It is the goal of DevOps to streamline and automate every step of the software development process. Agile best practice Continuous Integration (CI) is the foundation of most effective DevOps testing strategies. An automatic build verifies each check-in, allowing teams to quickly identify mistakes and conflicts. To speed up the release process, automation frameworks like Jenkins and CI technologies like Bamboo are used.
What is DevOps?
DevOps aims to bring together the development and operations teams in order to create better, faster, and more responsive software. To satisfy the demand for more frequent and shorter software releases, DevOps is more than just a set of tools or a methodology. It is a culture transformation. Your company will be able to adapt more quickly to shifting business needs as a result. To provide high-quality applications, the DevOps culture change relies on constant optimization of workflow, architecture, and infrastructure.
A DevOps testing strategy is defined as:
Continuous testing must be the focus of a DevOps testing strategy. Continuous testing is a requirement for DevOps and Agile testing.
Continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) is a key component of DevOps. Continuous testing should occur between CI and CD.
Continuous testing will result in the following:
● It was able to avoid the flaws.
● Late software delivery.
● Customer dissatisfaction.
What Are the Advantages of a DevOps Testing Strategy?
Here are some of the advantages of a well-thought-out plan.
Provide feedback more quickly
Speed up the response time. You don’t want your engineers to have to go back and fix a bug that they worked on just a few weeks ago. Quickly feedback will allow them to address problems faster. Furthermore, you’ll be able to get rid of your hold faster.
More Platforms are Covered
Scale your test automation strategy to cover more platforms. As mobile and web platforms are fragmented, this can be a challenge. Testing on more platforms in less time is possible with the correct test automation tools.
Time Constraints on Test Execution Should Be Reduced
Reduce the amount of time that tests have to run. Shortening the execution time is necessary. Accelerating time-to-market can be achieved by running at scale, in parallel, and with the correct tools.
What steps should you take to guarantee that your approach is rock-solid so that you may reap the rewards? These best practises for testing in DevOps will help you achieve this goal.
Best Practices for DevOps Testing
In most cases, continuous testing is the best way to go. Organizations, on the other hand, are having difficulty laying a firm foundation for test automation. What we’ve found to be the best ways to approach testing are outlined here.
Automate Tests on a Large Scale
DevOps testing requires scaling test automation across both online and mobile platforms.
Scaling Web Testing
Web testing is being scaled in three ways today:
● Do-it-yourself (e.g., Selenium Grid in-house).
● Computing in a container (e.g., using Docker and Selenium).
● Clouds (e.g., Selenium Grid with Perfecto).
Mobile Testing on a Large Scale
Organizations are increasing mobile testing in three ways right now:
● Crowdsourcing.
● Do-it-yourself.
● Cloud-based testing facilities (e.g., Perfecto).
Scaling test automation for web and mobile has two major options (and across browsers). Using open-source frameworks is one approach (e.g., Cucumber). Another approach is to work without using any code (e.g., Selenium).
Integrate and automate all types of testing
All of your testing kinds must be automated if your method is to be successful. This covers both functional and non-functional tests, such as those measuring things like performance, usability, and the percentage of code that is covered by each unit.
Keep Your Test Automation Suite Stable
The foundation of Agile and DevOps is automation, both in and out of the CI environment. Maintaining an automated test suite that consistently adds value and achieves the objectives outlined above is essential for ensuring that automation adds value.
Keeping your test automation suite up to date is essential, and it should be done on a regular basis.
Testing evolves in tandem with the evolution of the product code. Ensure that your teams are keeping an eye on the test scenarios and making necessary updates as needed.
Make use of supporting frameworks.
Using supporting frameworks is another critical stage in your strategy.
Supporting frameworks can be used in a variety of ways, including:
● Provide a framework for testing (Mocha, Jasmine, Jest, Cucumber).
● Incorporate assertion functions into your application (Chai, Jasmine, Jest, Unexpected).
● Create, show, and monitor test outcomes (Mocha, Jasmine, Jest, Karma).
