The implementation and success of digital solutions have become critical to enterprises’ business growth. On the journey towards Agile and DevOps success, enterprises must ensure that their IT processes adapt quickly and effectively, including future-proofing their DevOps continuous testing capabilities to impact digital transformations directly.

Therefore, enterprises may need to look for providers to help them optimize and accelerate their DevOps Testing capabilities. And, they may need to be aware of how their competitors are adapting their DevOps testing strategies to suit the current DevOps and Agile needs.

According to a Forrester study:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the focus on digital offerings.
  • Enterprises recognize the need to test early, frequently, and automatically improve business.
  • Quality assurance providers play a significant role in specialized quality expertise.
  • IT decision-makers look toward providers for consistency in quality.
  • QA challenges revolve around process inertia and competing IT priorities.
  • Future QA must align with the capabilities of testing providers.

Aligning digital priorities with the software quality approach 

Enterprises had to handle the escalating costs and business unpredictability from the beginning of the pandemic. The focal point has turned to automation and digitization to overcome the challenges from COVID-19. Adopting DevOps testing best practices  has been the key to leveraging digital solutions as the main differentiator. Enterprises also strive to become more efficient using DevOps Test automation tools to build resiliency. The C-Suite or the decision-makers recognize the need for DevOps testing strategies to enable scalability and ensure faster-to-market through continuous testing.

What is continuous testing in DevOps? 

Continuous testing in DevOps is not necessarily synonymous with automation. It requires an understanding of holistic testing practices, including code quality, DevOps performance testing, DevOps test coverage, and an evaluation of components within a testing environment. Therefore, continuous testing in DevOps must enhance the testing process on a broader level encompassing the enterprise’s fundamental approach to testing DevOps environment. 

Is there a gap in improving DevOps continuous testing capabilities? 

While expanding DevOps continuous testing capabilities has become the key focus, enterprises continue to face the challenges inherent in keeping pace with the DevOps testing needs. Although they understand that frequent releases will positively impact their digital goals, only a few companies manage to reach the much-needed quick releases. They still rely on their internal teams, who may not be skilled enough for their QA needs. They may do better to consider quality assurance providers to address some of these gaps in the overall improvement of DevOps continuous testing capabilities.

Here, it is essential to know that continuous testing in DevOps is a methodology and not a tool. It is a way to help enterprises get their systems, processes, engineering, and automation to fast-track SDLC’s cycle time. It helps deliver quality products and services, offers competitive differentiation, improved customer experience, and efficiency.

Is continuous testing in DevOps important to quality delivery? 

Continuous testing in DevOps is vital for enterprises to respond to increasing customer expectations with the need for high quality and speed. While DevOps and Agile practices have become the norm across the development of products and services, continuous testing in DevOps is a key differentiator. Moreover, CI/ CD functions are ahead of the curve and have become fundamental to DevOps testing. And, continuous testing in DevOps has to be given its rightful place in the trinity.

You might be interested to know best practices in a successful DevOps Testing strategy 

Transitioning to DevOps continuous testing 

A robust DevOps continuous testing strategy means that it is aligned with business goals while:

  • Enhancing user experience with quality products and services,
  • Delivery of products quicker,
  • Responding promptly to meet customer satisfaction and usability,
  • Improving operational efficiency while cutting down costs.

However, enterprises must address challenges at various points of the SDLC which include:

  • Expectations and requirements with a lack of traceability and insufficient test cases
  • Insufficient test case definition and maintenance leading to a delayed understanding of the product
  • Delayed automation that leads to delays in QA cycles
  • Lack of scalable infrastructure causes delays in delivery QA requirements, lack of service virtualization and failed automation, and inefficient resource optimization,
  • Lack of skilled or trained team members
  • No dashboard to offer centralized feedback, or quality metrics

A DevOps continuous testing framework becomes critical with all these challenges in the typical development cycle. Most decision-makers find it daunting to convince their organizations to embrace new skills and processes to meet Agile and DevOps needs. Essentially, quality assurance capabilities need both speed and quality in perfect balance.

While organizations must recognize that manual testing is time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is equally necessary that they acknowledge the lack of internal skills as they pursue future quality assurance capabilities. It has become common to outsource to DevOps testing experts to meet internal challenges or invest in retraining the testers in new testing practices. 

To conclude

In accelerating the Agile and DevOps journey, enterprises must keep in mind that DevOps continuous testing takes them a step into the future. Moreover, continuous testing in DevOps provides insight into defects before performing integration testing. It starts at the initial stages of the SDLC, arguably the place when an enterprise gains the most advantage. 

 

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