Hey there! Have you heard about Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD)? They&#8217;re like the superheroes of the tech world, making the lives of developers and businesses so much easier!



Continuous Integration (CI) promotes transparency and anticipation in application development, ensuring everyone stays on the same page, benefiting developers and business segments.



Now, let&#8217;s talk about the tech jargon &#8211; CI/CD! It combines Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, two crucial components of DevOps. These practices empower developers to build and deploy top-notch software at lightning speed!



Picture this: CI/CD emerged to revolutionize software development by enabling faster and more efficient creation and deployment of high-quality software. It&#8217;s like magic!



Oh, and let&#8217;s remember Continuous Deployment &#8211; sometimes confused with Continuous Deployment automates CI/CD pipeline changes, revolutionizing software development by deploying modifications automatically. e CI/CD pipeline. It&#8217;s like the ultimate evolution of this software development wonder!



In today&#8217;s fast-paced world, CI/CD and Continuous Deployment are cornerstones of the software development industry. They have reshaped how we build and ship software, making the process smoother and more reliable than ever!



So, if you want to level up your software development game, CI/CD is the way to go! Embrace the magic of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, and you&#8217;ll be amazed at the results they bring to your projects!



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Continuous_Integration">1 What is Continuous Integration?</a></li><li><a href="#Benefits_of_Continuous_Integration">2 Benefits of Continuous Integration</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Faster_Feedback">2.1 1. Faster Feedback</a></li><li><a href="#2_Automated_Testing">2.2 2. Automated Testing</a></li><li><a href="#3_Enhanced_Collaboration">2.3 3. Enhanced Collaboration</a></li><li><a href="#4_Continuous_Deployment">2.4 4. Continuous Deployment</a></li><li><a href="#5_Quality_Assurance">2.5 5. Quality Assurance</a></li><li><a href="#6_Reduce_Costs">2.6 6. Reduce Costs</a></li><li><a href="#7_Easy_Maintenance_and_Updates">2.7 7. Easy Maintenance and Updates</a></li><li><a href="#8_Enhances_Transparency_and_Accountability">2.8 8. Enhances Transparency and Accountability</a></li><li><a href="#9_Customer_Satisfaction">2.9 9. Customer Satisfaction</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#What_is_Continuous_Testing">3 What is Continuous Testing</a></li><li><a href="#What_are_the_Awesome_Benefits_of_Continuous_Testing">4 What are the Awesome Benefits of Continuous Testing?</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Changing_Smaller_Packets_of_Code_is_Easier">4.1 1. Changing Smaller Packets of Code is Easier</a></li><li><a href="#2_Isolating_Faults_Becomes_Less_Cumbersome">4.2 2. Isolating Faults Becomes Less Cumbersome</a></li><li><a href="#3_MTTR_Becomes_Quicker_MTTR_Mean_Time_to_Recovery">4.3 3. MTTR Becomes Quicker (MTTR = Mean Time to Recovery)</a></li><li><a href="#4_Higher-Quality_Code">4.4 4. Higher-Quality Code</a></li><li><a href="#5_A_Huge_Margin_Improves_Testing_Reliability">4.5 5. A Huge Margin Improves Testing Reliability</a></li><li><a href="#6_Fewer_Non-Critical_Defects_in_the_Backlog">4.6 6. Fewer Non-Critical Defects in the Backlog</a></li><li><a href="#7_Delivering_Stellar_Software_Products_Rapidly">4.7 7. Delivering Stellar Software Products Rapidly</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Summary">5 Summary</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">6 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_the_main_benefit_of_continuous_integration">6.1 What is the main benefit of continuous integration?</a></li><li><a href="#What_Are_The_Challenges_of_Continuous_Integration">6.2 What Are The Challenges of Continuous Integration?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-continuous-integration">What is Continuous Integration?</h2>



Picture this: <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-integration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Continuous Integration</a> is like having a team of diligent robots working together harmoniously. These intelligent robots automatically kick into action whenever a developer changes the code. They take the developer&#8217;s changes and integrate them with the main codebase without causing chaos.



The best part? Continuous Integration provides superpowers in the form of transparency and anticipation. It allows developers and other stakeholders to see what&#8217;s happening in real-time, creating a crystal-clear picture of the project&#8217;s progress.



So, what does this mean for you? Faster development, fewer bugs, and a smoother workflow! The super-powered robots catch any hiccups early on, saving you from headaches.



But that&#8217;s not all &#8211; the benefits of Continuous Integration play a vital role in DevOps, where collaboration and efficiency are top priorities. It&#8217;s a critical component of the powerful CI/CD duo (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery), enabling developers to deliver top-notch software at lightning speed.



<h2 id="benefits-of-continuous-integration">Benefits of Continuous Integration</h2>



The following are some of the main advantages of continuous integration,



<h3 id="1-faster-feedback">1. Faster Feedback</h3>



CI enables quick detection of integration issues, allowing teams to address them early, reducing bug accumulation, and enhancing software quality.



<h3 id="2-automated-testing">2. <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing">Automated Testing</a></h3>



CI encourages automated testing, ensuring reliable and consistent results, accelerating the testing process, and boosting efficiency. Use a test automation tool that integrates with popular CI/CD tools.



<a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma</a> is a low-code, cloud-based test automation tool that allows you to automate web, mobile, desktop, and API tests in one place. With Testsigma, you can easily integrate your automated tests into the DevOps and CI/CD pipeline and ensure continuous testing.&nbsp;



It allows seamless integration with top CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Circle CI, Azure DevOps, AWS, Bamboo, Travis CI, and Codeship CI.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RyDNo0BEB5yEve-q67nJ01VoJANf-Zp4UdURcgPYs3tQ_VKQEGnPtOrkfKKx6SJ2xqC5Vpwez4k9ZMiVVx574TRO8ivcPoVftqQBtpd3AKpBOZM8F-Ur4jSsRu3CEzguAvNyZLrM2HxQ4XR1yRwWFu4" alt="Testsigma for Continuous Testing" /></figure></div>



<h3 id="3-enhanced-collaboration">3. Enhanced Collaboration</h3>



Continuous Integration promotes team collaboration by integrating code changes regularly, enabling continuous communication and smooth coordination.



<h3 id="4-continuous-deployment">4. Continuous Deployment</h3>



CI paves the way for seamless and frequent software deployments, facilitating quicker delivery of new features and updates to end-users.



<h3 id="5-quality-assurance">5. Quality Assurance</h3>



With CI, developers have a clear picture of the software&#8217;s health, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and ensuring a more stable and reliable product.