● Produce coverage reports for your code (Istanbul, Jest, Blanket).
● Assist with scenario execution, UI testing, and more by providing an environment that mimics a browser or browser-like environment (Protractor, Night watch, Phantom, Casper, Selenium, WebDriver.io, TestCafe).
● Set up a mock-up, a spy, and a stub of (Sinon, Jasmine, enzyme, Jest, testdouble).
Count on a Lab of Enterprise Class
Teams should rely on a well-equipped lab to quickly produce high-quality software:
● That can grow with the business.
● That’s all set in stone.
● This is available at all times for any kind of testing.
● All of the most recent mobile and web platforms are supported.
It should also be able to accommodate the most extensive automation features. Teams need to be able to automate digital capabilities such as audio, location, image, and other digital skills.
Utilize Reporting and Analysis Advanced Features
There is a test report at the centre of every testing activity. It is easier for engineers to find the core cause of failure if the report is more detailed and actionable.
Throughout your entire testing process, be sure you’re utilising a reliable reporting platform.
Headless browsers should be used
When it comes to web app testing, using headless browsers is a necessity. These are tools that can be used by programmers. A more stable build for test engineers can be delivered by developers using headless browsers. In addition, headless browsers like Google Puppeteer are free of charge.
Selenium Grid will not need to be set up by developers. Using Puppeteer is as simple as plugging it in. This allows developers to do performance audits, accessibility tests, and even unit tests in JavaScript.
Your DevOps test approach will be more successful if you can increase the automation of your tests.
Involve the Whole Team in the Testing
If you want to be successful with DevOps testing, you need to involve the entire team.
You’ll need the following people to automate tests for every pull request and code change:
● Using codeless test automation, business testers can conduct exploratory and structured manual testing.
● Test automation scripts written by a software developer in testing (SDET) for functional and non-functional testing (via Selenium, Appium, etc.)
● Unit tests and acceptance tests are the responsibility of a software developer.
DevOps testing involves a wide range of individuals
Agile testing, continuous integration, and test-driven development (TDD) best practises should be used by DevOps teams’ testers to speed up and shorten their test QA procedures. DevOps pipelines are built around the idea of team members sharing responsibility for ensuring the greatest level of quality. Each team member on an agile DevOps team shares equal responsibility for the outcome of the project. There will be no designated testers or quality assurance specialists working on this project; all members of the team will be involved in the testing process, whether they are formally appointed to do so. Customers or business owners can interact with team members with experience in DevOps testing or a specific testing tool and work together to generate high-quality code that meets those requirements.
They must have the ability to easily transition between the many stages of the DevOps software pipeline, from the initial development and integration stages through the testing and deployment stages. If they want to accomplish continuous delivery, their DevOps testing approach requires that they have a solid grasp of the people in the business, as well as an awareness of their culture and how it operates. They will also benefit from having good communication skills.
DevOps QA testers must have a thorough knowledge of the following technologies and tools (for more information, check the DevOps Tool Section below):
● Quality Assurance (using Git, Bitbucket, Svn, VSTS etc)
● Integrating in Real Time (using Jenkins, Bamboo, VSTS)
● Automation of the Infrastructure (using Puppet, Chef, Ansible)
● Automated and orchestrated deployments (using Jenkins, VSTS, Octopus Deploy)
● Concepts of Containers (LXD, Docker)
● Incorporation (Kubernetes, Mesos, Swarm)
● Clouds (using AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Open stack)
The ability to write scripting code in languages like JavaScript, Python, Perl, or Ruby in order to incorporate automation technologies and tools at every level, from requirements to development, testing, and operations, is another useful talent.
Tools for DevOps Testing
Many of the following DevOps testing technologies give numerous benefits to DevOps teams, such as improving code quality, speeding up the time to market of software in your DevOps pipeline, and enhancing cooperation between development, testing, and operations teams.
