11 Best Practices for Continuous Testing in DevOps

This technique offers quick feedback on the business risks associated with software. With continuous testing in DevOps, developers can measure and improve the quality of their products as they build them. Here are some of the benefits and best practices of continuous testing.

The benefits of continuous testing

Continuous testing helps you test your code continuously and at every stage of the development cycle.

By implementing continuous testing, you can make sure that your product is functional before your release it to the public. It enables transparency since you always know what has been tested and what needs to be tested next. It also improves test coverage, enabling developers to cover more possible scenarios.

11 continuous testing best practices

1. Test code should be treated as code: The difference between a high-value test suite and a time-consuming, flaky and inefficient one is developing test code correctly from the start. Handle test code the same way you treat production code to help with Continuous Testing.
2. Use a risk-based test automation strategy: Incorporate a technique into the continuous testing process for identifying, evaluating and mitigating the causes and effects of poor user experience. Time, value, affect and history should all be considered, as well as the developers' gut judgments.
3. Get the necessary tools for continuous testing: Continuously develop, test and analyze. Choose the best-of-breed tools that function together in a way that is easy to integrate into the workplace. Choose tools with community-based support so that everyone may discuss difficulties, solutions and innovative use cases.
4. Create a system for displaying results: Perform in-depth analyses of the findings to see whether the code is working and the gaps. Define KPIs and acceptance criteria that may be measured. Make dashboards to keep track of the KPIs, including a baseline and changes over time.
5. Set automation as a top priority: Embrace an "automated first" mentality instead of eliminating all manual testing jobs. Concentrate your efforts on regions that will be used repeatedly. In other words, set up the plumbing first so that the water can flow afterward without fear of leaks. Create a diagram of the SDLC and look for ways to automate it.
6. Get a compact design: After coding and design, break tasks into smaller chunks that are easier to test, making it much easier to automate the tests and deliver them.
7. Keep an eye on everything: Set pass-fail criteria and use metrics. Continuous testing determines whether or not anything is working.
8. Create and keep track of test data: Banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers and anyone with a mission-critical application should test it in real-world scenarios. Provide high-quality test data to QA testers and developers, and ensure that it changes with the applications.
9. Ensure constant testing: A stable lab means that all platforms associated with it, including supporting test environments, third-party tools and APIs, are operational at all times of the day with little to no downtime.
10. Give prompt feedback: Continuous testing generates enormous volumes of data, providing testers and developers with new insights into specific issues and managers with dashboard-level perspectives for "go, no-go" essential leadership.
11. Improve the relationship between each developer and the tester: Maintain small teams, encourage cross-team cooperation and make reports accessible and shareable online.

What characteristics distinguish the finest continuous testing tools?

• A planning tool: Planning tools allow you to keep track of user stories, epics, and tasks.
• A version control system: This allows development teams to keep track of, work on and communicate on different versions of the source code.
• A build tool: Tools can be used to create and run Unit and Functional automation tests from source code.

Continually considering valuable feedback and monitoring every possible risk through a thorough process ensures that the release is high quality. This is why continuous testing in DevOps has become indispensable and occupies a prominent position among QA teams globally.