<h3 id="6-reduce-costs">6. Reduce Costs</h3>



Integrating your automated tests in the CI/CD pipeline reduces the number of errors that may occur in the repetitive steps of CI/CD. This saves the developer&#8217;s time and also reduces the bug-fixing cost. Also, improving the code quality with automation improves your test ROI.



<h3 id="7-easy-maintenance-and-updates">7. Easy Maintenance and Updates</h3>



Regular maintenance and updates are vital to creating a bug-free application. Also, remember to perform maintenance during non-critical hours to avoid any impact on the users. Do not take down the application to update the code changes during peak traffic times.&nbsp;



Let&#8217;s take an example. We all use banking applications in our daily activities for different needs. Then, you probably may have noticed that bank applications usually perform app maintenance or updates during non-business hours or lesser traffic times to avoid impacting users. Also, they send a prior message to the users to keep them informed.



To maintain a smooth pipeline, schedule the updates and releases wisely. An effective way to do this is to create microservices in your code architecture, ensuring that only a specific area of the application is temporarily taken down during maintenance, minimizing the impact on the entire application.



<h3 id="8-enhances-transparency-and-accountability">8. Enhances Transparency and Accountability</h3>



The primary benefit of CI/CD is receiving continuous feedback from your own team and not just from your customers. This, in turn, improves the transparency and accountability within the team regarding any issues.



<h3 id="9-customer-satisfaction">9. Customer Satisfaction</h3>



Not just in technical aspects, CI/CD also helps businesses get the utmost user satisfaction. How?&nbsp;



Never underestimate the importance of first impressions, as they can make or break the product&#8217;s success. You can keep your customers happy by quickly delivering new features and bug fixes. Positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied users can give you a competitive edge.



Also, customer feedback leads to usability improvements in the product. Adding such code improvements and changes to your CI/CD pipeline based on user feedback will help with customer retention and attracting new ones.



<h2 id="what-is-continuous-testing">What is Continuous Testing</h2>



When we talk about Continuous Integration, we also talk about continuous testing. Continuous testing means executing automated tests every time there is a code checkin or a code change that is integrated into the codebase. Thus, we also get to the know the quality status of the build after every code checkin, continuously.



<h2 id="h-what-are-the-awesome-benefits-of-continuous-testing">What are the Awesome Benefits of Continuous Testing?</h2>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Continuous testing</a> is like having a superhero guardian for your software, ensuring it stays robust, reliable, and ready for action! Let&#8217;s dive into the incredible advantages it brings to the table:



<h3 id="h-1-changing-smaller-packets-of-code-is-easier">1. Changing Smaller Packets of Code is Easier</h3>



Imagine having the power to make minor code changes without causing significant disruptions! With continuous testing, you can do just that. It allows you to test these more minor code changes automatically and frequently, catching bugs or glitches early on. This means you can confidently make improvements, knowing your software remains stable.



<h3 id="h-2-isolating-faults-becomes-less-cumbersome">2. Isolating Faults Becomes Less Cumbersome</h3>



Detecting and fixing faults can be challenging, but continuous testing has your back. By conducting tests at every stage of development, you can quickly pinpoint and isolate any issues that pop up. It&#8217;s like having a magnifying glass that zooms in on bugs, making troubleshooting a breeze!



<h3 id="h-3-mttr-becomes-quicker-mttr-mean-time-to-recovery">3. MTTR Becomes Quicker (MTTR = Mean Time to Recovery)</h3>



Time is of the essence in the fast-paced tech world, and continuous testing helps you reduce the Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR). How? You can fix defects faster by detecting them early, minimizing downtime, and running your software smoothly.



<h3 id="h-4-higher-quality-code">4. Higher-Quality Code</h3>



By running tests throughout the development process, you can maintain a high standard of <a href="https://www.codegrip.tech/productivity/what-is-code-quality-why-is-it-important/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">code quality</a>. It&#8217;s like having a team of code inspectors who never take a break!



<h3 id="h-5-a-huge-margin-improves-testing-reliability">5. A Huge Margin Improves Testing Reliability</h3>



Continuous testing provides a safety net with a huge margin for catching issues. No more crossing your fingers and hoping for the best when releasing updates. You can trust that your software is reliable and won&#8217;t disappoint you or your users.



<h3 id="h-6-fewer-non-critical-defects-in-the-backlog">6. Fewer Non-Critical Defects in the Backlog</h3>



Bid farewell to a never-ending backlog of pesky non-critical defects. Continuous testing allows you to address these issues promptly, ensuring your software stays clean and efficient. It&#8217;s like Marie Kondo-ing your codebase!



<h3 id="h-7-delivering-stellar-software-products-rapidly">7. Delivering Stellar Software Products Rapidly</h3>



Time to shine like a star! With continuous testing, you can release stellar software products rapidly and confidently. By constantly validating your code, you can be sure that your creations are top-notch and ready to dazzle your users.



In a nutshell, the benefits of continuous integration and testing are the superhero sidekick that every software development team needs. It streamlines your development process, boosts code quality, and ensures that your software is a force to be reckoned with!



<button class="btn bg-primary cta-btn" style="margin: auto"><a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:#fff">Automate your tests for web, mobile, desktop and APIs to enable continuous testing, 5x faster, with Testsigma</a></button> 



<h2 id="h-summary">Summary</h2>



Continuous Integration (CI) is a game-changer for software development, offering benefits like easier code changes, faster fault isolation, and higher code quality.&nbsp;



With the benefits of Continuous Integration on your side, you can deliver top-notch software products rapidly and confidently, ensuring your success in the fast-paced tech world!



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



<h3 id="h-what-is-the-main-benefit-of-continuous-integration">What is the main benefit of continuous integration?</h3>



The main benefit of continuous integration is the ability to seamlessly integrate small code changes to the codebase, making the development process smoother and catching bugs early. This ensures stable and reliable software, giving developers the confidence to deliver high-quality products.



<h3 id="h-what-are-the-challenges-of-continuous-integration">What Are The Challenges of Continuous Integration?</h3>



While continuous integration offers tremendous advantages, it has its fair share of challenges. Common issues include establishing and maintaining an effective CI pipeline, handling integration conflicts, and ensuring consistent and reliable test results. However, with the right tools and practices, these challenges can be overcome, and the rewards of CI are well worth the effort!



Remember, embracing continuous integration improves your software development process and empowers your team to innovate and deliver exceptional products consistently.