In a DevOps pipeline, unit tests written by developers as part of the TDD process should be the first tests to be run. Unit tests are written even before the actual code is written by developers that follow the TDD methodology. An essential aspect of the agile process, TDD aids developers in imagining what their programme will do in certain situations, such as when an error occurs.
unit, a series of open-source unit testing frameworks, is one of the TDD tools that includes JUnit. JUnit provides capabilities such as fixtures, test suites, JUnit classes, and test runners for Java developers to construct repeatable cases that speed up development and improve code quality. Enhancements in TestNG make it possible to test a wider variety of features than JUnit can handle.
At the top of the pyramid, many agile DevOps teams use test-first methodologies like ATDD and BDD for higher-level tests, such as unit and component tests (described above). In this way, it is possible to repeat testing as the software components are constructed.
Cucumber is a behaviour-driven development tool that promotes a culture of collaboration between developers, QA, and non-technical or business players on DevOps and other software projects. Non-programmers and domain specialists may understand BDD test cases because they are written in plain English. The GIVEN WHEN AND THEN (GWT) method for defining BDD features is a semi-structured approach to designing test cases.
● Automated DevOps Testing
For your organisation, the correct DevOps test automation solution is critical, as it may improve team communication, cut down costs, speed up release cycles, and provide real-time visibility into the status and quality of your DevOps pipeline’s apps.
In order to ensure that an application does not break when new modifications are implemented, test automation runs a large number of tests repeatedly at the different levels of the Pyramid of Test Automation. These extra technologies for automating pipeline app releases as requirements change, in addition to Continuous Integration systems like Jenkins, will help you speed up the release velocity of your pipeline apps.
● Selenium
Automated testing of web applications across several browsers and platforms is made possible with the Selenium toolkit, which is free and open source. Selenium, like Jenkins, provides a wide range of open-source tools that may be used to solve a variety of automation issues, including the creation of browser-based regression automation suites and tests. Programming languages like C#, Java and JavaScript are supported by Selenium so that automation scripts may be written for most recent web browsers. .NET, Perl, Python, Ruby, and PHP are also supported.
● Bamboo
Atlassian’s Bamboo is a CI/CD server. In the same way as other CI/CD servers, such as Jenkins, allow developers to automate the development process, Bamboo does the same thing. Atlassian products like Jira for project management and HipChat for team communication can be integrated with Bamboo. Bamboo, in contrast to Jenkins, is a commercial product that comes pre-integrated with other Atlassian products like Bitbucket, Jira, and Confluence (and is therefore supported out of the box).
● SoapUI
For functional, web services, security, and load testing, SoapUI is a test automation tool. SoapUI, a testing tool for APIs, supports both REST and SOAP services, making it ideal for API testing. If you don’t have time to develop scripts, you can use SoapUI to build complicated test scenarios without writing any code.
● Test Complete
Web, mobile, and desktop app testing are all made easier with TestComplete’s feature set. Test Complete allows users to write test scripts in JavaScript, VBScript, Python, or C++Script in addition to the standard recording and playback features. Also included in the programme is an object recognition engine that can accurately detect dynamic user interface elements, making it particularly useful in applications with dynamic and regularly changing user interfaces. Test Complete can simply be connected with other Smart Bear products because it is a Smart Bear product.
Use Vaporvm DevOps Testing Tools
The above-mentioned DevOps testing tools are compatible with Vaporvm. With the help of Vaporvm, you can transform your DevOps testing strategy into a fact.
Web and mobile test automation may be scaled with Vaporvm. You’ll be able to test across browsers and obtain the widest possible range of browsers covered in your testing. With Perfecto’s cloud-based lab, you can run even the most complex test scenarios automatically.
You may also use Vaporvm with your DevOps technologies, such as CI/CD platforms such as Jenkins.
Because of this, you will be able:
Speed up the response time.
Increase the breadth of your platform coverage.
Reduce the amount of time it takes to run a test
Read More:
Why Culture is Paramount in Achieving DevOps Success
How DevOps Works in the Enterprise
Why Cloud and DevOps Are Better Together
