Where Does QA and Test Automation Fit in DevOps

DevOps Test Automation | Where Do QA and Test Automation Fit in DevOps?

<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Testsigma undertook the work of providing customers with the best experience in using their test automation solution. What makes this test automation suite competitive from the other vendors out in the market is that it is scriptless(NLP based), maintained by AI, and can be hosted either on-premise also on the cloud.
 (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank">Testsigma </a>undertook the work of providing customers with the best experience in using their automation testing solution. What makes this test automation suite competitive from the other vendors in the market is that it is scriptless(NLP based), maintained by AI, and can be hosted either on-premise also on the cloud. 



What also sets Testsigma apart from the rest is, they built their solution to address all the testing-related concerns of every business, whether small or medium business to even an enterprise. 



One of the major reasons why customers prefer&nbsp;Testsigma is the product’s capability to scale to the extent of catering volumes of the workload for the largest organization especially for those organizations that adopt Agile and DevOps methodologies. 



Agile adoption is now a trend to many businesses which means that the&nbsp; playing field of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Agile adoption is now a trend to many businesses which means that the&nbsp; playing field of software testing has been levelled.
 (opens in a new tab)">software testing</a> has been levelled. 



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_Is_Agile_Testing">1 What Is Agile Testing?</a><ul><li><a href="#Start_your_Agile_Testing_today_with_Testsigma_Automate_your_testing_right_from_day_one_No_coding_skills_required">1.1 Start your Agile Testing today with Testsigma. Automate your testing right from day one. No coding skills required!</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#VUCA_World_Reason_Why_Companies_Opt_for_Agile_Testing">2 VUCA World: Reason Why Companies Opt for Agile Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Know_Your_Role_in_SAFe">3 Know Your Role in SAFe</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="what-is-agile-testing">What Is Agile Testing?</h2>



Agile based testing is a process that is intended to perform a quality check on an application or software that follows the principle of agile software development. In traditional development, typically it uses a “big-bang” deferred testing approach, while agile testing develops and test systems in small increments, often developing tests before writing the code, story, or feature. 



With this approach, the test itself helps to elaborate and clearly define the intended system behavior, even before the system is implemented. In other words, quality is established at an early stage. Pretty much like agile development, agile testing is a collaborative, team-oriented process where everyone shares the responsibility of testing the software.



Yes, you have read it right! Everyone has to do their fair share in agile testing and that is to test the software! This it is often referred to as “teams-of-team”.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Agile testing comes with a “test-first” approach that practically applies to all types of agile work such as defining software capabilities and its features, outlining the non-functional requirements, creating user’s stories based on client’s specification and requirements and as well as coding. It can also be applied to the hardware components of the application. This is the same way tests are written during the coding or development stage, acceptance tests for capabilities and user stories and features are there to clearly define the output. Also, the right timing of clearly defining the proposed system behavior by the way also mitigates the need for overly detailed requirement specifications and sign-offs.
 (opens in a new tab)">Agile testing</a> comes with a “test-first” approach that practically applies to all types of agile work such as defining software capabilities and its features, outlining the non-functional requirements, creating user’s stories based on client’s specification and requirements and as well as coding. It can also be applied to the hardware components of the application. This is the same way tests are written during the coding or development stage, acceptance tests for capabilities and user stories and features are there to clearly define the output. Also, the right timing of clearly defining the proposed system behavior by the way also mitigates the need for overly detailed requirement specifications and sign-offs. 



Unlike conventionally-written requirements, these test cases are automated wherever possible. Even if they weren’t, they still provide a clear definition of what the system does, rather than an idea or statement of early thoughts of what it was supposed to do.



<h3>Start your Agile Testing today with <a href="https://testsigma.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma</a>. Automate your testing right from day one. No coding skills required! </h3><div>&nbsp;</div>



<h2 id="vuca-world-reason-why-companies-opt-for-agile-testing">VUCA World: Reason Why Companies Opt for Agile Testing</h2>



Today, most of the business adopt agile mainly to addresses all possible scenario of the VUCA world. But what is VUCA World? 



First of all, VUCA stands for Volatility – Uncertainty – Complexity – Ambiguity. 



Volatile change in environments is constant. It is usually masked by rapid, unexpected and significant changes with tentative duration. Uncertainty is a component of some instances, with a lack of clarity and making the outcome unpredictable. Complexity is a manifestation of the multiplicity of interconnected factors, and the nature of it can be quite difficult for us to process and at times, it puts limit for control. Ambiguity brings along an environment that has everything in it, are hard to decipher with mixed messages and many are unknown unknowns. 



