”
– CEO Jyoti Bansal
Turning his attention to automation, “that is just half the battle,” Bansal argued. “I am not kidding when I say we’ll soon be in a world where QA engineers are more sought-after than coders in some circles,” he noted.
“Folks who specialise in testing might also start commanding bigger paychecks.”
But pay is just “a starting point,” as Bansal put it. “Developers also need to understand the company’s mission, feel challenged in their work, and have the right tools.”
“Ultimately, shoring up the Outer Loop could make the difference between success and failure. That’s no joke,” he added.
Split takeover and fresh capital
The launch of the new AI solutions comes after Harness recently reached a deal to take over software delivery and testing solution provider Split Software.
The acquisition came only weeks after the firm secured fresh capital allocations, totally just over $150 million, with fresh capital allocations from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, as well as Hercules Capital.
The Split takeover significantly boosted Harness’ market presence in the North American software testing space, as Split’s enterprise-software platform hosts a range of testing solutions and tools.
“Harness’s decision to acquire Split is driven by the need for robust feature management and test experimentation capabilities, explained Bansal.
He explained that “these functionalities allow development teams to push updates confidently, respond swiftly to tests and feedback, and address unexpected issues or outages effectively.”
Bansal, who declined to disclose any financial details of the transaction, stressed that Split’s platform supports scalable software testing and releases, “aligning perfectly with Harness’s mission,” as he put it.
Market demand
The need for Harness to increase its scale and scope comes “we have seen immense market demand for an advanced feature management testing solution,” Bansal said.
“We’re doubling down on our feature management and experimentation investment with our acquisition of Split. These critical capabilities add another robust capability to our platform, supporting the shift towards faster software testing and delivery,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Brian Bell, the CEO of Split, echoed these sentiments, highlighting the synergy between the two companies and explaining why his firm agreed to the sale.
“The moment of feature release is a critical touchpoint between the developer and user. Our mission has been to give development teams the confidence to accelerate with control and the freedom to test and innovate with ease.”
He added that “to further this mission, I couldn’t think of a better partner than Harness. Harness is automating and integrating every stage of software development.”
With Split under its umbrella, Harness plans to offer an integrated feature management and test experimentation solution.
“This new offering aims to enable customers to build, deploy, test and release software efficiently while conducting A/B tests to measure feature adoption,” Bansal summarised.
“Integrating Split’s capabilities with Harness’s AI technology, AIDATM, promises to deliver intelligent features that help developers ship with confidence,” he claimed.
Rapid growth
There is no doubt Harness has seen a jump in financial services clients in recent years. In the last five years, its revenue jumped from $1 million to more than $100 million last year.
This translated int customers executing more than 44 million code deployments with the Harness platform in 2023, more than double the number of deployments completed in 2022, Bansal claimed.
The firm significantly expanded its executive team as Carlos Delatorre joined as chief revenue officer and Gleb Brichko was appointed SVP of Marketing.
Particularly the introduction of AIDATM proved successful, a new generative AI assistant that can be integrated into all aspects of the software delivery lifecycle.
In more recent months, Harness went on to flood the market with a range of new products, such as its Internal Developer Portal, Infrastructure as Code Management platform as well as the Software Supply Chain Assurance.
“These new modules join the existing eight offerings to deliver a powerful, seamlessly integrated software delivery platform,” Bansal said.
He concluded by saying that “every year, developers waste more than $1 trillion by spending 40%+ of their time working on mundane, non-code-producing work. Our platform empowers software teams to achieve excellence in testing, velocity, quality, efficiency, and governance.”
UPCOMING QA FINANCIAL EVENT
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE QA FINANCIAL FORUM SINGAPORE 2024
Test automation, data and software risk management in the era of AI
The QA Financial Forum launches in Singapore on November 6th, 2024, at the Tanglin club.
An invited audience of DevOps, testing and quality engineering leaders from financial firms will hear presentations from expert speakers.
Delegate places are free for employees of banks, insurance companies, capital market firms and trading venues.
READ MORE
- Cognizant drags rival Infosys to court over trade secrets
- Testaify claims tool is ‘100x faster than seasoned QA architect’
- Fast-growing Newgen sets sights on banks in Middle East
- ABN Amro hires nCino and CBA for digital upgrade
- QAFF London: Lloyds’ Richard Bishop on the rise of ‘green software’
Become a QA Financial subscriber – for FREE
News and interviews * Receive our weekly newsletter * Get priority invitations to our Forum events