Benefits Of Continuous Integration - An Overview

Benefits Of Continuous Integration – An Overview

Continuous testing is a key part of DevOps. It makes sure that software products are released with the best quality. In this blog post, we will talk about how to get started with a continuous testing strategy for DevOps projects. That way you can make sure your development process runs smoothly and efficiently.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Continuous_Testing">1 What is Continuous Testing?</a></li><li><a href="#Importance_of_Continuous_Testing_in_DevOps">2 Importance of Continuous Testing in DevOps</a><ul><li><a href="#Rapid_Release_Cycles_and_Shorter_Time-To-Market">2.1 Rapid Release Cycles and Shorter Time-To-Market</a></li><li><a href="#Early_Defect_Detection_and_Mitigation">2.2 Early Defect Detection and Mitigation</a></li><li><a href="#Enhanced_Collaboration_and_Transparency">2.3 Enhanced Collaboration and Transparency</a></li><li><a href="#Increased_Efficiency">2.4 Increased Efficiency</a></li><li><a href="#Improved_Collaboration">2.5 Improved Collaboration</a></li><li><a href="#Enhanced_Agility">2.6 Enhanced Agility</a></li><li><a href="#Simplified_Risk_Management">2.7 Simplified Risk Management</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Implement_a_Continuous_Testing_Strategy_for_DevOps">3 Implement a Continuous Testing Strategy for DevOps</a><ul><li><a href="#Shift-Left_Testing">3.1 Shift-Left Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Test_Automation">3.2 Test Automation</a></li><li><a href="#Implementing_a_Robust_Testing_Infrastructure">3.3 Implementing a Robust Testing Infrastructure</a></li><li><a href="#Using_Multiple_Testing_Types">3.4 Using Multiple Testing Types</a></li><li><a href="#Choosing_the_Right_Tools">3.5 Choosing the Right Tools</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Summary">4 Summary</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">5 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_are_the_key_elements_of_continuous_testing">5.1 What are the key elements of continuous testing?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-continuous-testing">What is Continuous Testing?</h2>



Continuous testing, in the context of DevOps, is an integral part of the software development process that involves testing software changes and updates regularly and seamlessly throughout the entire development lifecycle. It aims to provide immediate feedback on business risks associated with software updates.&nbsp;



The continuous nature of this testing also supports the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/devops-principles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DevOps principles</a> of continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, fostering a more productive and efficient development environment.



<h2 id="h-importance-of-continuous-testing-in-devops">Importance of Continuous Testing in DevOps</h2>



This approach of continuous testing enables development teams to detect and fix bugs or errors faster, which improves software quality and reduces time to market.



According to Anthony Martin, Founder and CEO of <a href="https://choicemutual.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Choice Mutual</a>, &#8220;We&#8217;ve found that automating the testing process is key to achieving continuous testing. Automation helps to eliminate manual effort, freeing up time and resources which can then be allocated to other tasks that support the DevOps pipeline.&#8221;



Here are some additional benefits to continuous testing in DevOps.



<h3 id="h-rapid-release-cycles-and-shorter-time-to-market">Rapid Release Cycles and Shorter Time-To-Market</h3>



Organizations implementing DevOps tend to focus on delivering minor, incremental updates to ensure rapid release cycles. Continuous testing plays a crucial role in this process. The way this is done is by providing instant feedback on code changes.



This enables development and testing teams to catch issues early on. They can also avoid bottlenecks in the deployment pipeline. The great thing about this approach is that organizations can reduce time-to-market. They can also respond to customer needs effectively and promptly.



<h3 id="h-early-defect-detection-and-mitigation">Early Defect Detection and Mitigation</h3>



Traditional testing methodologies such as waterfall can result in last-minute discoveries of software defects or functional gaps. This can cause delays, rework, excessive costs, and a negative impact on customer satisfaction.



Continuous testing helps to identify defects and anomalies earlier in the development lifecycle. Doing this enables teams to address them before they snowball into significant problems, and it can also reduce the overall cost of software development. Finally, it also ensures higher quality products reach end users.



<h3 id="h-enhanced-collaboration-and-transparency">Enhanced Collaboration and Transparency</h3>



In DevOps, effective communication and collaboration are essential for success. Continuous testing encourages transparency. This is done by providing real-time visibility into the progress of testing activities across the organization.



This transparency enables all stakeholders, including developers, testers, and non-technical product team members, to keep track of vital quality metrics. They can also spot potential problems. They can also deliver timely, data-driven feedback. In doing so, continuous testing enables the continuous improvement of processes, products, and team dynamics.



Jerry Han, CMO at <a href="https://www.prizerebel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PrizeRebel</a>, says &#8220;Continuous testing is essential for any organization that wants to deliver high-quality products. It helps us ensure our product meets the highest standards of quality, reliability, and performance.&#8221;



<h3 id="h-increased-efficiency">Increased Efficiency</h3>



By incorporating testing throughout every stage of the development process, continuous testing enables teams to identify and resolve issues early. This minimizes the likelihood of costly delays and rework.



This holistic approach means that issues are remediated faster. This helps organizations release products on schedule and within budget. Furthermore, automation tools can be leveraged to speed up repetitive testing tasks. This frees up resources to focus on complex <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/exploratory-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exploratory testing</a> scenarios.



<h3 id="h-improved-collaboration">Improved Collaboration</h3>



Continuous testing facilitates seamless communication and collaboration between cross-functional teams. This includes developers, testers, operations experts, and business analysts.



Continuous testing plays a vital role in today&#8217;s dynamic business realities. With continuous testing, businesses can proactively mitigate risks, optimize performance, and deliver reliable and robust solutions to their customers, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction and driving business success.



By breaking down traditional silos within organizations, everyone involved in the software delivery process can work together to ensure that software is highly developed and deployed. This cross-functional collaboration translates into a more effective and efficient development process. The result is a positive user experience.



<h3 id="h-enhanced-agility">Enhanced Agility</h3>



An <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-at-the-speed-of-agile-and-devops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agile software development process</a> allows organizations to respond rapidly to changing requirements, reduce risks, and deliver high-quality software. In addition, continuous testing provides teams with immediate feedback on their progress.



This helps them improve their code and testing practices regularly. This real-time insight and responsiveness are essential for organizations seeking a competitive edge in the fast-paced technology landscape.



<h3 id="h-simplified-risk-management">Simplified Risk Management</h3>



Continuous testing reduces the risk associated with software development by identifying potential errors and vulnerabilities throughout the entire product lifecycle. By testing early and often, teams can focus on risk mitigation and defect prevention. This is better than spending valuable time and resources on lengthy and costly post-release remediation efforts.



This proactive approach to risk management benefits both the end user and the organization. The ultimate result is consistently delivering high-quality, secure software.



