Test Automation in DevOps

DevOps has been a milestone in the software development sector that offers an agile approach of developing apps, reduces release cycles, supports faster deployment, and improves time-to-market. Manual practices will do no justice in testing this ever-evolving developmental process, hence, increasing the focus on automation testing is the only solution. Test automation is an integral part of the whole DevOps pipeline that allows organizations to release applications in a quicker and more confident manner.

Test automation is one of the key elements that contribute to the success of the DevOps lifecycle. Here, testing is introduced earlier in the development stages, known as continuous testing, to ensure that the application is tested thoroughly and give scope to the developers to fix them before moving on to the next sprint. In this manner, quality of the application is improved considerably while reducing time, cost, and effort.

What is test automation? Why do we need it?

Test automation is the process of decreasing human intervention and automating the entire testing activities. It is usually performed either by code-based or codeless test automation solutions to reduce the time and effort and yield efficient results. Codeless test automation has become testers’ favorite as it takes the hassle of writing codes and eases the testing process multiple times compared to code-based testing.

Going codeless in today’s technologically advanced world is inevitable to align with the new-age agile developmental practices. Implementing this approach allows organizations to leverage the benefits of codeless testing and improve team productivity and process efficiency, while reducing effort, time, and cost. It is also easy to execute & maintain tests and improve the application quality like never before.

Benefits of test automation:

• Higher test coverage
• Improves speed
• Reliable results
• Reduces development cycle
• Reduces time-to-market
• Minimizes effort and cost
• Minimal human intervention

With so many benefits codeless test automation offers, the next wave of codeless test automation has already emerged and taken the organizations on its side. The trend of codeless testing further witnessed a tremendous surge during the COVID-19 pandemic when restriction of people movement caused huge demand for skills and codeless automation came as an effective solution as it worked with minimal human intervention.

Test automation in DevOps

DevOps, as the name indicates is a multidisciplinary practice combining software development and IT operations, is the preferred choice of developers for the greater agility it offers. To match the speed and agility of the DevOps cycle and get the desired quality results, implementing test automation becomes extremely important. Automating testing with continuous approach supports the dynamic continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/ CD) pipeline of the DevOps process and improves the quality significantly.

The success of DevOps practice majorly depends on the test automation approach which works towards finding any discrepancy across the process and improves quality to offer a seamless user experience. Here, testing is carried out alongside development and any error identified is resolved before moving on to the next sprint. This practice reduces infrastructural and operational risks and focuses on facilitating quality at speed.

How test automation practices benefit DevOps cycle:

• Test automation eliminates/ reduces human intervention, hence, the occurrence of obvious human error is considerably reduced across DevOps cycle
• As the test results are accurate and consistent, it increases the process reliability
• It is simple and easier to operate compared to manual and code-based testing, all you need is to set up the process and monitor it at frequent intervals, rest will be taken care of
• As testing is introduced right from the initial development stage, the quality remains intact
• As continuous testing is implemented in DevOps, the errors are considerably reduced
• DevOps operates on a shift-left testing approach, here, test automation proves to be successful as testing is implemented alongside development and moves sequentially across the process to identify errors
• It doesn’t require complex programming knowledge, allowing to quickly and efficiently perform testing across the DevOps pipeline. As coding knowledge is not required, it eliminates the time that goes in changing the code multiple times

How does test automation contribute to the success of DevOps?

Here are some of the test automation features that contribute to the success of DevOps process:

Codeless test automation

Codeless test automation removes the hassle of writing codes and reduces human intervention. This is much needed to improve the quality across DevOps cycle, with its simple and automated approach it reduces time-to-market and improves quality.

Flexible test script

DevOps operates across the CI/ CD pipeline, which is a highly dynamic process; to support CI/CD it is important to create flexible test scripts. The flexible test scripts of the test automation perfectly align with the testing requirements of the DevOps process.

Single test flow

Maintaining a single flow is necessary to avoid any complexities and keep testing simple, while multiple test flows will complicate the process and may not yield expected results. Test automation maintains a single flow and sequentially moves to the left of the development process as the application is being created.

Introducing testing alongside development

Testing the application at the end of DevOps process will be a complicated process as any change made after the development is complete can affect the outcome. Hence, test automation introduced right from the beginning will ensure the quality of the application is not compromised, thereby, offering a great user experience.

Reusable test cases

Test cases created for automating the testing activities are reusable, which creates a repository and allows teams to reuse them for any number of times for multiple projects. Reusable test cases save significantly on time and cost.

With the above-mentioned points, it is clear that test automation perfectly aligns with the requirements of the DevOps process and offers desired results. Organizations are widely implementing test automation solution to their software development process for the wide range of benefits it offers.

Tenjin Online – test automation platform for web and mobile app testing

Tenjin Online is a powerful SaaS-based, codeless mobile testing automation platform that can effortlessly test Android and iOS apps. It is a simple tool that can be used even by non-technical personnel with utmost ease. It ensures that the app is visually appealing and offers a seamless user experience. It tests all the functional and non-functional aspects of the app with utmost ease. This is the only tool that you will ever need for testing web and mobile apps. It has the capabilities of test management, test execution, defect management, and performs complete end-to-end testing services to improve the quality of the software.