Integration Testing in DevOps: Best Practices and Key Considerations
Tags: integration, testing
Published: 2023-04-18 17:44:13

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End-to-end integration testing tests every aspect of your system from beginning to end. This is often the most time consuming aspect of the software testing lifecycle. Teams that embrace the DevOps framework can accelerate delivery by automating the most time-consuming integration tests. 

This article will go over the best practices for creating a DevOps integration testing strategy that will save you time, effort, and money in the long run.

Why is test automation critical to DevOps?
DevOps is all about delivering quality at speed to address issues with delivery timing and business values. Test automation provides quick and accurate feedback to developers and testers, allowing for speedy responses to mistakes, defects, and changing requirements.

Or, to put it another way, test automation makes it possible for businesses to use DevOps in a manner that is both timely and economical.

According to IBM, it costs 6X more to fix a bug found during the implementation phase than to fix one identified during the design phase. Additionally, if a bug is found in the testing phase (right before production), fixing it costs 15X more than it would in the design phase.

Best Approaches for building a DevOps integration testing strategy
Leverage continuous testing: Fast feedback is essential to the DevOps methodology, which is all about releasing software as early and frequently as feasible. Continuous integration testing enables teams to find errors right away, allowing for quick feedback. In turn, this quickens release cycles, lowers the cost of fixing problems, and lowers risk.

Use code-free test automation: The final stage of testing is typically done by non-technical staff members because they are most familiar with the day-to-day operations of the organization. As a result, you should select a codeless automation platform that allows business users to write tests in plain English. Being able to develop test cases without using code is quite advantageous, especially when it comes to end-to-end integration testing. This significantly reduces the learning curve and makes it easier for your entire team to embrace test automation. Any employee can use the tool, taking stress off of IT departments are reducing labor costs.

Shift-left testing: The "shift left" testing trend aims to push testing toward the initial phases of software development. The concept of shift-left perfectly fits to the end-to-end integration testing process. After each feature is ready to use, you should write end-to-end  test cases. End-to-end integration  tests should be carried out last and only if the results of the preceding forms of testing are inconclusive, as they are more sophisticated and typically slower.

Make sure you have accurate test data: No matter how good your test cases are, they will be useless if you give them faulty data. You must make sure your tests receive high-quality data at the precise time they require it in an appropriate quantity. For this reason, you need a strong test data management (TDM) procedure.

Consider the overall maintenance challenges:  End-to-end integration tests are  challenging to keep up. This is due to the fact that the test must be adjusted each time a user interface element of the program changes. Also, if you don't update your tests to reflect UI changes, they could overlook important errors that impact the user experience.

Instead, you should choose a test automation platform that detects changes automatically and fixes them without the need for human interaction.

End-to-end integration test automation is typically difficult to maintain. However, Opkey's AI-powered self healing feature removes this burden. Because it uses a no-code method, end users can start and grow end-to-end test automation without having any prior scripting expertise. With support for more than a dozen packaged applications and 150 technologies, Opkey empowers teams to create complex, cross-app tests without coding.