Software development has had to adapt and evolve to keep up with the digital era in which we are immersed.
Companies have moved from a waterfall development model to an agile model (DevOps) to respond to the need to accelerate the software development process without neglecting the quality of the products they offer to their customers and end users.
DevOps combines development (Dev) and operations (Ops) to facilitate the integration and deployment of software updates.
In the waterfall software development lifecycle (SDLC), testing is not performed until all development is complete. If bugs are found at the end, this can delay the rollout and release, and when all the code is merged, it is more difficult to isolate and find bugs.
On the other hand, TestOps (Test Operations) is a new working methodology that offers an automated and improved version of traditional software testing. TestOps implies a greater involvement of the testing team in the process, giving them the authority to manage the entire testing process, adjusting it to their roles and needs.
What is DevTestOps and how did it come about?
DevTestOps emerged as an enhanced version of DevOps with TestOps included; it is a methodology whose main objective is to include continuous testing in the DevOps process, emphasising the importance of the testing process. In this way testers have become core members in software development and their testing activities are essential in the whole development process as well as developers and operations engineers.
Just as in DevOps the goal was to increase collaboration between developers and the operations team, with DevTestOps, this collaboration will be increased with testers. By testing at all stages of software development, quality becomes everyone’s responsibility. The product is owned by each of the team members and each of them will be involved in improving the product.
In this way, developers, testers and operations engineers will work together to improve quality, accelerate delivery and add value to the product, reducing the risk of finding bugs at later stages.
DevTestOps also requires software development companies to go beyond automation testing and embrace all types of testing during development.
DevTestOps requires greater collaboration, transparency and trust between teams. There should be no barriers to communication and teams should be self-organising and cross-functional.
Continuous testing and automation.
When we talk about continuous testing, we mean testing repeatedly throughout the process. Without automation, continuous testing would not be possible in agile methodologies. Automation allows the workflow to be agile and facilitates quick detection of errors, saves human resources, reduces execution time and ultimately helps to reduce the costs associated with error correction.
The scope of continuous testing is very broad and involves many types. Such as: unit testing, API testing, system testing, etc. all executed in a pre-production environment with automated testing.
How does DevTestOps work?
DevTestOps is a continuous improvement process, which involves several stages to achieve the expected quality of the product. These stages are:
Product management: defining and detailing requirements and their feasibility.
Software development: Analyse, design, develop and test the software.Test management: Analysing the software specifications and designing and executing the test cases.
Continuous integration: Merging code changes into a central repository (by developers).Continuous Deployment: Software development in sprints to ensure that the software in each sprint can be reliably released.
Continuous monitoring: the product is constantly reviewed, providing feedback and issues when the application is in production, and the team will resolve them as soon as possible.
Steps to follow:
- To add continuous testing, the testers must be part of the DevOps team and test the software as soon as an update is made.
- Include all the necessary tools to work effectively with them and be able to implement DevTestOps, such as: Jira, Kubernetes, Selenium, GitHub, Jenkins and others.
- Teach the teams how to implement these tools.
- Apply automation in each of the processes.
- Update tools and processes to adapt them to technological trends.
DevTestOps Manifesto
The five main guidelines set out in it are:
- Continuous testing rather than testing at the end of development.
- Adopt all testing activities instead of only automated functional tests.
- Test what gives value rather than testing everything.
- Testing across the whole team rather than testing in isolated test departments.
- Product coverage rather than code coverage.
Conclusion
DevTestOps is based on continuous integration, delivery, testing and feedback. It allows all team members to have the same understanding of the product being built. This coordinated effort is essential to develop a user-centric, high-quality product with a fast time to market.
We live in constant technological evolution and innovation and companies must continuously improve to adapt to the market and grow with it.
The DevTestOps methodology allows this continuous improvement and adaptation.
In SIPSA we have development and operations teams, in which the work done by the testers is vital so that together we can continue to offer a product in constant evolution, innovation and high quality as is TAST | Test Automation System Tool.
TAST is in continuous improvement, implementing new functionalities, adapting to the needs of our customers. To whom we offer:
- our test automation tool.
- our teams of expert testers in automation (TAF Test Automation Factory).
- our Spherical Quality services.
SIPSA is the ally that accompanies you in the implementation of agile methodologies and the use of new tools that represent a competitive advantage to provide the quality that customers expect.
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