QA and Test Automation: 10 QA Best Practices for DevOps
DevOps plays a very important role in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), but where exactly does QA fit in continuous integration of DevOps practice?
The answer to the question is simple. QAs with their test automation activities fit in every release. They, the QA tester team, after all, are obliged to thoroughly check the product, and make sure it is well-polished and production worthy. They practically make sure that quality is ensured throughout the testing and delivery cycle and each of the testing and development groups is answerable for it.
QA takes a critical role in this organizational structure because they have the visibility and the directive to push code out when it is working, and roll it back when it is not. This is a very different mindset from QA organizations of 10 years ago, whose primary responsibilities involved finding bugs. Today QA groups are charged with preventing defects from reaching the public site.
This has several implications:
QA owns continuous improvement and quality tracking across the entire development cycle. They are the ones who are primarily responsible for identifying problems not just in the product but also in the process, and recommending changes wherever they can.
Tests are code, as any test automation expert will tell you. It’s a necessity, of course. If your process is designed to publish a new release every day (or every hour) there is no room for manual testing. You must develop automation systems, through code, that can ensure quality standards are maintained.
Automation rules. Anything that can be automated, should be automated.
Testers are the quality advocates, influencing both development and operational processes. They don’t just find bugs. They look for any opportunity to improve repeatability and predictability.
10 QA Best Practices in a DevOps scenario:
QA and testing teams should be part of technical teams. They have to move beyond manual functional testing and should focus their efforts on automation and testing strategies. QA becomes the enabler of quality across SDLC.
Quality needs to be well-defined in order to meet requirements. Rather than trying to achieve perfection in software, QA should move towards focusing on accomplishing satisfying user experience within the given time frame.
Metrics that measure quality have to be laid down and measured. Such metrics should detect software defects early in the development cycle.
Goals of individual and teams need to be optimized. Organizations need to strengthen necessary behavior and cultural shift by incentivizing quality assurance.
Requirements need to be specific. QA teams should proactively involve in the requirements process to help and guide development teams towards proper direction.
QA & testing should focus more on automated regression testing on critical areas such as key software functionality.
QA & testing has to move towards leveraging automation tools to automate testing wherever possible.
Development, operations, and QA teams should be facilitated and encouraged to communicate, collaborate, and optimize their efforts.
Continuous integration is the key to identifying defects early in the development lifecycle. For continuous integration to be implemented effectively, all the stakeholders have to integrate their work often on a day-to-day basis.
A fully automated continuous testing process needs to be integrated into the SDLC for a successful continuous delivery process that minimizes risks, reduces costs, and accelerates time to market by frequent releases.
Having a QA strategy in place, coupled with best practices, has become very relevant. Organizations are readily embracing the DevOps movement to enable effective software development and operations while achieving superior quality and user experience.
If you want to improve or implement QA best practices and test automation to your project, contact us and start delivering frequent and high-quality software.
sources: cignity