<h2 id="h-implement-a-continuous-testing-strategy-for-devops">Implement a Continuous Testing Strategy for DevOps</h2>



You should implement various strategies to implement a continuous testing strategy for DevOps while avoiding <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/common-challenges-in-continuous-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous testing challenges</a> as much as possible. Here is a list of some critical strategies, followed by a detailed explanation of each:



<ul><li>Shift-left testing</li><li>Test automation</li><li>Implementing a robust testing infrastructure</li><li>Using multiple <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/the-different-software-testing-types-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">testing types</a></li><li>Choosing the right tools</li></ul>



Now let&#8217;s delve into the details of each strategy:



<h3 id="h-shift-left-testing">Shift-Left Testing</h3>



Shift-left testing refers to integrating testing earlier in the development lifecycle. To achieve this, testers collaborate with developers, business analysts, and other stakeholders from the very beginning of the project. This approach allows for identifying and fixing defects early. It also reduces the likelihood of costly and time-consuming issues later in the development process.



<h3 id="h-test-automation">Test Automation</h3>



Test automation is crucial when implementing continuous testing for DevOps. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/how-continuous-testing-supercharges-your-automation-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Automating test execution</a> allows for tests to be run quickly, efficiently, and consistently in response to code changes. Automation also frees manual testers to focus on more complex and innovative tasks. Some key areas to automate include unit, integration, and end-to-end functional tests.



<h3 id="h-implementing-a-robust-testing-infrastructure">Implementing a Robust Testing Infrastructure</h3>



Creating a flexible, robust, <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automated testing</a> infrastructure is essential for <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous testing</a>. This includes:



<ul><li>setting up cloud-based environments</li><li>using containerization</li><li>adopting virtualization for running tests</li></ul>



Implementing proper version control, <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-test-data-management-is-more-important-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test data management</a>, and seamless integration between development, testing, and deployment tools are also crucial. 



Read all about <a href="https://testsigma.com/guides/deployment-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deployment Testing</a>



<h3 id="h-using-multiple-testing-types">Using Multiple Testing Types</h3>



To ensure comprehensive software quality, different testing types should be employed. Depending on the project requirements, consider implementing unit, system, integration, usability, security, performance, and <a href="https://testsigma.com/regression-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regression testing</a>. Engaging multiple testing types ensures that various aspects of the application are rigorously tested.



<h3 id="h-choosing-the-right-tools">Choosing the Right Tools</h3>



Selecting the right tools is crucial to ensure the overall success of a continuous testing strategy. One of the <a href="https://testsigma.com/why-choose-testsigma-for-continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">best tools is Testsigma</a>, a powerful, AI-driven platform designed to help organizations automate and manage their testing process efficiently. With Testsigma, teams can:



<ul><li>Accelerate test script creation using a straightforward, natural language interface</li><li>Seamlessly integrate with popular <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/ci-cd-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CI/CD tools</a> and DevOps workflows</li><li>Generate comprehensive reports on <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-execution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test execution</a> and performance</li><li>Maintain tests easily and reduce maintenance efforts</li></ul>



Using Testsigma enables development teams to adopt a continuous testing approach in DevOps and deliver high-quality software rapidly.



<button class="btn bg-primary cta-btn" style="margin: auto"><a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:#fff">Start with Testsigma, for a rapid and smooth implementation of continuous testing as a part your DevOps workflows</a></button>



<h2 id="h-summary">Summary</h2>



In conclusion, continuous testing in DevOps has emerged as a pivotal element in the software development lifecycle, emphasizing the need for seamless collaboration and integration across all stakeholders, including manual testers, QA analysts, automation engineers, and C-level executives.



Hence, as we move towards a more connected, data-driven, and user-centric world, it is evident that <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous testing</a> will remain an indispensable asset for organizations striving for excellence in their digital transformation journeys.



<h2 id="h-frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



Here are some of the common questions related to continuous testing in DevOps.



<h3 id="h-what-are-the-key-elements-of-continuous-testing">What are the key elements of continuous testing?</h3>



The key elements of continuous testing include automated scripts that replace manual <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-execution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">test execution</a>, saving time, improving consistency, and minimizing tester fatigue. In addition, <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/risk-based-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">risk-based testing</a> prioritizes critical areas and functionalities that need continuous evaluation to ensure reliable software performance.

Continuous Testing Strategy How To Implement It For Devops

Continuous Testing Strategy: How To Implement It For Devops?

<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a></li><li><a href="#Common_Challenges_in_Continuous_Testing">2 Common Challenges in Continuous Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Suggestions_for_Resolving_Some_Common_Challenges">3 Suggestions for Resolving Some Common Challenges</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">4 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>



Continuous Testing is the process of testing at all stages of software development – one after the another- without any human intervention. <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Continuous Testing</a> is key to faster delivery of Agile products to the market. 



Continuous Testing makes it possible to eliminate testing as a bottleneck for faster software development and delivery. But the path to achieving Continuous Testing has its own challenges, most common of which are mentioned below.



<h2 id="common-challenges-in-continuous-testing">Common Challenges in Continuous Testing</h2>



1. Lack of Testability Support in Products: A test automation system is a very basic requirement for Continuous Testing. To achieve strong automated testing for a product, you need to have almost all of your test cases automated. But does the product have the testability support required to automate all test cases? Not always! If products are not designed, keeping testability in mind, achieving continuous testing may become a distant dream.



Achieving continuous testing for new feature work done in legacy products becomes more difficult if the product didn’t have testability support initially. Adding testability support to such products is expensive and may not always get prioritized as compared to other items on the product roadmap, draining down the efforts for Continuous Testing.



2. Lack of Standard Tools: For a variety of products, standard tools to achieve continuous testing don’t exist. Teams often resort to using in-house test automation tools or frameworks which are neither well-documented nor well-maintained. This adds to the woes of the testing team as they now have to struggle with the issues of the tool/framework also.



With in-house tools/frameworks, you have the benefit of code-ownership. You can make changes to the tool/framework to get desired behaviour, but that is a costly affair in terms of resources. You are now investing your resources to evolve the tool/framework rather than the product. Practically, teams don’t have the luxury to customize the testing tool/framework for their needs when they need to deliver a quality product on an impending timeline.



3. Lack of Faster Feedback Loops: To leverage Continuous Testing, it is important to incorporate feedback on an on-going basis. To incorporate feedback on a continuous basis, you need feedback loops in the system that can help you gather feedback in real-time. Lack of such feedback loops introduce a delay in action, later affecting the quality of the product.



For example, if one of the test environments used to run automation tests is down, an alert message for the same helps you act timely to rectify it rather than digging into the cause of the non-arrival of the test report for scheduled test automation run.&nbsp;



Similarly, it helps to have a real-time dashboard for performance which depicts the performance metrics over a period of time rather than digging into logs and code-profiler reports every time you want to check on a product&#8217;s performance. When such dashboards are accessible to everyone on the team, it helps in bringing critical issues to the table and gets them prioritized.&nbsp;



4. Lack of Testing Infrastructure: Often, organizations embark on the path of embracing Continuous Testing, without realizing the budgetary needs for it.



