Shift Left or Shift Right Test Automation?
Tags: testing, test
Published: 2022-10-03 10:30:56

Well begun is half done! This is true for [software testing](https://tenjinonline.com/) too; poor planning and execution can lead to discrepancies, incurring huge loss to the company. Hence, a well strategized testing is required to ensure the QA is performed as expected and yields accurate results. Choosing the right testing approach is a cruitical step in the success/ failure of the software. Two popular testing approaches are shift-left and shift right testing, now the question is which one to consider?

As development process have moved to agile and DevOps practices, software testing has become an integral part of the whole development and deployment cycle. Shift left and shift right are the popular testing methods adopted by the organizations to improve the quality of the software, let’s take a look at how one differs from another, and which one should you choose for your testing requirements.

Shift Left Testing

Shift left, as the name indicates shifts the testing to the left of the development phase. Here, testing is introduced in early stages of development and is performed throughout the development and deployment cycle. The purpose of shift left testing is to identify bugs earlier and fix them before they create a havoc across the workflow. It helps in risk mitigation by offering immense scope to reduce the errors and improve the quality of the software like never before.

Shift-left testing is an essential part of agile development environment as they support advanced processes like behavior-driven development and test-driven development. It has proven to give exceptional results.

Why shift-left testing is important?
•	Introducing testing early in the development cycle helps in improving the quality of the developed software and reduces the cost immensely
•	As turn-around-time is considerably reduced and quality software is provided, the ROI metrics increases
•	Shift-left testing increases focus on offering a seamless customer experience; hence, streamlining the process
•	Automating the process ensures the results are accurate and consistent
•	The continuous testing practice helps to identify any error that occurs across the pipeline and offers scope to fix them before it causes any discrepancy

Here, the developers and testers work closely to ensure all bugs are identified and fixed. In this approach, the team works towards achieving the higher quality.

Shift Right Testing
Shift right testing starts the process from the right, i.e., post production stage. It ensures the quality and business requirements are met by incorporating controlled experiments to test in the production environment that will involve functionalities and non-functionalities. It helps improve usability by turning focus on customer preferences.

Shift-right approach allows the testers to test the software behavior in real world scenario. Unlike shift left testing, shift right testing is performed after the production is complete.

Why is shift-right testing is used?
•	It offers higher test coverage
•	Since, testing is carried out from customer perspective, it ensures to improve customer experience
•	It helps in receiving customer feedback, hence, helps in aligning the process as per user preferences
•	Stability and performance testing are done considering the real-world traffic

Which one to choose?

A detailed explanation of shift left and shift right testing along with the advantages have been discussed. Both have its unique set of benefits and improve the QA process to offer a great user experience. The question is which one will suit your process the best and which will be the one you should choose?

Shift left testing is the most preferred by organizations operating on agile models to identify errors early, improve quality, and reduce time and cost. On the other hand, shift right is essential to test integrations and gather customer feedback and align the process according to it. Both are important to help organizations streamline the process and improve software quality; hence, an approach to leverage the benefits of both the testing methods will help organizations to achieve an ideal performance.

To achieve great testing results that offers higher test coverage, consistency, and accurate results, one can choose the test automation tool that will suit their requirement the best. One such test automation platform is Tenjin Online, a SaaS-based, codeless test automation platform that can efficiently test web and mobile apps with utmost ease. It is a simple to use tool that requires minimal human intervention and technical knowledge and can be performed by anyone. It is the simple yet the most efficient solution you can never miss.