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Author: Akshaya Choudhary

  • Continuous Testing: Complementary to Agile and DevOps

    Continuous Testing: Complementary to Agile and DevOps

    Digital transformation brought about by quality software applications and robust hardware platforms helps to create a competitive advantage for enterprises across verticals and geographies. Now it is no longer about choosing between speed or quality of software but to incorporate both when delivering to customers. With Agile and DevOps being embraced by enterprises to stay up to speed on the competitive curve, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD) and continuous testing (CT) have become the catalysts driving quality digital transformation.

    It goes without saying that continuous testing has become critical and is challenging. CI and CD are primarily tools and team-driven activities, while CT is comprehensive in its scope, including teams, tools, testers and services. The importance of driving and integrating code changes cannot be ignored in the software delivery life cycle. At the same time, unless the automated delivery system can figure out the impact of such code changes on customer experience, CI and CD could become meaningless.

    Rising competition and changing market dynamics have put pressure on enterprises to innovate and change. Agile and DevOps in consonance with continuous testing offer the framework to address the requirement. At the heart of digital transformation lies the need to deliver software quickly, safely and reliably, which can be achieved through continuous testing in DevOps.

    Why Continuous Testing?

    Customers today use software applications across a plethora of devices, operating platforms, browsers and networks. They want the applications to be high-performing, navigable, scalable, secure, intuitive and fast-loading. These attributes can only be fostered if the software development process supports a robust QA mechanism in the Agile or DevOps mold. Unlike in the traditional or manual way of testing, where QA comes after development as a separate discipline, the Agile and DevOps models have QA as part of an integrated team with development.

    In Agile testing, the software is tested for performance, security, usability, scalability and more throughout the various stages of development. Thus, glitches are identified and fixed early in the SDLC, leading to the delivery of quality software. A continuous testing strategy enables enterprises to put in place the processes, systems and automation to accelerate the time to market, install improved feedback loops and deliver desirable business outcomes including high-quality products and services, operational efficiency, responsiveness, competitive differentiation and enhanced customer experience.

    Continuous testing services create a quick and risk-free feedback loop for the QA specialists in the Agile testing pipeline to understand (and act upon) the issues faced by the end customers. These services help to manage business risks borne out of the complexity and pace of application delivery.

    Why Agile and DevOps?

    To thrive in a competitive business environment, enterprises must address issues such as time constraints and resource mobilization to build-test-deliver applications that are higher quality, secure and stable. This engenders a renewed focus on continuous test automation and collaboration.

    • The DevOps approach is ideal for enterprises that struggle to manage demand and implement rapid changes in the SDLC.
    • DevOps allows enterprises to address their acceleration and integration needs by establishing a toolchain that cuts across the realms of development, QA, integration, management and delivery.
    • The silo-driven development and operations teams should be integrated to drive better collaboration. Further, the pipeline should have a built-in mechanism to receive continuous feedback and to generate better quality features and functionalities.

    DevOps: The Extension of Agile

    In the Agile model of software development, developers create user stories comprising smaller chunks of the build to generate feedback loops and to align the product to the market need. It started with small teams comprising developers and QA testers working collaboratively and efficiently. Thereafter came the notion of scale, wherein the software code was developed in short iterations. However, down the pipeline, when it came to deployment and receiving feedback, the silo-driven processes stifled what was expected of Agile.

    Consequently, the process was further refined by automating and streamlining the SDLC and incorporating continuous integration. In CI, code is tested repeatedly and integrated to create a stream of small but frequent releases. However, these challenged the Ops team, which found it difficult to keep pace with development. So, while Agile addressed the issues developers faced with glitches being passed on to the next phase, the DevOps approach turned out to be more effective, as it treated the entire SDLC as a monolith of collaborative processes that generate better outcomes.

    Continuous Delivery and Testing

    To support the strategic business needs, many enterprises have graduated from performing CI to implementing CD. In doing so, they have fine-tuned both processes and technical frameworks. From creating CI builds and executing testing to achieving deployment, the continuous delivery and continuous testing methodologies have covered all dimensions of the organization’s operations. These ensure the quick and frequent deployment of quality software applications to end users. The questions to be asked while implementing a continuous testing framework are:

    • Is the software application deployable during its life cycle?
    • Can the software application be deployed while the team is working on its new features?
    • Can the process receive quick and automated feedback each time a change is implemented?
    • Can a push-button deployment be performed for a software version in any environment?