To implement Continuous Testing, you might need additional test environments that need to be maintained and kept up and running round the clock. You might also need advanced tools to incorporate faster feedback loops.&nbsp;



Although these costs aren’t significant as compared to the cost incurred due to the poor quality of the product, there is a need for organizational commitment. A half-way journey to continuous testing without adequate infrastructure only adds to the woes of the testing team and doesn’t help anyone.&nbsp;&nbsp;



5. Lack of Enough Testers: Most product teams don’t have enough testers, which sometimes creates bottlenecks for achieving continuous testing. Continuous testing is an on-going journey and requires high initial investments in terms of setup, which may create extra workload for testers.



Until continuous testing reaches the stage where it can replace the need for traditional testing, testers are often caught in balancing the efforts required for switching to continuous testing and their regular testing tasks that usually have a high priority w.r.t product needs. This adds to the pending backlogs for achieving continuous testing, creating a chicken-and-egg situation, where continuous testing can reduce the testing time but there is no time to set up continuous testing.



6. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-test-data-management-is-more-important-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Test Data Management</a>: Depending on the product and its testing needs, test data management sometimes becomes a bottleneck for continuous testing.



Test data when stored locally for testing environments may result in different versions of test data which may be difficult to maintain. Maintaining test data in a central repository and then accessing it from different test environments may ease this problem but may introduce other issues like network latency in tests.



7. Increased Complexity: As the scope for the product grows, so does the scope for continuous testing.



With a large number of tests added to the system, it becomes a challenge to make the tests execute quickly. If tests take too long to run, it defeats the whole purpose of continuous testing as quick feedback is not available. If not all tests are run, it seems like a compromise on the quality of the product. Also, if not all tests are run, it makes the effort of adding all those tests to the system go in vain.



8. Scalability Issues: Not all testing frameworks/tools may be suitable for scaling purposes.



Lack of support for large concurrent test sessions and slow test executions can become serious bottlenecks for your dream of achieving Continuous Testing.



Such scalability issues aren’t always noticeable in the beginning. They become clearly visible only after a significant amount of tests have been added to the system and the test system starts to get highly loaded. This makes the situation worse as at such a stage, it’s even more difficult to switch to a different tool/framework.



9. Inefficient Processes: Sometimes, the processes followed in the team/organization are not conducive for achieving Continuous Testing. Let&#8217;s check:i. Change in Requirements: If requirement specifications keep on changing frequently, it creates a lot of rework for the team, especially the testing team as tests may need to be updated every time there is a change in the requirements. This may adversely impact the efforts for continuous testing.ii. Unclear Roles and Responsibilities of Team Members: If the roles and responsibilities of team members are not clearly defined, it may result in ambiguous ownership of tasks. Such ambiguity can lead to redundant efforts on some tasks and some tasks getting totally ignored. Clear ownership of tasks is important in achieving Continuous Testing.iii. Excluding Testing Team in Initial Discussions: If the testing team is not included in all product-related discussions from the beginning, it would create gaps in the understanding which may impact continuous testing. Also, it would require additional processes such as hand-offs from Developers to Testers from time to time, adding inefficiency to the whole system.&nbsp;iv. Bureaucratic Approvals: If your team/organization functions with heavy bureaucracy and approvals are needed for every small thing, it can add inefficiency to the whole system which can make it hard to achieve continuous testing.&nbsp;



For example, if a test environment has gone down and you don’t have the required access privileges to bring it back up and need to wait on some other team/person for this, it can lead to inefficiency in the continuous testing pipeline.&nbsp;



<h2 id="suggestions-for-resolving-some-common-challenges">Suggestions for Resolving Some Common Challenges</h2>



Most of the common challenges discussed above can be worked around with the help of some suggestions discussed below.



1. Include Testability from Beginning:i. Testability should be part of the low-level design for the product.ii. Any feature developed for the product should not be considered complete unless it has the required testability support for Continuous Testing.



2. Evaluate Tools/Frameworks before Including them in the System:i. It&#8217;s good to evaluate any testing tool/framework for required support before getting bound to it by making it part of the system.ii. The right combination of open source and paid test frameworks/tools can be used rather than relying solely on open-source test frameworks/tools.iii. Having a defined set of parameters to capture results of experiments with new tools can help in a better evaluation of tools/frameworks in a much-organized way.



3. Evaluate Budget Requirements before Embracing Continuous Testing: Implementing Continuous Testing may need a significant budget for test environments and tools/frameworks.



Evaluating budget requirements before starting on the path of Continuous Testing helps in making informed decisions early rather than being stuck in the middle of the path due to budgetary constraints.



4. Leveraging Cloud-based Virtual Infrastructure: Cloud-based test environments can be made accessible instantaneously on demand. They also save testing teams from most of the headache associated with managing and maintaining traditional test environments. Leveraging cloud-based virtual environments can help resolve a lot of issues related to the availability of test environments for Continuous Testing.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Using test automation tools that support test automation workflows on the cloud can further add to these benefits. Testsigma is one such tool.



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5. Have Enough Testers: Continuous Testing is an on-going journey and testers are the major contributors to make this journey successful. It’s good to have sufficient testers in the team to share the load, at least during the initial period of switching to continuous testing. Once your Continuous Testing pipeline is well established and you have completely done away with the need for traditional testing, you can then try to reduce the number of testers on the team as per the new need.



6. Efficient Test Data Management: Test Data Management can vary from product to product. Maintaining a central repository of test data helps to avoid fragmentation issues and facilitates easy updation.



To workaround, the latency issues in accessing central test data repository from test environments, the network topology of the environments can be customized to get the optimum experience.&nbsp;



7. Leveraging Distributed Systems: To combat issues related to complexity and scalability, the continuous testing pipeline can be designed as a distributed system. Most modern tools and frameworks support distributed architecture and can be used for scalability.



 Also, if you use a tool hosted on the cloud-like Testsigma. It gives you the ability to <a href="https://middleware.io/whitepaper/the-ultimate-guide-to-auto-scaling-your-application-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scale up and down your infrastructure</a> needs according to your testing needs.&nbsp;



8. Resolve Inefficient Processes: Processes that are inefficient and not well designed are bound to create bottlenecks in the overall effort of achieving continuous testing. Such processes should be resolved before they become part of the continuous testing initiative.



