What is Continuous Testing in DevOps?
Definition, Benefits, Tools
What is Continuous Testing?
Continuous Testing is defined as a software testing type that involves a process
of testing early, testing often, test everywhere, and automate. It is a strategy of
evaluating quality at every step of the Continuous Delivery Process. The goal of
Continuous Testing is test early and test often. The process involves stakeholders
like Developer, DevOps, QA and Operational system.
In this tutorial, you will learn
What is Continuous Testing?
How is Continuous Testing different?
How Is Continuous Testing Different from Test Automation?
How to do Continuous Testing
Continuous testing tools
Benefits of Continuous testing
Challenges of continuous testing
How is Continuous Testing different?
The old way of testing was hand off centric. The software was handed off from
one team to another. A project would have definite Development and QA phases.
QA teams always wanted more time to ensure quality. The goal was that the
quality should prevail over project schedule.
However, business wants faster delivery of software to the end user. The newer
is the software, the better it can be marketed and increase revenue potential of
the company. Hence, a new way of testing was evolved.
Continuous means undisrupted testing done on a continuous basis. In a
Continuous DevOps process, a software change (release candidate) is
continuously moving from Development to Testing to Deployment.
The code is continuously developed, delivered, tested and deployed.
For Example, whenever a developer checks the code in the Source Code Server
like Jenkins automated set of unit tests are executed in the continuous process. If
the tests fail, the build is rejected, and the developer is notified. If the build
passes the test, it is deployed to performance, QA servers for exhaustive
functional and load tests. The tests are run in parallel. If the tests pass, the
software is deployed in production.
Continuous Testing is a small cog in the Continuous Development, Integration
and Deployment Cycle.
Software development is not same as it is in the past we cut development from
month to weeks. The current testing stack (see figure above) is titled towards UI
testing. But the goal is to have more and more automated unit tests.
How Is Continuous Testing Different from Test
Automation?
Test automation vs Continuous Testing
Parameter Test Automation Continuous Testing
Test automation is a process where tool or software is used for It is a software testing method
Definition
automating tasks. & improvement.
A set of similar or repetitive tasks, a machine can execute, faster, The continuous testing proces
Purpose
with a fewer mistake. quality of the product.
Automation in testing possible without integrating continuous
Prerequisite Continuous testing can not be
testing.
Time Software release can take a month to years. Software release may be relea
Feedback Regular feedback after testing each release. Feedback at each stage needs
Automated testing has been done for decades to make the testing
History Continuous testing is a relativ
process faster.
How to do Continuous Testing
Using to tools to generate test automation suite from user
stories/requirements
Create Test Environment.
Copy and anonymize production data to create test data bed
Use service virtualization to test API
Parallel performance testing
Continuous Testing Tools
1) Experitest
Experitest is the continuous testing platform for mobile and web apps, enabling
you to run tests on over 2,000 real mobile devices and web browsers. It
integrates seamlessly with your development, testing, and continuous
integration eco-system, and is fully compatible with Appium, Selenium, Jenkins,
Travis CI and more.
Start testing for free
2) QuerySurge
QuerySurge is the smart data testing solution that is the first-of-its-kind full
DevOps solution for continuous data testing. Key features include Robust API
with 60+ calls, detailed data intelligence & data analytics, seamless integration
into the DevOps pipeline for continuous testing, and verifies large amounts of
data quickly.
Start testing for free
3) Jenkins
Jenkins is a Continuous Integration tool which is written using Java language.
This tool can be configured via GUI interface or console commands.
Download link: https://jenkins.io/
4) Travis
Travis is continuous testing tool hosted on the GitHub. It offers hosted and on-
premises variants. It provides a variety of different languages and a good
documentation.
Download link: https://travis-ci.org/
5) Selenium
Selenium is open-source software testing tool. It supports all the leading
browsers like Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari. Selenium WebDriver is used to
automate web application testing.
Download link: https://www.seleniumhq.org/
Benefits of Continuous Testing
Accelerate software delivery
Continuous testing improves code quality
It helps to assess exact business risk coverage.
It seamlessly integrates into DevOps Process
Helps to create an agile and reliable process in just hours instead of
months.
Accelerates time-to-market with a continuous feedback mechanism.
Merges traditionally siloed teams to meet modern enterprise needs.
Dissolves disconnect between development, testing, and operations teams.
Test Automation helps to achieve consistency by maintaining the same
configuration for all relevant tests.
Emphasizes business expectations to mitigate business risks
Providing ubiquitous test environment access with Service Virtualization
Challenges of Continuous Testing
The traditional process is limiting cultural shift among Development & QA
professionals.
Lack of DevOps skills and right tools for testing in Agile & DevOps
environments.
Heterogenous test environments which will never reflect production
environment.
Conventional testing process and loosely defined test data management.
Longer code integration cycles create integration issues and late defect
fixes
Insufficient and ineffective resources and test environments
Complex application architecture and business logic that restricts DevOps
adoption.
Conclusion:
In Software Engineering, Continuous testing is a process of testing early,
testing often, testing everywhere, and automate.
The old way of testing was a handoff centric. The software is handed off
from one team to another
Jenkins, Travis, and Selenium are popular Continuous Testing and
Integration tools.
Continuous Testing delivers actionable feedback according to each stage of
the delivery pipeline.
Continuous testing helps to improve code quality
The traditional process is limiting cultural shift among Development & QA
professionals.
Longer code integration cycles create integration issues and late defect
fixes
