How Continuous Testing Can Help You Test Smarter?

 

This morning while I was out for a walk, my wife messaged me requesting to order food for my in-laws. I was able to quickly place the breakfast order using a digital app, and it was delivered before I even got back home. It’s amazing to see that these apps have made our life, but I can’t help but wonder if software testing has kept up with these advances. Software testing has been around for over 30 years and even now, more than 50% of organizations are unable to developers with feedback the on the same day. In this article, we’re going to talk about why testing software changes is important and the benefits of finding bugs early in the development process.

 

 

 

The Cost Curve for Fixing Defects:

The cost of fixing defects gets way costlier as you move further down the development phases. For example, it is easier and cheaper to find defects around user stories during the Sprint Discovery phase rather than at end of the sprint By testing frequently and early in the development process, developers can keep track of the code’s quality and make informed decisions. It’s way more cost-effective to find and fix bugs early on in the process. There are several techniques and practices like static testing, API tests, service virtualization, etc that will help you to identify defects early.

 

What is Continuous Testing?

Continuous Testing is a methodology that can be used by both developers can testers to constantly test software applications. With Continuous Testing, testers can use automated testing tools to test the code that developers have written in real time without executing tests manually. This helps to ensure that you can repeat the tests without errors and human effort. It’s a great way to pass on feedback to the development team at a faster pace.

 

What are the advantages of finding bugs early?

There are several significant advantages of finding bugs early in the development process, including:

Reducing the effort for fixing defects:

Testing changes as soon as they are made ensures that any defects are found in the context of the change set, reducing the need for exhaustive detective work to determine the root cause. This means that developers do not have to waste time trying to identify the cause of the defect, as it is already clear from the change that was made. One such practice where I have seen significant benefits is static testing of user stories of requirements where all requirements-related issues are found before the developer put together the design and the tester designs the test cases. You can eliminate a lot of rework in the subsequent phase due to defects arising due to the root cause requirements.

 

Addressing the changing priorities of developers:

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where a developer who worked on a project has moved on, and you’re having trouble getting a bug fix? It can be a frustrating experience, but there is a way to avoid it. Testing newly implemented changes as soon as possible can help you identify and resolve any issues before the developer moves on to other tasks or leaves the project team.

 

Regression Defects are Eliminated:

Regression defects are problems that come back after being fixed once or after an existing functionality has been modified. By testing changes early and often, you can add new tests to catch any bugs that got away and stop them from happening again. This helps make sure the software stays stable and works well. Automated tests provide the capability to run regression tests on every software build by integrating with your DevOps platforms.

 

Refactoring is Easier in a Stable Codebase:

You would have probably heard about “refactoring” while working on a project or a release. If you are working on Agile you may even have a sprint just focused on refactoring. It’s a process of changing code without changing its functionality. Refactoring is key to keeping code maintainable and optimized, but it can also introduce new defects. To catch these defects, it’s crucial to test changes quickly after refactoring.  It is recommended to execute your entire set of regression test cases after a refactoring exercise to identify the impact.

 

Conclusion:

It is important to test changes to software during the software development process to make sure the final product is good and reliable. Shift Left and Continuous Testing are two important concepts that help make this happen. By testing changes early and often, stakeholders and development teams can find bugs and problems right away and fix them quickly. The sooner you catch and fix issues, the less impact they’ll have on the project’s timeline and budget.