Read here about <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Continuous Testing Strategy</a>



<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



Continuous testing is an important component of the <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-integration">continuous integration</a> and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. To make CI/CD effective, it is necessary to make continuous testing effective. Continuous testing needs to have organizational and infrastructural support to achieve the speed and reliability that can enable quicker delivery of Agile products to the market.&nbsp;

Common Challenges in Continuous Testing

<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Continuous_Testing">2 What is Continuous Testing?</a></li><li><a href="#Why_is_Continuous_Testing_Needed">3 Why is Continuous Testing Needed?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_DevOps">4 What is DevOps?</a></li><li><a href="#Why_is_Continuous_Testing_Important_for_DevOps">5 Why is Continuous Testing Important for DevOps?</a></li><li><a href="#Continuous_Testing_vs_Automation_Testing_Whats_the_Difference">6 Continuous Testing vs. Automation Testing: What’s the Difference?</a></li><li><a href="#Benefits_of_Continuous_Testing">7 Benefits of Continuous Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Challenges_with_Continuous_Testing">8 Challenges with Continuous Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">9 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Continuous Testing</a> is the testing strategy to fast-track the testing required for achieving rapid software development using <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-at-the-speed-of-agile-and-devops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agile and DevOps</a> methodologies.&nbsp;



<h2 id="what-is-continuous-testing">What is Continuous Testing?</h2>



Continuous Testing is the process of testing at all stages of software development – one after the other – without any human intervention.



These different stages could be stages of tests: unit tests, integration tests, acceptance tests and performance tests as well as stages of environments such as Dev, QA, Staging and Production.&nbsp;



For example, when a code is integrated into the centralized source code repository, unit tests should be automatically executed followed by integration tests.



If integration tests pass, automated acceptance tests can be run followed by performance tests.



Similarly, a code change is first tested in a dev environment using automated test scripts followed by a QA environment. If all works well in the QA environment, the change can be automatically progressed to the staging environment and finally into the production environment.



Unit tests and dev environments are usually taken care of by developers, whereas all other tests and environments are mainly considered the responsibility of testing and DevOps teams.



<h2 id="why-is-continuous-testing-needed">Why is Continuous Testing Needed?</h2>



In today’s world, software applications have become a key differentiator for businesses. Impact of failed software releases and security breaches in software applications have been seen to impact their market values. Therefore, software quality has become all the more important, it has become a pressing need.&nbsp;



With the crucial role software applications are playing these days in businesses, the need to rapidly develop and adapt the software as per the new requirements has also emerged strongly. While a lot of new software development methodologies could be used to fast-track development work, not much progress could be made in accelerating the testing work. Testing was essentially becoming a bottleneck in achieving quicker software delivery.&nbsp;



To achieve faster software delivery, if a shorter version of testing was adopted, it increased quality issues and business risks. Longer versions of testing were becoming unachievable with quicker software releases. This is where Continuous Testing can be used to match the speed required for faster software development and delivery.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Qv_wbBzIYhInFtKZN9nDtB33ToRDpMBQr24qFnCbuvekM-3xz5WtrB96PJuZW6yTNS0ji1lSgAXkAyYwCvAdh1BNzclAaQdWERVJESXH1c2RuNJvfvuOoTGGDdSnfHeCmffpcYxf" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 id="what-is-devops">What is DevOps?</h2>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/devtestops" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DevOps</a> is the methodology which combines development and operations to achieve shorter software delivery cycles through the CI/CD pipeline. Shorter software delivery cycles enable teams to quickly release small product changes to the users which can make gathering feedback related to a particular change more effective and easier. 



Prior to the DevOps world, releasing even a small change in the product would require a fixed elongated time and process before it could reach the users. DevOps is a wide domain of tools and practices, but for the sake of simplicity it can be broadly described as follows:&nbsp;



1. Continuous Integration: Developers integrate their code with the source code repository on a regular basis. Whenever they integrate, the entire mainline is built followed by unit testing and code quality checking.2. Continuous Testing: Pre-defined sets of test cases are executed on the binaries obtained from Continuous Integration to ensure quality and assess associated business risks.3. Continuous Delivery: Binaries that pass through Continuous Testing can be considered good enough to be released anywhere anytime, essentially these are the Release Candidates of the product.4. Continuous Deployment: Binaries that get a go-ahead for release are actually deployed into production environments.



<h2 id="why-is-continuous-testing-important-for-devops">Why is Continuous Testing Important for DevOps?</h2>



DevOps is all about enabling continuity, be it code integrations or running tests or deploying in various environments. Continuous Testing is the bridge that joins Continuous Integration with Continuous Delivery and Deployment to make an effective continuous software delivery pipeline.



Continuous Testing makes sure that a change that is to be considered for Continuous Delivery / Deployment meets the expected quality criteria. It provides a means to assess the overall health of the product after a change, which can be further used to assess the associated business risks. 



Continuous Testing is the way to ensure that a change that doesn’t meet the expected quality criteria, cannot and should not be released to the users.



<h2 id="continuous-testing-vs-automation-testing-what-s-the-difference">Continuous Testing vs. Automation Testing: What’s the Difference?</h2>



Traditional test automation approach can be termed as reactive whereas Continuous Testing approach can be termed as proactive.&nbsp;



Traditionally, test automation starts after a feature is developed and integrated into a centralized source code repository. Once a developer&#8217;s task completes, the tester&#8217;s task of writing automation scripts begins. 



Considering that purpose of these automation scripts may range from functional tests to integration tests to user-acceptance tests to performance tests and even more, creating these scripts is expected to take considerable time which adds a big chunk in the overall time required to deliver the feature/software. 



No matter how best the tester tries, he/she always ends up being seen as the laggard who is trying to catch up with the expected need and speed of software delivery in the modern world. This is what changes with Continuous Testing.



In continuous testing, test scripts are written before the feature development. As soon as a developer integrates his/her feature source code into the centralized source code repository, the code is automatically built, and automated run of various test scripts starts to assess the quality of the code. 



Continuous testing leverages test automation for better efficiency and optimization. It lifts the burden of being laggards from testers and makes them the accelerators for the desired speed of software delivery.



