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Continuous Testing: Fundamental Aspect of Software Delivery Cycle

May 13, 2019

Continuous Testing is the strategy of evaluating quality at every stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC). It is a type of automated software testing, which starts at an early stage and then carried forward at each stage of the SDLC.

Importance of Continuous & Automation Testing begins from the planning phase with automated test case design, directly mapped to the application requirements. It is an automated testing that continues in the development phase and provides feedback during each stage so that future test cases can be designed accordingly.

Understanding Traditional Product Testing

This is the old way of testing

In a continuous DevOps process, a software change is continuously moving from development, testing to deployment phase.

For instance, a developer checks whether the source code; a set of unit tests are executed continuously or not. If the test fails, he is notified that the build is rejected. If it passes, the build is executed and the test runs parallel to produce an error-free application.

Continuous Testing is better than Traditional Testing because it begins with a planning phase which reduces tester’s effort. A tester can concentrate on highly prioritized testing. It provides feedback at every stage of the SDLC, which delivers a more efficient and cost-effective product.

How Continuous Testing Differs from Test Automation?

Test Automation is a process where a sophisticated tool is used for the task of automation. A set of similar task machine can execute faster with fewer mistakes. Automation in testing is possible without integrating continuous testing in it. Software release can vary from month to year. Automated testing has been done for decades to make the testing process faster with regular feedbacks after each release.

Continuous Testing is a relatively new concept providing feedback at each stage. It is a method which is adapted to obtain continuous quality and improvement. It helps in finding risks, addresses them and delivers an improved product which is efficient and user-friendly. Continuous testing cannot be implemented without test automation. The software can be released weekly or hourly.

How to Implement Continuous Testing?

Here's a basic checklist of pointers that helps in implementing continuous testing during SDLC.

• Use the tools to generate a test automation suite from user requirements
• Create test environment
• Use service virtualization to test API
• Parallel performance testing

Continuous testing is important to ensure that the end user experience is seamless. A seamless customer experience ensures that your product has full potential to achieve your business goals. Let's look at some benefits of continuous testing.

Benefits of Continuous Testing

• Software delivery is accelerated
• Code quality is improved
• Exact business risk coverage is assessed
• A reliable and agile process is created in just hours instead of months
• Time of release is accelerated due to the continuous feedback mechanism
• Seamlessly integrates with DevOps process
• Maintains consistency

Continuous Testing is ideal when you decide to release the software in short cycles. When the development teams develop software in short cycles make sure it can be released reliably any time; it is referred to as Continuous Delivery.

Continuous delivery means the ability to adopt changes starting from new features, bug fixes, experiments to configuration changes into production safely and quickly in a sustainable way. Continuous delivery approach also relies on regular rigorous automated testing so superior product quality meets the expected outcome.

Also Read: Top 6 Benefits of Adopting Continuous Delivery

In continuous delivery, software can be deployed at any time through manual release.

Benefits of Continuous Delivery Cycle

1. Low-Risk Releases: Low risk events can take place at any time by applying patterns and making software deployments painless.
2. Faster Time to Market: Team works together to automate build and deployment, and regression testing. Developers include integration and regression testing into their daily work and can completely remove these phases.
3. Higher Quality: Developers have automated tools that discover regression in minutes, and they can concentrate on higher level testing. These activities can be performed continuously throughout the delivery process; quality of the product is maintained from the beginning.
4. Lower Costs: By investing in building, testing, and automation we can reduce the cost associated with the release process

Continuous testing helps in delivering a product in a short time with efficiency. Despite its newness, it is widely adopted and put into practice by efficient development teams around the world.

Continuous testing focuses on achieving continuous quality and improvement. It delivers actionable feedback at every stage of the cycle to improve code quality, reducing time and cost at the same time.