The Flex development process is synonymous with RIA development and Flex developer uses the latest Flex versions to deliver amazingly rich internet applications. This is easier said than done because the coding that goes into making a RIA takes lot of effort and time. Any coding errors, if unnoticed during the development process can create flaws in the final product and delay the completion of the RIA development project.

Coding is an important part of the RIA development process. Automated code testing is gaining importance as it reduces the testing time. However in automated testing process there is some confusion on who does the testing- the developer or a professional QA tester. The Flex development companies now use professional QA testers, who perform the tests manually or through specialized tools. The division in labor has resulted in Flex developer being given the responsibility of "unit testing" while QA tester allocated "functional testing". Flex Monkey is an open source Flex user interface testing tool, which enhances the productivity of both Flex developer and QA testers.

Flex Monkey provides robust recording and playback functionality, which can be utilized by Flex developer as well as QA tester. The tool saves tests as ready-to-run Flex unit test suites, which are readable and editable. The main purpose of the testing is that the RIA works well, as expected and do not cause any regression, i.e., breaking of previously working code. Automated testing saves time because Flex developer and QA tester can check a series of codes, find the faults, re-factor the code and re-check it to ensure that re-factored code is working as expected. In order to prevent regression it is necessary to automate the testing process, in which set of codes are checked from end-to-end.

The Flex Monkey offers Flex developer and QA tester a combination of recorder, code generator and API to create automated user interface tests, customized to perform application functionality. As the Flex applications are user-centric, the user interface is stacked on the top, above all the operations. Flex monkey allows the tester to follow the testing process beginning from the top to bottom. This is a powerful way to check Flex applications, particularly the lower level applications so that no regression occurs or sets in. The Flex developer and QA tester can easily use flex monkey effectively to drive end-to-end testing from the user interface, backwards to databases or the external systems. This assures the testing teams that any re-factored code has not broken some distant but interlinked part of an application system.

FlexMonkey provides a common testing platform to Flex developer and QA testers. The coding test initially created by the Flex developers provides a ground for the QA testers to create and conduct even more extensive tests on the RIA. Flex Monkey automates the entire testing process and at same time provides the Flex developer the flexibility to automate the representative function and leave the bulk of testing to quality assurance. This ensures that entire code is covered and that RIA is rigorously tested for any underlying defects before its final deployment.