    How Agile, DevOps and Continuous Testing Benefit Enterprises

    These interconnected methodologies help enterprises in several ways:

    • Accelerated time to market.
    • Better productivity and efficiency.
    • Frequent releases of reliable and stable builds.
    • Capability to build products aligned to the market.
    • Better feedback mechanism.
    • Superior customer experiences.

    Conclusion

    The need for enterprises to be the disrupter in the market by producing or delivering top-quality software products or services has put focus on methodologies such as Agile, DevOps and continuous testing. The complementary relationship among the three methodologies has led to the overhauling of processes and working culture in favor of a new paradigm in which quality deployment is a continuous process.

  • Why You Can’t Have DevOps Without Test Automation

    Why You Can’t Have DevOps Without Test Automation

    The rapid adoption of digital technologies by enterprises to stay nimble, competitive and quality-driven has given digital transformation wide currency. The process facilitates decision-making and allows organizations to innovate, accelerate the time to market and be responsive to customer needs.

    The world of today is for those enterprises that can quickly turn an idea into a consumer product or service, absorb feedback from the market and customers to refine the product/service and relaunch it. This is where DevOps can help such organizations in terms of offering continuous development, innovation, integration and deployment. 

    Fixing Glitches with DevOps Testing Strategy

    To stay on the right side of customer preference, enterprises must roll out software updates on a trot, which is not easy by any stretch of imagination. This is because every update needs to be tested across devices, operating platforms, frameworks, geographies and networks. If the DevOps approach is not right in executing the process of development, testing and deployment, the inherent glitches can prove to be costly. In many cases, in a bid to be ahead of the curve, enterprises do not give testing its due. 

    In other words, products or their updates are often launched without letting them pass through a stringent QA pipeline. The consequences of such quick deployment without adequate testing may manifest themselves in various ways. These may include the quality of product taking a beating, regulatory bodies subjecting such organizations to censure and penalties, and customers taking a flight to the competitors. With business reputation at stake, enterprises are well-advised to follow a strong DevOps approach and identify/fix glitches quickly in the pipeline. 

    DevOps and Test Automation

    When it comes to DevOps specialists discussing key elements that go into a continuous integration (CI) or continuous delivery (CD) pipeline, they mostly talk about code repositories or CI servers. Interestingly, DevOps test automation finds less mention in the rarefied circles where strategies are planned. This is despite the DevOps test automation being considered an integral part or medium to achieve outcomes like CI and CD.

    DevOps specialists mostly focus on aspects such as integration and deployment of the software, thereby giving test automation a miss. This can be self-defeating and invariably goes against the grain of DevOps philosophy where QA forms an integral part along with development and operations. Does this mean these specialists are more tuned into the manual testing aspect while leaving test automation altogether? The probable answer would be the ingrained belief in some DevOps experts about the efficacy of manual testing. This would not have raised any hackles until the advent of continuous delivery chains. 

    Why Test Automation for DevOps?

    The two outcomes of DevOps, CI and CD, mean the development pipeline should deliver quality products quickly and consistently. Besides, the products should be upgraded periodically based on market feedback. This means products should be tested for glitches early in the SDLC to save cost and time. What better way to achieve the same than by implementing test automation in DevOps QA. 

    Faster test outcomes: Test automation can be implemented by writing a test script on a tool. The code in development is put through that script and checked for expected outcomes. Any deviation is noted and investigated for possible errors. This is way faster than manual testing, where QA specialists find repetitive testing frustrating and have a tendency to miss errors. 

    Consistent results: Consistency in QA means the software behaves on expected lines throughout the delivery pipeline. Test automation can validate the code for variables at different stages and mitigate the chances of human errors.

    Ease with regression testing: When a major update is implemented, certain types of tests, such as usability testing, are performed manually. However, when there are more variables and the software needs to be checked across devices, operating systems, browsers, geographies and networks, then automatic testing takes the cake. It can work non-stop and check for deviations or non-compliance. 

    Human resources utilization: During manual testing, scarce human testers are deployed in tasks that require constant attention. Further, to avoid boredom arising out of conducting repeated testing, QA testers can give certain tests a miss. Imagine the type or number of glitches escaping the test dragnet and later ruining the user experience. However, with test automation, repetitive testing can go unhindered wherein scarce human resources can be deployed for better activities.