These are just some of the high-level details of what most businesses are dealing with in today’s world. 



This is why it is a good move for a business to start practicing Agile as a culture. Adopting agile means you are shifting towards DevOps and it means that testing is happening and more people are getting involved in it. 



With this enterprise level of testing, it is critical for everyone involved in agile testing to know their role and scope!







<h2 id="know-your-role-in-safe">Know Your Role in SAFe</h2>



In a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), testing (including automation testing) at an enterprise level means we are involving professionals from several departments. From portfolio management to program management and the team itself that is primarily composed of software developers alongside the QA test team. 



With so many participants, it is for a must not only for you but for everyone else to know which role to play for the project to succeed. 



For you to have a clear insight into this discussion, I am sharing the three-layer organizational abstract from Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). This is how a typical agile organization looks like.



 



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KlS1HKLfPPLn4QINIH8btNp2AHueXjWFCseUbsf3g8bjFiuaiHJrYNv1LaWVxjUNimh3gfQW8GlAMotDS4TeooRAq1Emx0skjhjOxzSbR4rONKKAsEaqxk-LM3EgR_JSIFCQmNg" alt="Image result for scaled agile framework 4.6 png" width="687" height="462"/><figcaption>Image Credit: Scaled Agile F<a href="https://scaledagileframework.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">https://scaledagileframework.com/</a>ramework (SAFe) Website</figcaption></figure>



The Team Layer are teams of software developers and testers closely working together to create a product from selected user stories, strictly governed and prioritized by the Product Owner with the scrum master who makes sure that agile practices are in place. 



The Program and Large Solution Layer is mostly a team of Architects and Program Manager who is responsible for demonstrating a working software at the end of each sprint cycle. The are also teams from the IT infrastructure department who provisions platforms for continuous integration, development and staging, and as well as for end-to-end testing. 



The Portfolio Layer is the stakeholder group. Stakeholders are executives that make sure that the program is aligned to the enterprise’s business strategy and model. 



Now just to weed out the “devils in the detail”. Here is a more detailed breakdown of roles involved in such enterprise activity.



Testers&nbsp;are the ones who are closely working with the product owner to add and refine the done “criteria” for user stories. They are not only responsible for developing test scripts but they are also accountable for creating frameworks for manual and automated testing. In a nutshell, they always do a benchmark of the system and find flaws within it. If there are defects then they are expected to work with developers directly to create a solution and validate them. 



System Team Testers – This team is the one who develops the platform for testing and frameworks that empower the team that makes up the Agile release train. Creating and running automated tests to enable continuous integration and continuous deployment falls within their bucket too. They also provide provisioning of network and virtualization that allows the test team to test and develop independently of one another. Most importantly, they are the ones who conduct audit and testing of cross-system topics like Single Sign-On (SSO), security, compliance and regulatory standards which may or may not fall to being the QA test team “out-of-scope support”. 



Then we have the “Other Actors” from the user management team, user experience experts and several other architects who play as backup and support roles in such activity. 



Test Architects are those who define testing strategies, framework, and methodologies, and work hand in hand with System Architects in ensuring that the product application is designed for quality testing. 



Automation Architects lead the analysis and proof of concept activities when it comes to automation testing. This is to ensure that consistency for build verification tests and regression test suite are in automation is in place. Overall, they are engaged in everything that has something to do with automation such as preparing the test cases, setup specifications and configurations, the staging of test cases and its data. These are also the people who make automation testing in SAFe (Scale Agile Framework) possible. 



System Architects are not involved in testing directly, but they are the ones who design the system to cater to overall testing sessions and workloads. 



UX Experts is team of user experience experts who are deeply involved UX testing, and providing inputs as to what approach is needed for usability testing and test automation method. 



Business Analysts provide support to the agile and system teams in developing and executing end-to-end testing. They also provide recommendations on functional and non-functional requirements, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).&nbsp; 



Product Owners at times typically involve in testing and ad hoc testing. 



Additionally, in an agile ( also SAFe ) team, testers ( also automation testers ) are becoming a part of virtual teams and are commonly referred to like the Communities of Practices (CoPs). CoPs are comprised of people from different teams and departments having common expertise and knowledge. They come together as one and participate in activities to share their expertise and experiences.



