The process of automating and streamlining the entire delivery lifecycle of software is known as DevOps testing. Many businesses implement DevOps testing techniques beginning with the agile Continuous Integration (CI) approach.
Developers should review shared codes in a repository all day long as part of this practice.
Each check-in is then verified by an automated build, enabling DevOps teams to identify conflicts and errors. In this article, we’ll talk about the DevOps Testing Cycle, DevOps Testing Tools, Test Automation, QA Testing, and how to create a DevOps strategy that works for your company.
Testing in a DevOps Environment
DevOps testing is a delicate balancing act between the objectives, knowledge, and communication of the development, QA, and operations teams.
DevOps testing has been integrated into the development process, skill sets, toolkits, and kits for the most efficient software app development. These apps share the resources within the limitless terabytes in internet clouds and are constructed on similar frameworks. All teams are encouraged to work together, cooperate, and communicate through DevOps.
What is DevOps Testing?
DevOps is a system that integrates and combines development and operations. The words “Development” and “Operations” are combined to form the term “DevOps.” The Development team and Operations teams collaborate flawlessly through DevOps testing.
The DevOps Testing System also provides other essential aspects like quality engineering and security in addition to the more traditional development and operations aspects. It primarily facilitates coordination and collaboration between the DevOps teams. As a result, It creates better-quality products.
Recently, DevOps testing has been used globally in organizations for several reasons. After gaining a basic understanding of DevOps Testing, it’s time to learn about the DevOps Lifecycle.
Why Should We Follow DevOps?
When we learn about new technology, the question of why it should be adopted always arises.
Traditionally, developers write the code and then commit it to a code repository when creating software. The code will transfer to the test environment for evaluation. The Testing team will test and approve the build before being deployed in production. Although this approach is efficient, it takes more time.
Process automation will help shorten the go-live period. In DevOps, each process will be carried out continuously over a short cycle.
DevOps Lifecycle
A decent DevOps cycle would begin with:
- Developer writing code.
- Building and deployment of binaries in a test environment.
- Finally, running test cases.
- Deploying to production in a single, seamless flow.
Naturally, this method strongly emphasizes automation in the build, deployment, and testing processes. In a DevOps cycle, the Continuous Integration (CI) tools and Automation Testing tools become standard.
Why DevOps?
DevOps will feel a little more comfortable to work with for those who have experience with Agile, although there are some minor differences between the two (and eventually adopt). While Agile principles are successfully applied during development and quality assurance iterations, the operations side is a completely different story (and frequently a source of contention). DevOps offers a solution to close this gap.
DevOps now involves “Continuous Development” instead of “Continuous Integration,” where the code was written, committed to Version Control, built, deployed, tested, and installed on the Production environment, then made available for end-user consumption.
This process benefits everyone along the entire chain as a result of the standardization of environments and processes. The whole chain of events is automated. Additionally, it frees all stakeholders to focus solely on designing and developing a product of the finest quality rather than worrying about various building, operations, and QA processes.
It now only takes three to four hours to deploy code for end users from the time it is written and committed to production.
DevOps is essentially an extension of Agile, or as we like to say, “Agile on Steroids.”
Advantages of DevOps Testing Strategy
Here are some benefits of having a great DevOps testing strategy.
Deliver Faster Feedback
Give feedback more quickly. You don’t want to force your developers to revisit the code they worked on a few weeks ago to fix a bug. You want them to receive feedback more quickly so they can fix the error, and you can let go more quickly.
More Platforms to Cover
It can cover more platforms by employing a strategy that scales test automation. Given the fragmentation of mobile and web platforms, this can be difficult. However, by using the appropriate test automation tools, you can guarantee coverage across more platforms in less time.
Reduce the Time Constraints on Test Execution
Finally, loosen the time restrictions for running tests. It can shorten the execution period. Operating at scale, simultaneously, and with the right tools can reduce time to market.
How can you make sure your plan is sound so you can reap the rewards? You must adhere to these testing in DevOps best practices to achieve that. Taking up DevOps Foundation certification will also help you master the DevOps testing best practices and ensure faster delivery of the product to end users.
DevOps Testing Best Practices
Automate Testing
No matter how meticulous, manual testing can be inaccurate and time-consuming, especially for fully developed products that demand extensive regression analysis. As a result, the release is delayed, or the production process introduces bugs. Software is verified more quickly and consistently by automation testing.
Unlike humans, test suites are objective, never get tired, and never make mistakes. They can be used again and again after being written. Additionally, they are less expensive to maintain.
Use Pair Testing for Manual Testing
Suppose your team has senior testers or developers ready to share their expertise and time with new team members. In that case, pair testing is another best practice and one of the most effective ways to train new team members and maintain DevOps pipeline velocity.
Pair programming is an agile software development method in which two programmers collaborate at the same workstation.
