Where Does QA and Test Automation Fit in DevOps
Tags: testing, automation, devops, testsigma
Published: 2019-07-10 17:48:26

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###What Is DevOps?

DevOps is the combination of software development practices that combines Software Development (Dev) with Information Technology Operations (Ops) intended to speed up the development life cycle of any software application. It is critical to delivering new features and improvements, bug fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives.

In a nutshell, DevOps practices include Agile planning, Continuous Integration, Testing, and Continuous Delivery, and of course monitoring and improving. Let us remember that DevOps is not a process or a technology or even a standard. Many businesses, software companies, and IT professionals refer to DevOps as a culture focusing on rapid delivery through the adoption of agile lean processes. DevOps heavily involves technology, technologies for building systems to be delivered and more importantly, testing automation tools for QA testing purposes.



###Where Does QA and Test Automation Fit with DevOps?

DevOps plays a very important role in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), but where exactly does QA fit in continuous integration of DevOps practice?

The answer to the question is simple. QAs with their test automation activities fit in every release. They, the QA tester team, after all, are obliged to thoroughly check the product, and make sure it is well-polished and production worthy. They practically make sure that quality is ensured throughout the testing and delivery cycle and each of the testing and development groups is answerable for it.

Continuous integration and continuous delivery practices, software updates take place almost every week and it is expected of business operations to encounter problems that can be rooted mainly from being a defect in the product that pretty much affects multiple business users. This is quite a common scenario nowadays for businesses, therefore, everyone needs a quick fix especially when the product is failing.

Having a hotfix means it needs to be tested right before it is ported to production. This is where the QAs and test team comes in. This is where they need to take responsibility and accountability in evaluating and doing some assessments whether the immediate fix resolves the current issue the production is facing and most of all, the fix does not affect the functionality of any of the existing features within the application. So just as much as the Developers and Product Owners wanted to get rid of the outage by a quick fix, a Quality Analyst is needed to mitigate future outages to as much an extent as possible.

Basically, QA ties together development and operations and enables them to collaborate to have software and applications up and running. Everyone in the organization takes responsibility for quality and stability, and thereby for the success of the business.

Developers think more like a tester, and continually checks their own code for potential errors. Conversely, a tester, whose responsibility is to test the application or software using different types of testing tools & methodologies think of workarounds to fix the code. In such a scenario, organizations without a strong and definite QA and testing strategy to “continuously test” in DevOps face troubles in meeting their goals for an accelerated speed of delivery.



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###What Is the Impact of DevOps on QA?

DevOps is roughly an approach but rather it is a culture and a practice of continuous integration, continuous deployment, and continuous improvement. Multiple teams are involved and working together to work as a DevOps team, therefore it affects not only QAs but also the development team, business operations, production support, etc.

If we are solely talking about QAs, we can formulate the impact of  DevOps.

One, DevOps is considered an enabler for businesses to reduce IT budget. It improves the efficiency of end-to-end delivery, runs on a lean delivery framework and it has a working end-to-end test automation framework.

Nowadays, successful businesses today are design thinking driven. The majority of them have a strong sense of urgency, aided by innovative software engineering practices. Businesses today need to have a working continuous delivery practice in place. Having one in place pretty much mandates a better outcome of product quality and speedy release. Automaton is the key to success across DevOps processes.

Delivery by co-located, integrated teams using innovative tools prevents collaboration and communication issues.

Manual errors, stove-piped communication issues are completely addressed just by having a good DevOps governance model. The model itself mandates “Fail Fast, Fail Often” which is driven by the “Test First” concept. This means that testing is a continuous process and more extensive in nature. Testing allows cohesiveness between the team of teams and the automation of everything possible. Testing is paving way for continuous improvement in the test processes being delivered via iterations. Intelligent test automation, improved regression, continuous test augmentation to name a few, are some benefits delivered by DevOps.

From a testing standpoint, DevOps addresses some of the key testing challenges. For instance, in a test environment, virtualization, automated deployment, automated build and configuration management, data refresh and maintenance becomes seamless. On the other hand, continuous Integration, automation, and verification – test first centric test-driven development, behavior-driven development concepts allow test processes to improve in a DevOps Model.

With all these, it is safe to say that as far as DevOps and Test Automation is concerned, DevOps accelerates the project delivery and life cycle of building an application. On the other hand, is designed to speed up the testing phase without compromising the quality of the product.

Having the best of both worlds, DevOps knowledge and practices along with Test Automation is promising for the success of the business. With the right team roster and an automation tool, like <a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma</a>, you will have your product live in the market in no time!

If you haven’t tried Testsigma yet, then you are missing out on shifting your QA team from manual testing to test automation in a jiffy. Above all, lets your QA team be a part of the automated DevOps process.



###Testsigma: Your Best Yet Move Towards Test Automation For DevOps

Now if we start talking about the “perfect” QA tool that fits DevOps culture and practice, there are a few things we need to keep in mind. Factors like the iterative, automated, and incremental nature of DevOps. The QA tool must and at all cost be flexible enough to handle all the unforeseen changes during testing sessions. More importantly, it should be scalable to the extent to endure workloads during the continuous development, continuous testing, and continuous deployment phases.

What we should be looking for is a tool that completely adapts to how DevOps works. A tool that is an enabler which can empower your testing team for iterative releases. On a special note, the tool should be scalable and reliable to handle the incremental amount of code changes.

Just to summarize all this, what you need is a solution that is designed for Test Automation in DevOps.

Sure, there can be a lot of testing solution provider in the market like **UFT** that uses VBScript as its scripting language, then there are tools in service virtualization for Testing and many more of them that claims to be an “all-in-one testing solution” and choosing just one would be a difficult task.

Well in that case, sometimes it is best to try it for yourself. You may try Testsigma, an all in one Unified Test Automation Software for Web, Mobile apps and Web Services and one that works well for DevOps and CD.


Here are a few features <a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma</a> offers:

* **Get Started with Test Automation Ecosystem** enables you to access <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/essential-elements-of-test-automation/">essential elements required for test automation</a>. No tool and setup required.
     
* **Continuous Testing for Agile and DevOps teams** that uses shift-left approach, incorporates Continuous Integration and Continuous Development, provide fast feedback to accelerate the delivery of web & mobile apps.
     
* **Super-Fast Test Development Using Simple English** lets everyone write automated tests at least 5 times faster using plain English. No coding skills required.
     
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* **Parallel Test Execution to Save Time and Cost** because of scalable test environments and parallel test executions to run thousands of tests in minutes for faster feedback.
     
* **AI to Reduce Maintenance Efforts and Improve Productivity** by saving test maintenance time by 70%. AI also helps identifies affected and potential failures upfront to save execution time and costs.


With all these being said, it is best to say that Testsigma is built for QA teams to automate testing in DevOps. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t be left behind. Sign up now for a <a href="https://testsigma.com/signup">free 30 days’ trial</a>!

For more information, visit <a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma Official Website</a>.