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<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped">
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Automation Testing in a SAFe ( Scaled Agile Framework ) in an enterprise, everyone is accountable for quality which makes everyone a tester regardless of their levels within the organization. Therefore, other enterprise businesses opt for cross-skilled resources. For instance, developer-tester role, an individual dedicated to programming as well as testing. 



Now that you have the bigger picture of Agile Testing, what role do you play in? How is your agile culture within your organization different from this? 



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped">
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Agile Automation Testing In SAFe

Test automation is being increasingly adopted by a majority of software companies. And yet, there are many that stay away from it. The biggest concern of these organizations is that they are not sure if the investment they put in test automation will ever bring back returns. 



Another aspect of the same problem is that although everyone involved with the development of a project has been involved in manual testing at some level. When it comes to automation, they often find themselves in the unknown and hence unsure. Hopefully, by the end of this article, we will be in a better position to solve both the problems. 



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Current_Practices">1 Current Practices</a></li><li><a href="#Contribution_From_Different_Resources">2 Contribution From Different Resources</a></li><li><a href="#What_Is_Needed">3 What Is Needed?</a></li><li><a href="#What_Do_New_Improvements_In_Test_Automation_Industry_Entail">4 What Do New Improvements In Test Automation Industry Entail?</a></li><li><a href="#What_Are_The_Benefits_Of_Using_Test_Automation_Tools_That_Use_New_Technologies_And_Techniques">5 What Are The Benefits Of Using Test Automation Tools That Use New Technologies And Techniques?</a></li><li><a href="#How_Will_The_Adoption_Of_New_Tools_Lead_To_Test_Automation_Becoming_More_Inclusive">6 How Will The Adoption Of New Tools Lead To Test Automation Becoming More Inclusive?</a></li></ul></div>
<h3 id="current-practices">Current Practices</h3>



A typical day in the life of an Agile software development team that has also invested in test automation looks like this:



<ol><li>Developer checks in code</li><li>The code is built</li><li>The Automated set of test cases is executed on the built code</li><li>If the automated test cases run successfully then the code is deployed, else the cycle repeats</li></ol>



When software development is under progress and the quality assurance team is waiting for a feature to be ready for testing, their tasks include:



<ol><li>Creation of manual test cases for features that are in development.</li><li>Automation of test cases for tested and stable features.</li><li>Editing and update of the automated test cases that fail because of a change in the code.</li></ol>



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<h3 id="contribution-from-different-resources">Contribution From Different Resources</h3>



Test automation can be done on multiple levels and different members of the team can contribute in different ways.



Automation of black-box test cases is done by the quality assurance people who have special skills to do these tasks. The contribution from developers is in the form of unit tests and white box test cases that they add to test their own code.



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://dzone.com/articles/continuous-testing-functional-experts-agile" target="_blank">Test Automation by Functional Experts and SMEs</a>&nbsp;is particularly important in Agile CI/CD cycles. The product manager, program manager or project managers that are involved in business specifications gathering and handling the client end, receive and review the emails of the test results and any other analysis reports on the test.



Although product/project managers are the ones that interact with the customers, their involvement in the test automation phase is not much. They are involved in the review of the the manual test case documentation, but reviewing automated test cases is usually not their cup of tea. Due to this, there are times when important scenarios don&#8217;t get automated.



Once a feature becomes old and only the automated test cases are executed before a release &#8211; there is a big chance that the important scenarios that were important to the stakeholders are missed. The result could be a break in these important scenarios which go unnoticed till the time it is found by the end user. 
Embarrassing right? What if there was a test automation tool that would enable the stakeholders to add these test cases for test automation by themselves? <a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma</a> sure is one such test automation tool.



<h3 id="what-is-needed">What Is Needed?</h3>



Although there is a process set in to transfer all the requirements that come from the client to the developers and the testers. In all the processes involved and the time invested during the design, development and testing phase, a lot more intricacies are added to the product that needs to be taken care of both my developers and the testers. 



Thus, before the release time, the involvement of a person who has first-hand knowledge from the customer who has not been involved in the details of design and development gives a unique insight to the product and how well it caters to the business requirements.



To make sure that the automation actually covers the business requirements, the reviews and inputs from the product/project managers are vital. For ensuring that the developed features are fully tested via automation, the reviews by developers are essential too.



The best possible way would be to enable a person who is not well versed with the coding practices to review the automated test cases and if possible to easily automate the scenarios that they deem important.



