The prime motive of the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) paradigm is to enable software development teams to release a constant stream of software updates into production. This approach seeks to speed up the software release cycles, lower the costs of development and testing, and reduce the risks that ‘afflict’ modern software development systems and processes. The said paradigm also aims to spur the software release process by empowering teams to find and fix glitches in software early in the development cycle; an effective implementation of the CI/CD paradigm also encourages stronger collaboration between developers and testers, making it a crucial practice for Agile teams.
Time Efficiency
The deployment of test automation and QA automation in the CI/CD pipeline essentially accelerates the build-and-deploy cycle in favor of software developers and testers. Experts in this realm affirm that automation testing, checks codes and executes tests on a continuous basis on a corpus of modern software. This approach offers the clear benefit of providing feedback within minutes, thereby allowing agile developers to effect corrections in computer code. Bearing this in mind, testing veterans advocate the widespread use of automation in unit tests, system tests, and environment provisioning.
Faster Integrations
The modern software testing company should encourage QA automation keeping in mind the business requirements of clients and customers. Therefore, such organizations should undertake to test computer code on a regular and sustained basis to promote faster integrations between computer code and corrections instituted by automated testing mechanisms. This clearly marks a radical departure from traditional test paradigms wherein wait periods extended from days to weeks, thereby elongating development cycles much to the detriment of customer interests.
Managing Test Environments
Ideally, test automation should first be applied to software testing environments that mimic the production environment desired by the client. The modern QA company must appreciate the fact that digital technology changes at a fast pace; therefore, an automated management of the test environment will translate into faster upgrades inside new operating systems, browser versions, and system performance. The ensuing client delight can work in favor of a software testing company by contributing to the commercial bottom line. These actions reinforce the idea that the scope for automation testing should be expansive in the interests of over-delivering on client expectations.
Fewer Tear Downs
QA automation in the CI/CD pipeline works by eliminating the scope for errors in software applications and packages. Fewer errors result in this approach, thereby nullifying scenarios wherein software development teams and test professionals are forced to tear down an environment only to begin anew. The benefits of automation also include better management of test environments, thereby placing testing professionals in an optimal position to defeat unforeseen events that may impact the client experience. The reduced scope of uncertainty reinforces the business case for deploying automated testing in the CI/CD pipeline.
Boost for Shift Left Testing
Shift Left testing promotes the practice of detecting (or unearthing) glitches in software in the requirements gathering phase of the software development life cycle. Automation testing complements such efforts in the CI/CD pipeline. This early discovery of bugs has a significant impact, since the action helps to reduce the costs and resource bandwidth that would otherwise address late discovery (and the subsequent remediation) of software glitches. Therefore, every QA company should systematically undertake Shift Left testing practices in alliance with the core concepts that underlie test automation.
Faster DevOps
Posted on 04/07/2019
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