DevOps will increase collaboration throughout the software development and testing process, improve software quality, and help get products to the market faster. However, you'll need the right testing strategy, automation frameworks, and testing tools to succeed with DevOps.
Early in development, QA in DevOps is responsible for defining testing procedures to maximize coverage and reduce testing time. These strategies will likely rely on automated testing tools to test extensive sections of a development and deployment pipeline.
This blog post will discuss how continuous testing is at the heart of modern QA. We'll also explain why automated testing is the only way QA can keep up with the rapid pace of modern software development.
Most organizations have adopted the DevOps approach to facilitate faster software development. Continuous testing is central to this process and will remain essential to software development as companies seek innovation to stay competitive in the marketplace.
Continuous testing reduces the risks associated with software development by allowing thorough testing of coding changes before being deployed into a production environment. Testing should occur every time new code is pushed into a repository.
Further, continuous testing facilitates testing throughout the entire software development life cycle and will identify issues when they're less expensive to fix.
To make this all possible, modern QA relies heavily on continuous testing and automation to test as much of the code in a development and deployment pipeline as possible, with the goal of testing early and often.
QA in DevOps will be responsible for developing a testing strategy that is best suited for your project. The DevOps approach relies heavily on automated testing to speed up the development process and eliminate the need for time-consuming manual testing.
In a successful DevOps environment, QA is brought into the picture well before development begins to make critical security, performance, and stability recommendations. Your QA team will also be responsible for creating the automated test cases that make up the continuous testing element of the CI/CD pipeline.
DevOps will require automated testing tools to test large sections of the CI/CD pipeline every time new code is delivered to produce a fast, reliable, and effective software development lifecycle.
Using automated testing tools such as Copado Robotic Testing in DevOps offers benefits such as:
In the future, companies will continue to seek out digital transformation to remain flexible in fast-changing markets and meet ever-increasing customer demands. Maintaining a rapid pace of technological development will require continuous testing.
Using automated testing tools will be the only way your QA in DevOps can keep up with change. Testing large software projects throughout development without automation could take several weeks or more. In comparison, manual testing and inadequate testing tools are severely limited and time-consuming.
QA strategies that use the right automated testing tools and methods make continuous testing, continuous development, and delivery in complex IT environments possible. By design, automated testing should occur automatically as soon as code change gets committed to a code repository. This will significantly expand test coverage and reduce the testing time required for any project.
The modern IT environment is constantly changing and growing increasingly complex. While DevOps can speed up your software development process, you'll need a strong QA strategy that uses the best tools and practices to be successful.
The DevOps approach improves software quality and reduces unanticipated costs resulting from bugs getting pushed into production. However, your QA team will play a significant role in creating the right testing strategy to align with future goals and priorities.
QA is ultimately responsible for selecting the most suitable tools and frameworks for manual and automated testing. Companies that lack a strong testing strategy and the right automated tools will not be able to ensure continuous testing and delivery.