    Conclusion

    In today’s age of fast software releases, quality can be ensured through a smooth DevOps-led pipeline ensuring CI and CD. However, achieving consistency in testing and pre-empting issues like cybercrime are underpinned on implementing DevSecOps and enabling a culture of quality control at every step of the way.

  • Why Is QA so Important in Executing a DevOps Implementation Strategy?

    Why Is QA so Important in Executing a DevOps Implementation Strategy?

    In a rapidly growing global digital landscape, enterprises are facing many challenges. These include changing customer behavior and the need to be in line with the latest technology trends. To address these challenges and to stay up the competition curve, enterprises are adopting a slew of strategies. These comprise expanding the capacity of processes, quick quality checking and delivery of applications and timely marketing of the applications. This is where DevOps comes as a one-stop solution to the aforementioned requirements. 

    When it comes to assuring the quality of software applications, the Agile and DevOps model of testing is favored over the traditional waterfall model. This is because software applications need to be tested across a swathe of platforms—devices, browsers and operating systems. In the DevOps scheme of things, software builds are continuously integrated and deployed in the development pipeline by using test automation. It involves the development and implementation of new features along with the streamlining of processes. 

    What Is DevOps?

    DevOps is an amalgamation of terms “development” and “operations” and is underpinned on four basic pillars—culture, tools, collaboration and practices. Combining processes and philosophies, the DevOps approach helps enterprises deliver quality builds in the SDLC. Here, development and operations teams no longer work in silos but in close coordination with each other. As a result, quality becomes a shared responsibility and a culture of accountability gains ground. DevOps implementation leads to the quick development and deployment of quality builds, faster solving of critical issues and engendering greater trust and confidence.

    Let us understand the best DevOps implementation strategies to derive outcomes such as continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). To begin with, getting the QA basics right the first time and every time should be considered as part of the strategy. This is due to the fact that in a pure DevOps ecosystem, the lines between development and QA are blurred.

    Test Automation

    Since the software needs to have an omnichannel interface with third-party applications to perform optimally, the test process should be automated. There should be a smooth QA-DevOps alignment to detect and mitigate glitches early on in the SDLC. Thus, DevOps testing may involve choosing automated tools that are either open-source or commercial. 

    Teams Merge

    To derive DevOps transformation, the integration of the QA team with other technical specialists becomes important. The final DevOps team should adapt a culture wherein identifying glitches becomes a shared responsibility. 

    Metrics

    Since DevOps testing is all about quick identification and fixing of glitches, the metrics should be defined at the beginning. It will help the DevOps team to stay focused on the challenges and requirements. This calls for the QA engineers to setup test requirements into the workflow and guide the team therein.

    Virtualization

    The software application should be tested across a slew of platforms—devices, browsers or operating systems. Since it is well-nigh impossible to test the codes for numerous users (during usability testing), the same ought to be created virtually. The QA team can virtualize every test requirement to emulate the behavior of software components. Moreover, it helps to do away with the need for dependencies and addresses constraints faced in interdependent environments.

    Choose the Right Tools

    To enable DevOps automation, the QA team should choose the right test automation tool. The main criteria for choosing the tool should be the team’s expertise in using it. The tool should offer the ease of writing the test script in a single programming language. It should allow the testing of applications across operating platforms and browsers.

    Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment

    These are the outcomes of any DevOps methodology. DevOps continuous integration and deployment encompass adding code changes in a repository and creating automated builds. This leads to an early recovery from failures as well as testing and delivery of products within fast turnarounds. Continuous integration based on test automation leverages regression testing and a version control system when a new code is added. Further, DevOps continuous deployment is about the capability to add new features to the existing applications. This makes enterprises follow a user-driven improvement of software and agile approach.

    Conclusion

    With the quality of software applications becoming the final arbiter in making an enterprise successful, taking the DevOps approach is crucial. However, since the whole process is hinged on executing comprehensive quality testing, the QA basics should be done right.

    — Akshaya Choudhary

  • Quality Engineering Has DevOps and Agile in the Driving Seat

    Quality Engineering Has DevOps and Agile in the Driving Seat

    As opposed to the traditional software development lifecycle (aka waterfall), today’s Agile and DevOps-based software development process is more outcome-oriented. The unrelenting pace of the changing market landscape has made the hybrid, Agile plus DevOps way of software development absolutely critical in addressing customer demands and staying competitive.

    The focus on Agile and DevOps is necessary due to the high failure rates of traditional software development methodologies. These failure rates are mainly attributed to the glitch-infested, low-quality applications churned out by following legacy methodologies.

