Automated testing and continuous testing are two techniques that are often used together. Despite the fact that they complement each other, they are not comparable. Automated testing and continuous testing, each in their way, have a huge effect on DevOps and Continuous Delivery. They are not, however, a requirement for DevOps, Continuous Delivery or even each other. You can choose to do either automated testing or continuous testing on their own, regardless of whether you work in DevOps and CI/CD.
However, like any good physician, I’m going to argue for both as together they have a larger impact on the overall health and performance of your application.
1. Concepts of Continuous Testing
Continuous performance testing is one of the types of software testing that requires early-stage testing, such as process, regularly and everywhere testing as well as automation. This refers to any steps that work for software delivery in terms of continuous testing strategy.
- Continuous testing’s primary goal is to transform the request.
- When will the testing be finished?
- Did the release team consider every business risk revealed during testing?
The process of automated testing within a software delivery pipeline is known as continuous testing. The following are some of the fundamental principles and concepts of continuous testing:
- The refusal to handle requests at the last minute. Testing cannot be implemented late: precise estimates are required.
- High Standards. Rather than performing as many tests as possible for a quick release, testers must consistently solve the problems that have been raised.
- Low Execution Time. It’s critical for tests to be completed not only on time, but also with enough time to evaluate detected errors and their impact on the user experience.
- The Test Environment is Unstable. If you don’t have to rely on the already offered product, the testing process may be put on hold. According to DevOps and Agile methodologies, it can affect entire subsequent cases.
The main distinctions between Continuous Testing and Test Automation are as follows:
The main differences between continuous testing and test automation can be grouped into three broad categories: risk, breadth, and time.
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Risk
Businesses today have not only exposed many of their internal applications to the end-user, but they also have developed vast amounts of additional software that extends and complements those applications. For example, airlines have gone far beyond exposing their once-internal booking systems. They now let customers plan and book complete vacations, including hotels, rental cars, and activities. Exposing the user to an increasing amount of innovative functionality is now a competitive differentiator but it also increases the number, variety, and complexity of potential failure points.
Application-related risks are now prominent components of a company’s public financial filing because large-scale “software failures” have such serious business consequences.
Your test results won’t provide the insight needed to evaluate risks if your test cases weren’t designed with business risk in mind. Most tests are intended to provide low-level information on whether user stories are properly implementing criteria, rather than high-level evaluations of whether a release candidate is too dangerous to release.
To be clear: We’re not suggesting that low-granularity tests aren’t valuable; we’re stating that more is needed to stop high-risk candidates from going out into the wild.
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Breadth
Even if a business manages to steer clear of large-scale software failures that make the headlines, even seemingly minor glitches can still cause trouble these days. If any part of the user’s experience fails to meet their expectations, you not only risk losing that customer to a competitor, but you also risk brand damage if that user decides to take their issues to social media.
Knowing whether a unit test failed or a UI test passed doesn’t tell you whether recent application modifications have affected the overall user experience. Tests that are broad enough to detect when an application change unintentionally impacts functionality that users have come to rely on are required to protect the end-user experience.
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Time
Now that the speed at which organizations ship software has become a competitive differentiator, the vast majority of organizations are turning to Agile and DevOps to accelerate their delivery processes.
When automated testing emerged, it focused on testing internal systems that were built and updated according to waterfall development processes. Systems were all under the organization’s control, everything was completed and ready for testing by the time the testing phase was ready to start. Now that Agile processes are becoming the norm, testing must begin in parallel with development; otherwise, the user story is unlikely to be tested and deemed “done” within the extremely compressed iteration time frame.
If your organization has adopted DevOps and is performing continuous delivery, software may be released hourly—or even more frequently. In this case, feedback at each stage of the process can’t just be “fast”; it must be nearly instantaneous. If quality is not a top concern for your application (e.g., if there are minimal repercussions to doing a rollback when defects are discovered in production), running some quick unit tests and smoke tests on each release might suffice. However, if the business wants to minimize the risk of faulty software reaching an end-user, you need some way to achieve the necessary level of risk coverage and testing breadth fast.
2. How to merge different testing methods
Every business has its way of doing things. However, there are some guidelines and regulations to follow. Combine the best aspects of each of these systems. Because the Test Automation system is ineffective without Continuous Testing in areas such as:
- There are no real skills for quickly or frequently implementing tests.
- Continuous change applies to more false positives and requires endless use of test services.
- There is no accurate and fast prediction if the project is a candidate for delivery.
Don’t forget about the core principle of testing optimization.
- We started with the button and ended up here. Begin with a basic exercise. It’s best to start with basic testing techniques. After all, if everyone else has tried these methods, it’s a good indication that they’re actually valid for all kinds of businesses.
- Both common practices, positive testing and negative testing, will be critical components for improving the project’s quality with ensuring optimal program performance.
- Apps are similar to snowflakes in that each one is special. Dive into the specifics. Once you include general tests, it is time to conduct specific ones.
- The user has made a request for orientation. Surfing data and tracking progress should be standard testing procedures for your team. You should actually use software testing measures based on the users’ special requirements.
3. To Sum Up
Integrating practices is a fantastic idea. This is especially true in software development because applications can fulfill a wide range of needs. To come up with the best practices for software testing for their projects, quality control teams should listen to user requirements and use both general and company-specific approaches.
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