<h2 id="benefits-of-continuous-testing">Benefits of Continuous Testing</h2>



Continuous testing is known to provide various benefits over traditional test automation. Some of them are:



1. Early Feedback: As soon as a build is available from a centralized source code repository after a feature work has been integrated, the quality assessment starts, and this assessment helps in providing early feedback on the feature work. One doesn’t have to wait for human interventions to get feedback. This early feedback helps in making timely assessments for associated business risks which can vary from deteriorated user experience to failed software releases.2. Faster Delivery: Since all processes that take place after developer’s code integration into centralized source code repository are taken care of and automated even before the development work is complete, it helps in saving a lot of time thus enabling faster delivery of features and software.3. Better Quality Control: With Continuous Testing, teams can execute a much better control of the quality process. Various levels of test-suites can be used to gate various levels of quality in the product. Automated controls can be implemented to ensure that a change that fails to pass through one level of quality doesn’t make it to the next level. For example, a change that fails integration tests can be prevented from running through performance tests.&nbsp;4. Continuous Improvement: With continuous testing in place, the efforts required to improve a piece of work get reduced a lot since the required pieces of testing are already in place and can be executed without much need of human intervention. For example, if you are working on improving the performance of a product and performance tests are already part of the product’s Continuous Testing, you can keep on doing your improvisations without much intervention from the testing team. Without Continuous Testing, for every improvement you plan to make, you would have to make it prioritized with the testing team as well, causing a lot of overhead and delay along with a loss in the testing team’s bandwidth in doing all these iterations. This advantage of Continuous Testing goes a long way in making teams feel more confident and encouraged to improve continuously.&nbsp;5. Quality with Velocity: Today, software applications are needed to be developed and delivered in a rapid mode. Traditional testing methodologies were becoming a bottleneck for this model. Continuous Testing works well here as it provides quality with velocity thus making rapid development and delivery possible.



<h2 id="challenges-with-continuous-testing">Challenges with Continuous Testing</h2>



Incorporating Continuous Testing in the software development cycle does come with its own challenges, such as:



1. Cultural Shift: Continuous Testing demands a big cultural shift in the way organizations work. Organizations and teams are used to working in a certain way such as waterfall and agile where testing team’s work begins after the development or with development. For Continuous Testing, the testing team’s tasks need to be completed before actual development tasks. To achieve this, the testing team needs to be involved at the early stages of requirements and design discussions.



The testing team needs to be seen as a key stakeholder who needs to know what the plan is as well as why the plan is important to achieve so that the associated business risks can be timely assessed and mitigated.



2. Upskilling: Testing teams need a lot of upskilling to become the first-class citizens of software developers whose thoughts and opinions matter in design discussions and planning rather than the second-class citizens they are used to being, working with whatever has been decided and developed.&nbsp;3. Futuristic Thinking: To start ahead and finish ahead of actual development, testing teams need to have a futuristic thought process. Preparing to test something that doesn’t even exist yet, is difficult. To achieve this, it is important that there is agreement on designs, architecture and interfaces. Major changes in any/all of these can put Continuous Testing at risk.4. Infrastructure: Depending on the type of project, testing teams may need access to different kinds of infrastructure to set up different test environments such as QA Test Environment, Stage Test Environment, Production Test Environment. Also, the need for infrastructure can vary from different hardware to different software applications. Ensuring the availability of such a wide range of infrastructure can be a problem.&nbsp;5. Test case Effectiveness and Optimization: Continuous Testing is very susceptible to elongated testing cycles that may result by running the extensive test suites that have been created so far. Long-running test cycles can defeat the whole purpose of Continuous Testing. For Continuous Testing to be effective, test cycles need to be short so that they can be run for every new code change and build. To achieve this, test-suites need to be reviewed regularly to identify the most relevant and efficient test cases that can provide maximum feedback in the minimum time.



<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



Benefits of Continuous Testing can surely outdo the challenges associated with it, provided it is implemented correctly. Continuous Testing is the need of the hour to make testing match pace with development and deployment practices for achieving faster software release cycles. Continuous Testing makes Agile and DevOps methodologies more effective and efficient in achieving rapid software developments. 



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How Continuous Testing Supercharges Your Automation Testing

Enhancing the robustness of CI/CD Pipeline

CI CD Test Automation | Ways To Enhance the Robustness

Continuous Testing at the Speed of Agile and DevOps

Continuous Testing in DevOps: How to Ensure it at the Speed of Agile and DevOps?

Testing is a critical and indispensable requirement in the software delivery process. However, Testing remains a bottleneck as it fails to keep up with today&#8217;s fast-paced development methodologies like the Agile and Continuous Delivery. Test Automation is the best approach to enable&nbsp; Continuous Delivery.



But, Test Automation done with legacy tools and test processes to meet the increased complexity and pace of modern application development and Continuous Delivery are unsatisfactory.



Age old test methods and tools can impact the delivery speed and quality which in turn affects the cost of software development.



Data from the World Quality Report indicate the need to increase the level of test automation. The test process and tools currently in use are not sufficient to test an application early on, repeatedly and automatically.



With the current application delivery needs, one cannot wait until the end of the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/how-to-speed-up-your-software-release-cycles-with-testsigma/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Software Release Cycle</a> to get started with testing.



There would not be months or weeks to test but merely a few hours. <a class="brand-color" href="https://testsigma.com/blog/essential-elements-of-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Setting up the Test Automation eco-system</a> itself takes up a lot of time.



It is not sufficient to run through Testing just before product delivery. It is necessary to attend to the changes being made to the software at the earliest best, in parallel, with Development.



A fully automated testing process has to be a part of the SDLC. If Testing is done beforehand, application flaws become evident as they are executed. Hence, its access to further stages of the development process can be prevented.



The sooner they appear, the better. It is easier to fix them with a less number of resources in a reduced time as opposed to its appearance at the final stages of the product delivery cycle.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Hence_Continuous_Testing">1 Hence Continuous Testing.</a></li><li><a href="#Key_Elements_to_Consider_in_Test_Automation_to_Enable_Continuous_Testing">2 Key Elements to Consider in Test Automation to Enable Continuous Testing</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Shift_Left_Approach">2.1 1. Shift Left Approach</a></li><li><a href="#2_Faster_Feedback_Time">2.2 2. Faster Feedback Time</a></li><li><a href="#3_Traceability">2.3 3. Traceability</a></li><li><a href="#4_Test_Prioritization">2.4 4. Test Prioritization</a></li><li><a href="#5_Team_Collaboration">2.5 5. Team Collaboration</a></li><li><a href="#6_Low_Maintenance">2.6 6. Low Maintenance</a></li><li><a href="#7_Test_Environment">2.7 7. Test Environment</a></li><li><a href="#8_Risk_Assessment">2.8 8. Risk Assessment</a></li><li><a href="#9_Continuous_Integration">2.9 9. Continuous Integration</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#The_Bottom_Line">3 The Bottom Line</a></li><li><a href="#What_Next">4 What Next??</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-hence-continuous-testing">Hence Continuous Testing.</h2>



Continuous Testing aims to cut down the testing time in the delivery pipeline and still achieve quality.



It extends the test automation process to address the complexity involved and to keep up with the pace of today&#8217;s continuous delivery needs.



Continuous Testing is the process of executing automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline.



 Continuous Testing help decide whether the release candidate is okay or too risky to be delivered while providing fast repetitive feedback associated with each release candidate.