    The failure rates had left many companies to bite the dust and brought the key role played by quality in ensuring customer satisfaction and ROI for the business into sharp focus. Also, the IT landscape is witnessing developments such as mergers and acquisitions, increased focus on risk and compliance, data and analytics, the fast rollout of apps and mobile commerce, among others. These have necessitated the software development process to become increasingly agile, streamlined, collaborative and flexible. The reshaping of customer expectations is letting organizations to go beyond shift-left testing or DevOps testing by transforming the QA process into one driven by quality engineering.

    What Is Quality Engineering?

    To meet the growing demand for quality software applications in double quick time, a mere tweaking of the software development process is not enough. What is needed is the adoption of software quality engineering process comprising optimal quality assurance, predictive analytics and monitoring of QA elements to reduce glitches to negligible levels. The process would involve a continuous cycle of feedback and quality improvement based on the same. The quality engineering process offers maximum test coverage in the shift-left scheme of things and ensures outcomes like functionality, security, accessibility, usability, performance and reliability of the software application. It complements Agile and DevOps methodologies and ensures their outcomes to remain consistent with the desired business objectives. Quality engineering, instead of identifying the inherent glitches in the SDLC, focuses more on preventing them altogether.

    Shift Left and Strengthen Right

    Quality engineering services cover the entire spectrum of the SDLC thereby yielding the maximum test coverage and delivering the best quality product. With DevOps testing shifting left, the quality determinants are incorporated right into the product build during the development phase. At the same time, DevOps-based QA focuses on the shift-right approach to ensure the last stage of the SDLC i.e., delivery goes on unhindered and customer feedback is taken in right way and worked upon. The ultimate aim of both shift-left and right is to create and deliver a glitch-free product that meets the requirements of the end-users. Here, since end-users are the ones who ultimately assess quality of a software product based on parameters such as usability, functionality and performance, among others, the feedback mechanism should be responsive enough to understand the issues faced by the end-users and remedy them at the earliest.

    Quality Engineering as an Aid

    Quality engineering (QE) helps to bridge the gap between development and deployment processes, which can arise due to the lack of agility. It harps on the successful strategy of “test early, test often,” to pre-empt challenges that businesses face when testing a software product. Quality engineering ensures the quality of a software application throughout the SDLC–right from the designing stage to its final delivery. QE can be incorporated into the development process by using methods such as Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) respectively.

    Let’s find out what these methods are all about:

    • BDD: In this software development method, the behavior of both the software and business outcomes are taken into consideration. Here, the right sets of tests are automated, leading to an increased collaboration among developers, testers and other business stakeholders.
    • TDD: In this software development process, the QA team writes unit level tests before the development stage. This results in getting an early feedback and helps the development team to refactor its requisites.
    • ATDD: This software development process focuses on writing an acceptance test even before the development phase. This helps the software to meet the acceptance criteria beforehand.

    Quality Engineering and DevOps

    QE, being an end-to-end testing methodology, can offer optimum solutions to businesses struggling with their legacy IT infrastructure. The solutions in terms of continuous testing and integration as mandated by DevOps, can be arrived at by integrating the QA process with the DevOps pipeline. This results in executing processes such as build, test, deploy and deliver in a seamless manner. QE complements DevOps and Agile by detecting glitches right at the beginning of the development process.

    Moreover, QE’s focus on end-to-end testing helps the product to be developed and tested simultaneously. This approach adds teeth to the DevOps’s requirement for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). No wonder, the successful implementation of quality engineering is underpinned on fulfilling the requirements of DevOps and Agile. It further consolidates the benefits achieved from implementing DevOps testing services and Agile testing services.

    QE riding on DevOps and Agile can help businesses to scale up their operations without investing much resources and time. By implementing DevOps test automation and Agile test automation using a test automation software such as Selenium, Robitium etc., businesses can boost their SDLC. QE can help businesses to develop and deploy glitch-free software speedily and deliver enhanced customer experience.

    Conclusion

    The fast-changing competitive business landscape of today requires organizations to streamline their operations, increase productivity and fast forward the delivery of glitch-free software applications. To achieve these objectives, they need to make quality engineering as part of their development and testing cycles. However, QE ends up complementing the Agile and DevOps approach by achieving outcomes such as CI and CD. Furthermore, it leads businesses to get high ROI, better productivity, reduced cost of operations and enhanced customer experience.

    — Akshaya Choudhary