What Do You Need to Know About Continuous Testing in DevOps?

Web and mobile applications take a lot of work and money from software development to deployment. After the product is released, the ideal scenario is to have better quality and interoperation without glitches. But what if errors pop up? Thus, to avoid this type of situation, continuous testing in DevOps is a viable option.

It, as a result, improves application quality with rigorous and thorough testing services. Apps in different fields like e-commerce, finance, fitness, games, etc, all are applicable to use them. In this blog, we will help you unleash the following topics:

The overview of continuous testing in DevOps

• What benefits does continuous testing in DevOps bring?
• Different types of testing methodologies used in DevOps?
• What are the popular tools used for continuous testing?
• How well can the DevOps testing strategies be developed?

What does continuous testing in DevOps mean?

Software development (Dev) combined with operations (Ops) form the acronym ‘DevOps.’ It's a famous software engineering practice that is designed to increase the organizational speed to deliver DevOps testing services faster than manual software development processes.

Basically, in DevOps, both teams align their priorities and work together while producing and deploying software in an automated manner. Continuous testing is one of those DevOps practices used to test the software thoroughly at every stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to ensure the best quality till the end stage to the users.

What benefits does continuous testing in DevOps bring?

Continuous testing in DevOps includes CI/CD concepts combined with automation to test code for every new iteration while reducing the risk of errors. Below are the benefits of choosing continuous testing for growing businesses:

Better user experience

Advanced continuous testing practices create different test cases and troubleshooting conditions while observing the user's response. The data gathered from these simulations help developers remove those add-ons, avoiding additional costs after release.

Deployment at higher quality

Applying continuous testing provides an automated method of managing the quality of internal operations at every stage of SDLC. By receiving feedback from unit testing modules, the developer solves those errors and improves the overall quality.

Fast error discovery and recovery

Large businesses have multiple departments connected, i.e., multilayered. Continuous testing in DevOps helps the development team to divide that architecture into scalable solutions, leading to fast error discovery and recovery without security breaches.

What are the testing methodologies used in DevOps?

By now, readers would be familiar with continuous testing in DevOps and its benefits. So, here in this section, we will talk about the testing methods. Methodologies in continuous testing are a group of tests that ensure system security, reliability, and performance. They are:

Unit testing

This testing is the ideal solution for small class load, volume, or memory leak checks over the designs to identify any inefficiencies at the early stage of software development.

Shift-left testing

This method prioritizes performing testing at the early stage of SDLC to prevent several errors and debugging problems down the road.

Shift-right testing

Unlike above, this method prioritizes testing at the end stage of SDLC, mainly for elevating the user experience, overall functionality, and error-free performance.

Integration testing

When errors surface, first, it checks for virtual dependencies within the system that may affect end output. Later, composite code is used without detering the main functions.

Functional testing

This testing is used to check whether expectations are meeting the user experience. Also, whether software functions without disrupting the workflow or not.

What are the popular tools used for continuous testing?

Mastering continuous testing in DevOps is difficult, whereas choosing the right tool is even more difficult. Opting for the right tool is advantageous to your software testing and delivery success. Below is the list of the top-ranked tools:

Katalon

Katalon platform is a mix of Selenium and Appium. It's a good solution as it performs elaborative automated tests in DevOps. Also, the platform is easy to use with CI/CD integration and gives instant feedback applicable to web, API, and mobile applications.

Selenium

Selenium is the go-to choice for automated web testing. It is an open-source framework, mainly opted by Quality Assurance (QA) engineers with advanced programming skills. In addition, for cross-environment testing, it supports a wide range of browsers.

Eggplant

Eggplant supports automation technologies and platforms for web and mobile applications. As a result, it is pretty easy to learn and provides a test lab with a cloud devices management service that allows access to the team to use with continuous testing and deployment.

Tosca

Tosca is a commercial automation tool for continuous testing in DevOps. As a result, it supports web, mobile, and API applications. This helps the business stakeholders to be directly involved in the testing process. Also, Tosca offers a good range of tests with the ALM system.

Watir

Watir is an excellent open-source tool for continuous testing and automation. It supports cross-browser testing, especially for data-driven applications. Integrating Watir with BDD tools and framework in addition to Cucumber or RSpect is a good choice for testing.

How well can the DevOps testing strategies be developed?

Did you know that the Reports and Data survey says that 21% of QA professionals have integrated continuous testing, source code management, and continuous integration in DevOps to speed up their code release? Fortunately, it has more to go. So, here below are some of the best practices that will help integrate continuous testing in DevOps.

Automation tests

In DevOps continuous testing, the pipeline will be constantly updated with new changes, and to eliminate CI, opting for continuous integration of the software with the automated test enables easy iteration of new code, helping to follow the DevOps testing strategy.

Build a continuous delivery pipeline

The continuous delivery pipeline should be the last stage, where all tests are approved, and the software is released for production. Continuous delivery allows a prompt feedback mechanism with high response while supporting monitoring tools.

Testing should be shared responsibility

For a fundamental DevOps pipeline to produce the best quality in less time, shared responsibility is necessary. The testing strategy should encourage the QA team, the designing team, and the testing team to collaboratively produce the best end product.

Continuous monitoring processes

If the pipeline is set up, the continuous testing process will be integrated with automated testing. Hence, the important step that lies here is continuous monitoring. Development and QA teams should be dedicated to working with constant feedback for errors till the end.

Conclusion

Upgrade your web, desktop, API, or mobile applications to a flexible framework with a thorough testing process. But remember not to compromise on the best quality and performance using continuous testing in DevOps. In short, we would like to say that businesses that want to modernize their services to current trends are highly recommended to opt for DevOps practices.