What is Continuous Testing in DevOps?
Let’s start by answering the most fundamental question
What is Continuous Testing in DevOps?
Continuous Testing as the term suggests refers to the execution of automated tests that are carried out at regular intervals every time code changes are made. These tests are performed as a part of the software delivery pipeline in order to drive faster feedback after the recent changes pushed to the code repository.
The key motto of Continuous Testing is to reduce the time taken to provide feedback to developers. It attempts to address the following question –
How fast can a problem be identified, inform the same to the development team, and get it fixed?
The objective here is to test more often, particularly at an individual level in the early stages of development, and then testing the unified codebase as a whole.
Note: Continuous testing is an integral part of the continuous integration and deployment pipeline in DevOps. The process of Continuous Integration and delivery requires Continuous Testing.
How does Continuous Testing play a vital role in DevOps?
It’s evident that every software application is built uniquely, and it needs to be updated regularly to meet end-user requirements. Earlier, as the development and deployment process was rigid, changing and deploying features required a considerable amount of time. This is because projects earlier had definite timelines for development and QA phases, and the codebase was transferred between teams.
However, with the Agile approach becoming mainstream, making changes even in real-time has become more convenient, primarily due to Continuous Testing and the CI/CD pipeline. This is because the code is continually moving from Development -> Testing -> Deployment Stages.
With an Agile mindset being at the core, Continuous Testing in DevOps helps teams to explore critical bugs in the initial stages itself. This ensures that the risk of critical bugs is mitigated beforehand, saving the cost of bug fixing in later stages.
Key Benefits of Continuous Testing
Listed below are some key benefits of incorporating Continuous Testing:
- Early discovery of critical bugs
- Seamless collaboration among developers, QA and Operations team
- Helps to assess the quality of software developed at each stage
- Faster time to market with a viable product and continuous feedback mechanism
Points to Consider Before Adopting Continuous Testing
There are a few points which developers and QAs need to be mindful of when initiating Continuous Testing into the development process.
- Embracing Continuous Testing involves starting testing efforts from the initial stages of development and at every single branch in the pipeline.
- Developers and QAs must choose the right set of tools and automation frameworks for each layer of the test automation pyramid — Unit testing, API testing, and UI testing.
- There are multiple test automation frameworks available that allow concurrent test execution. Selenium and Cypress are two such frameworks that are widely used for automating web-app testing. On the other side, Jenkins and Travis are among the most popularly used CI/CD tools
- QAs must also evaluate the test results carefully and look out for false negatives or false positives. This is because either of them can lead to disruptions in the production stage.
- No matter what, there’s always a probability that the recently released build will misbehave or crash. In such cases, teams must have a proper roll-back plan. Developers must ensure that before pushing any code in the production stage, all critical data is backed up.
Every organization operates differently and have their own ways of executing Agile practices. However Continuous Testing is an unavoidable part of DevOps. An efficient way to integrate Continuous Testing is to have an all in one environment that provides teams with the flexibility to choose the desired programming languages, frameworks, and tools for testing.
