The Emergence of DevTestOps: Automating QA throughout Development

DevTestOps

A combination of DevOps and continuous testing referred to as DevTestOps. The DevTestOps process includes early testing, thorough examinations & often assessments. This continuous testing gets done throughout the software development pipeline. DevTestOps process highlights the significance of tested product development along with Ops professionals. It stresses the significance of a continuous framework that gets integrated with a CI/CD pipeline. The continuity of testing feedback to developers throughout various stages of product development allows a reduction in business risks and the possibility of finding defects at later stages.

Difference between DevTestOps & DevOps

DevOps automates various manual processes that occur in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). This process leads to faster product development. DevOps might miss critical bugs, scenarios, and business requirements in the product when continuous testing is not performed. This is where DevTestOps makes its mark with the introduction of continuous testing. With the inclusion of DevTestOps, continuous testing gets implemented as a major part of the software development pipeline.

A discussion about continuous testing

Continuous, in the context of SDLC, refer to codes that get deployed endlessly. The codes get continuously developed, delivered, and tested before getting deployed. Various software testers identify possible scenarios based on numerous requirements to create & execute test cases right from the beginning of a software development pipeline. Software testers then share feedback with the design & development team and make them understand about business risks that are involved.

An uninterrupted execution of automated tests gets done while the software delivery process goes on. This facilitates immediate feedback based on business requirements with product development & mitigation of risks as they proceed to the next SDLC stage.

Continuous testing helps to assess or examining codes through the SDLC that reduces gaps between testers, developers & operations teams. End-to-end automation tests help integrate QA into DevOps processes for maintaining continuity. Challenges arise in quicker development cycles get addressed this way. The scope of continuous testing is pretty huge with the validation of functional & non-functional product requirements. It includes API testing, integration, as well as system testing of software. All these tests get done in a simulated environment with test automation.

Why DevTestOps for continuous testing?

For properly enabling DevTestOps, continuous testing needs to get integrated into an already implemented setup of continuous integration, delivery, & deployment. Testers play a vital role, through DevTestOps, by enabling feedback at each step of continuous testing as mentioned before. The testing gets implemented at each stage and automated processes are used for the same. This has led to several improvements:

✓ Any defects get detected at earlier stages and hence, it's easier to fix, resulting in a timely deliverance of products.

✓ Shortens the period of SDLC from weeks to hours by automating the process.

✓ Developers, testers, & operators work together that leads to a better understanding of various modules.

✓ Automation avoids any & all human errors with less dependency on man-power.

Advantages of DevTestOps

Continuous testing has become a revolutionary process since its inception. Developers get to connect with customers for shaping positive user experiences based on their changing needs, feedbacks, & reviews.

Testers get closer to developers & business analysts taking part in SDLC from the early stages of design & development of software.

A one-time investment is worthy as its return has the following benefits:

✓ Better code quality is assured.

✓ Developers receive immediate feedback about the product from testers that helps them in fixing any issues & fine-tuning the software.

✓ Fixing costs are less and no human mistakes as the processes are fully automated.

Best practices that help with continuous testing for successful DevTestOps

It would be wise to automate test cases as well as repetitive processes. This helps in saving a lot of time & resources. An effective, faster, and easier tool should be selected for integration. Communication & understanding between all teams become effective that result in good product yield. Multi-layer testing helps in understanding the efficiency of automated processes.

A DevTestOps environment that is flawless helps the design & development team with ample support for continuous release & deployment through DevOps. DevTestOps is ideal for all business organizations that look forward to releasing high-quality products into markets without any delay.

The testing processes involved in DevTestOps

Shift-Right Testing

Shift-right testing focuses on various key observations as well as a thorough monitoring of various product development processes. As is known, DevOps caused a major shift in software development & testing. With practices such as CI/CD & DevOps becoming common among business practices, the environment starts to change constantly. As a result, traditional testing tools struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of development. With the emergence of Agile, and CI/CD, software updates get deployed at a more rapid pace.

Continuous testing helps the development team & testers to prevent any risk-costly bugs slipping into production. Intelligent automation solutions are getting adopted by business organizations & enterprises that improve the whole developmental processes. Continuous testing causes a marked increase in the quality of the products as well. Shift-right testing focuses on implementing continuous assessment processes in SDLC.

Shift-Left Testing: Core to DevTestOps

Shift-left testing brings in quality to the whole examination process. The whole delivery team gets involved in testing activities. Developers start integrating application tests as soon as the first line of code is written. The code writing and test building go hand-in-hand. This process allows isolated changes to tests without impacting master test-versions.

Once a pull request is sent for feedbacks and gets approved, merged & enters a software development pipeline, the code should not change significantly. By initiating a testing process so early in development, development teams use the preview environment for a final code check, before it's approved. Businesses realize and obtain a faster delivery by adhering to this policy internally while reducing all risks & costs.

Automating QA throughout development

Communicate with delivery teams

A proper collaboration among the entire delivery team is key to the shifting-left process. The entire team gets involved that include developers, QA, product designers, and UX in all requirements, planning as well as sprint meetings. Quality products get built with the application of a diverse perspective and allow various functions for contributing to the expertise. Common issue tracking as well as communication tools help build a culture of quality. By surfacing test results along with any bugs earlier, all teams work quite efficiently. Thus, communicating with delivery teams help in imparting efficiency to product design & development.

Build intelligent pipelines

Teams can make more informed decisions by building or designing intelligent CI/CD pipelines. These intelligent pipelines and informed decisions help developers with an effective development process. Leveraging tests created by other team members along with chaining actions & test together comprise some simple tests for developing intelligent pipelines. Developers configure workflows for testing & deploying after considering and passing certain sets of criteria. The pipeline gets sophisticated by connecting automatic tests directly to pipeline tools. Build triggers to run tests when the code gets deployed. Developers get to trigger a code merge when a specific set of tests pass ensuring quality. Building of intelligent pipelines enables developers for testing their designs & development without leaving their workflow. Automating much of the testing process helps as well. The developing team continues to reduce bugs shipped into production. Reducing of repairs & accumulated changes gets done through this process as well.

Testing: A team effort

The continuous testing process is a team process that benefits almost all departments in a business enterprise or organization. With the introduction of the testing process, it is no longer the sole responsibility of QA to test codes. Modern software delivery relies on the adoption of DevTestOps, which is an automated testing process done throughout the entire design & developmental life-cycle. The DevTestOps process achieves a high level of efficiency and realizes the full potential of DevOps. By automatically testing codes at each stage of development, business organizations get to minimize interruptions while focusing on higher-value work. This process improves overall customer experience that leads to an increase in revenue.

DevTestOps: Testing integrated into DevOps

The emergence of DevTestOps has automated the entire QA throughout the development process. By integrating continuous testing into the DevOps process at all individual stages, DevTestOps revolutionized the entire software development process.

The shift-right & shift-left processes help with the integration process. A harmony gets built between the developers, testers, and operators that ultimately result in quality products. A connection gets formed between developers & customers through testers. The operators benefit from this union as well.

Overall, the DevTestOps becomes beneficial for the entire business enterprise or organization. Revenue increases with good quality products becoming a hit in the market among customers. All in all, DevTestOps work wonders through the process of continuous testing. What are you waiting for? Embrace DevTestOps and be the best among your competition!