 This determines if the software is ready to enter the delivery pipeline. Each build committed by the developers is Continuously Integrated to find possible business risks at a very early stage.



To achieve Continuous Testing, <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automated testing</a> must be integrated at the initial stages of the development cycle and not when the product is fully developed.



<h2 id="h-key-elements-to-consider-in-test-automation-to-enable-continuous-testing">Key Elements to Consider in Test Automation to Enable Continuous Testing</h2>



Test Automation is imperative to achieving Continuous Testing along with equally important elements like the test process, team, culture change, etc. Some of the key enablers for Continuous Testing include:



<h3 id="h-1-shift-left-approach">1. Shift Left Approach</h3>



Test Automation should not wait until the product is fully developed. For this, the framework and automated testing tools should allow for writing automated tests alongside the development process.



The Shift Left approach in Test Automation ensures just this. Also, it should allow for automating various components such as back-end APIs and other micro services, testing each layer in parallel as and when they are ready for the continuous delivery pipeline.



<h3 id="h-2-faster-feedback-time">2. Faster Feedback Time</h3>



Running each test over and again is time-consuming. It is impractical to run complete regression tests on each build every time.



Test Automation tools should be capable of executing different tests simultaneously and automatically on each build across multiple test environments providing faster feedback.



As an application changes, Test Automation tools and framework should allow the right set of tests that are interrelated to be executed at the right stage in the delivery pipeline.



This allows for faster feedback with appropriate action steps to be taken in order to ensure a smooth user experience. Executing multiple tests one after the other across different environments would be laborious, otherwise.



<h3 id="h-3-traceability">3. Traceability</h3>



It is highly important to understand the requirements of stakeholders and ensure those requirements are met. Managing requirements throughout the project lifecycle is a continuous process in the lookout for changes made in each stage, automatically.



It is necessary to integrate Test Automation tools with additional ALM tools to manage requirements associated with a particular version of an application, to track changes, to communicate and handle the Requirements throughout the testing process.



<h3 id="h-4-test-prioritization">4. Test Prioritization</h3>



It enables developers to test smarter if tests are prioritized, re-executing only the affected ones based on the impact of change.



If Regression testing is done early on, there would be a delay in providing feedback, unlike Smoke Test. What tests would run best at what stage is an important factor to consider.



Test Automation tools and its underlying framework should be good enough to manage this, reducing the time and the number of tests by choosing the right tests for execution at the right stage while achieving the same risk coverage.



<h3 id="h-5-team-collaboration">5. Team Collaboration</h3>



It is necessary to make sure that we get clear requirements before development starts.



The QA team should build a close relationship with Business Analysts and Developers to communicate the ambiguity in user stories. It would be a good idea to have a common platform to discuss, debate and assess the business goals for better clarity.



Test Automation tools should have a collaboration platform or means to integrate with such tools say, Slack. It would be an added advantage if it allows all of the team members for applying these changes automatically to automated tests.



<h3 id="h-6-low-maintenance">6. Low Maintenance</h3>



Automated GUI tests undergo frequent changes and need sizeable rework every time.



With Agile and DevOps practices in place, there is need to extend Test Automation efforts which lead to heavy maintenance needs.



Through Continuous Testing, low maintenance and the need for less or no rework are aimed at. Test Automation tools and frameworks need to be good enough to maintain tests with hardly any effort, continuously.



<h3 id="h-7-test-environment">7. Test Environment</h3>



There should be access to realistic test environments to run tests concurrently in a continuous manner anytime, anywhere.



A stable <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test environment</a> with valid test data sets should be available to run tests automatically throughout the delivery pipeline.



Inaccessible dependencies, poor test data management can cause timeouts and occurrence of false positives that provide inaccurate results.



Access to real-world testing environments become necessary to allow frequent test runs and this way, cut down the time to set up the test environment.



<h3 id="h-8-risk-assessment">8. Risk Assessment</h3>



It is not just about achieving automated test results but analyzing the business risk involved.



 Continuous Testing must assess the business risk associated with an application at any point in real-time providing risk-based feedback to help make better trade-off decisions.



<h3 id="h-9-continuous-integration">9. Continuous Integration</h3>



Automation Testing should be integrated with Continuous Integration tools to run automatically once the build is ready.



All testing has to be part of the pipeline, which means that automation testers have to be familiar with tools such as Maven, Nexus, and Jenkins to name some.



 It is necessary to identify the right tests to run automatically on every build and if a test may fail, the results have to be integrated back into the pipeline triggering a failed build.



Companies embracing Continuous Testing consider Testing a continuous activity that does not begin prior to release.



A SaaS, <a href="https://testsigma.com/ai-driven-test-automation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI-Driven test automation</a> software, Testsigma is built to address all of these <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous testing</a> requirements.



Testsigma aims to achieve Continuous Testing with a Shift-left approach to help web and mobile dependent businesses to reduce the cost involved in ensuring the quality of software while continuously releasing quality software products faster.



Testsigma uses AI to build stable and reliable tests faster and speed-up the execution and maintenance of automated tests and requires near-zero initial setup time, cost and ramp up time.



The AI features suggest improvements in test plans to include relevant or affected test cases, &nbsp;uses dynamic locator strategy to save maintenance time and efforts by 70%.



Its sheer simplicity enables anyone write automated tests 5X faster using natural language, run tests on thousands of devices available on the cloud.



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<h2 id="h-the-bottom-line">The Bottom Line</h2>



“&nbsp;The most powerful tool we have as developers is Automation” Test Automation is the best approach to Testing and this is an undisputed fact. But how do we ensure timely deliverance of quality software?



The need of the hour is a transformation of automated test processes to keep up with the advancements in ensuring continuous delivery of the product. It is time we stopped relying on less efficient scripts.



Test Automation indicates whether a particular requirement is met or not whereas Continuous Testing curbs business risks. Both are important and should go hand in hand.



Today, Testing is not just an afterthought. Continuous Testing has emerged to match the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/best-automation-testing-practices-agile-continuous-delivery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agile and Continuous Delivery standards</a>. It is a systematic approach towards improvement.



One needs to perform test automation in a way that suits today’s complex application and continuous delivery needs.



We must advance towards Continuous Testing as it has rightly become a necessity in the fast-paced application development lifecycle to deliver faster without compromising on quality.



<h2 id="h-what-next">What Next??</h2>



#ThinkSmart &amp; Join us on our journey towards #SmartTestAutomation today! <a class="brand-color" href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Testsigma Website</a> <a class="brand-color" href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Getting started with Testsigma</a> <a class="brand-color" href="https://calendly.com/testsigma/demo/12-28-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Schedule a quick online Demo</a>

Extend Test Automation to enable continuous testing