Pair testing is similar to pair programming. Two team members test the software application while seated at the same keyboard in pair testing. One person conducts the testing while the other reviews or analyses the findings.
Choose the Appropriate Testing Tools
To fully benefit from test automation, you should implement the right testing tools for your company—not the “best of” testing tools.
The first consideration when selecting a test automation tool is whether your team has the necessary knowledge and experience to work on it. For instance, using some open-source tools requires some programming knowledge.
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What about your test engineers?
Then determine if the tool’s total cost, which includes training expenses, maintenance costs, and updates, is within the testing budget. Always verify that the tools have proper technical support. Are you ready to service it yourself if not?
Automated testing tools should make it easy to write and execute test cases without complex configurations. Here is a list of popular software testing tools that are both open-source and paid options.
Some of the most widely used test automation tools are listed below:
- Selenium is a free and open-source tool for automating web application testing. It offers a variety of software for various testing requirements. There are numerous programming languages available for creating Selenium scripts.
- Katalon Studio, among the best automated testing software, comes in both free and paid versions. It can be applied to the automated web, desktop, mobile, and API testing. It works on numerous platforms.
- JMeter is open-source performance and load-testing software built on the Java platform, used to test various types of protocols.
- SoapUI is a tool for testing REST, SOAP, and GraphQL APIs. Another cross-platform, open-source tool with a practical graphical user interface is this one (GUI).
Create End-To-End Tests
Automated testing discussions frequently bring up unit tests. However, writing end-to-end tests that cover functional areas that a specific unit or component test does not cover is equally essential to writing unit tests.
These tests give the team confidence that regressions would be caught and ensure that a flow or highlight works and remains functional as new code is added.
Metrics for Tracking Performance
Another best practice is to use metrics to assess whether testing was successful or unsuccessful. This procedure gives management a clear picture of how the organization has been affected by the changes made to the software.
You can monitor the metrics like:
- The number of test cases that passed versus those that failed
- The number of bugs found
- Frequency of test cases that fail
- The time it takes for the automation suite to run
These metrics that offer insights into problem areas benefit immediately from continuous testing. These metrics can help DevOps teams to predict whether a system will experience more bugs as changes are made over time. Then, more creative approaches can be used to overcome setbacks.
Metrics for test execution time assist automation engineers in finding more efficient ways to create performance-enhancing test cases. Test execution metrics assist in effectively planning the release timeline because the execution of automation suits has grown to be a significant step of a software release.
DevOps QA Testing
Before DevOps, QA was responsible for deploying the builds in the appropriate environment. Then, functional and regression testing would begin with the QA team. Before being approved, the build would spend a few days with the QA. With the introduction of DevOps QA Testing, this changed.
With DevOps QA Testing, QA should sync with the DevOps cycle from day one. They should automate all of their test cases, and this should cover almost all of the code. They should also ensure that the environment is uniform and the deployments of the QA boxes are automated.
After the introduction of DevOps Testing, automation testing was used for all pre-and post-testing tasks, cleanups, and other processes. Currently, they follow the Continuous Integration Cycle.
DevOps Testing Strategy
Speaking of the effects the DevOps culture is having, you are probably already aware of how significant DevOps testing is to the success of your company.
Here are some crucial pointers for maximizing the effectiveness of your organization’s DevOps Testing Strategy:
- The team should decide which test case should run for a specific build.
- All tests should execute with a minimal amount of power.
- The QA and development teams should create a list of the areas that a specific build is affecting. They must run each test case about the build.
- Coverage tools and professional code analysis should be set up to ensure that the code is covered.
- Don’t run all regression test cases if the test passes.
- While the QA develops test scripts and executes automation tests on the builds in the interim, a standardized approach to testing new features is required. This process should continue unless the code is sufficiently stable and deployed in Production.
- It is necessary to automate the deployment procedure to formalize the testing environments.
- QA should run automation testing using various cross-platform environments with the help of automation techniques.
- Test execution should be done in parallel to speed up the time to market.
- An exit criterion needs to establish for each of the test cases. Once the results have reached the chain, Production can make a decision more quickly.
Test Automation for DevOps
For DevOps teams, automation is essential. The motto of an automation team with a DevOps focus should be “Automate Everything.”
Two elements of DevOps test automation are continuous integration and continuous testing. The Automation test should be done continuously for each build, and all tools should cooperate to produce the best outcomes. Faster automation development and script maintenance turnaround times are required.
Replace traditional tools with automation tools like Selenium, Cucumber, Lean FT, and others.
DevOps Testing: Essential For Delivering High-quality Software
DevOps is the ideal solution for many businesses to increase or maintain their competitiveness in the market. Continuous testing is a crucial component of CI and CD pipelines that helps in the continuous delivery of high-quality software.
The best practices you incorporate into your DevOps culture will have an impact on how well testing goes. DevOps testing strategies are built around automation and related tools.
