Test computer system operations to ensure proper functioning
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
Work that already happens inside a computer is the easiest to hand over, because the agent and the worker are operating in the same place. The constraint is permissions rather than capability: the agent needs its own scoped access, not a borrowed password.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Work done in software |
| Jobs that do it | 12 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials (4.A.1.b.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 12 occupations that perform it.
- Design, develop, select, test, implement, and evaluate new or modified informatics solutions, data structures, and decision-support mechanisms to support patients, health care professionals, and their information management and human-computer and human-technology interactions within health care contexts.
- Perform risk assessments and execute tests of data processing system to ensure functioning of data processing activities and security measures.
- Evaluate local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) performance data to ensure sufficient availability or speed, to identify network problems, or for disaster recovery purposes.
- Test changes to database applications or systems.
- Investigate whether networks, workstations, the central processing unit of the system, or peripheral equipment are responding to a program's instructions.
- Test system modifications to prepare for implementation.
- Test issues such as system integration, performance, and system security on a regular schedule or after any major program modifications.
- Test the security of systems by attempting to gain access to networks, Web-based applications, or computers.
- Scan networks, using vulnerability assessment tools to identify vulnerabilities.
- Run infrastructure tests to examine the behavior of large peer-to-peer networks.
- Verify stability, interoperability, portability, security, or scalability of system architecture.
- Develop computer programs to collect meteorological data or to present meteorological information.
- Test repaired items to ensure proper operation.
- Perform systems analysis and programming tasks to maintain and control the use of computer systems software as a systems programmer.
- Conduct software compatibility tests with programs, hardware, operating systems, or network environments.
- Check and analyze operating system or application log files regularly to verify proper system performance.
- Test the security and performance of blockchain infrastructures.
- Research, test, or verify proper functioning of software patches and fixes.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for work done in software, and what it costs.
Work already inside a computer needs scoped access, not a new product, so start with the assistant you are already paying for. n8n is free if you host it yourself and is the cheapest way to leave something running unattended.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
12 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Atmospheric and Space Scientists
- Blockchain Engineers
- Computer Network Support Specialists
- Computer Programmers
- Computer Systems Engineers/Architects
- Database Administrators
- Health Informatics Specialists
- Information Security Analysts
- Information Security Engineers
- Penetration Testers
- Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
- Web Administrators
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Test performance of computer or information systems”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Test software performance | 14 |
| Test computer hardware performance | 7 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.