This way two purposes would be fulfilled:



<ol><li>The most important test scenarios would be automated</li><li>The automation team would get more time to work on the intricacies of automation. Giving them the time and opportunity to also include complex test cases to the test suite and more time for maintenance and increasing the robustness of the test cases.</li></ol>







<h3 id="what-do-new-improvements-in-test-automation-industry-entail">What Do New Improvements In Test Automation Industry Entail?</h3>



Artificial Intelligence(AI) is the new technology trend that is being adopted by most industries as is by the software industry. What the test automation industry needs to do is to use this technology and enable all the stakeholders of a software/project to review the automated test cases with a minimum <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/automated-functional-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">learning</a> curve.&nbsp;



Testsigma is one such tool that is set to revolutionize the test automation industry. In Testsigma, test cases need to be written only in simple English and once the test cases are execution ready they learn and adapt to new changes and make maintenance easier with the help of AI.



<h3 id="what-are-the-benefits-of-using-test-automation-tools-that-use-new-technologies-and-techniques">What Are The Benefits Of Using Test Automation Tools That Use New Technologies And Techniques?</h3>



If such tools are used, it will not only lead to a gentler learning curve for quality assurance engineers and enable them to write and maintain the test cases easily, but it will also give the project managers and clients the opportunity to add test cases where needed. 



If other stakeholders can add and review the automated test cases, the test suite is sure to cover the most important scenarios before the product hits the market and will lead to a lesser number of bugs.



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<h3 id="how-will-the-adoption-of-new-tools-lead-to-test-automation-becoming-more-inclusive">How Will The Adoption Of New Tools Lead To Test Automation Becoming More Inclusive?</h3>



New test automation tools like Testsigma have made test automation very simple. Not only this, their easy to understand interface allows other members of the team to review the test cases quickly. In addition, Testsigma also has an option to track these reviews that enhance collaboration between the team. 



Enabling other stakeholders to review the automated test cases serves more than one purpose &#8211; The Test Automation process now also conserves the knowledge of the SMEs and functional experts, and also improves the subjective quality of the test cases. 



Thus, enabling the reviews by other team members leads to more quality test cases and better <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/code-coverage-vs-test-coverage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">code coverage</a>. It also leads to a better understanding of the process and clarifies the value addition done by test automation. 



Better understanding also means better adoption. Thus, using a Unified Test Automation Tool like <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Enabling other stakeholders to review and automate test cases serves more than one purpose. It will lead to more test cases and better code coverage. It will also lead to a better understanding of the process and needs of test automation. Better understanding also means better adoption. Thus, using a Unified Test Automation Tool like Testsigma which has the capability of adding test cases in simple English and learns to maintain the test cases via AI is need of the hour and answer to the need to make test automation more inclusive. (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank">Testsigma</a> which has the capability of adding test cases in simple English and learns to maintain the test cases via AI is need of the hour and answer to the need to make test automation more inclusive.



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How To Make Test Automation More Inclusive

How To Make Test Automation More Inclusive?

Test Automation To Achieve Fail Fast, Fail Often

Software Testing has not evolved to meet the demands of the current accelerated delivery needs. As software becomes sophisticated,&nbsp;traditional approaches to Testing&nbsp;would not be sufficient. With the advancement in technology, Test Automation was introduced to accelerate the process of testing simply by automating test cases and scenarios.



In today’s world, almost every organization is onto Test Automation for better business results.



 



For the past few years, the First generation of Test Automation has been in the spotlight. These provide businesses and testing teams a macro recording which runs in parallel with an Application Programming Interface (API), whereas test execution engines send a command and wait for it to be executed. This tool was working well for short length automation and was also done by combining a logical sequence of such short length macros and test flows. 



Then came the Second generation Test Automation Tools that offers full scripting capability with more features and better support for user interaction. Most of the windows based on common tasks such as operations, application, launch, generating reports were simplified. Frameworks like these are required to be built on long term test automation to go at par with quality the business is expecting. 



As the continuous innovation in technology, <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/scriptless-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Scriptless Test Automation</a> is rapidly gaining its popularity amongst various IT companies – simply because it is designed to help the testing team to quickly build ready-to-use automated test cases and reusable code assets that have full test coverage.



Scriptless Testing is a term used for test automation done without having to write any script or code. This type of testing is also called codeless testing sometimes. Check the guide for an in-depth read on <a aria-label="Check the guide for an in-depth read on codeless testing. (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com/codeless-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">codeless testing.</a> 



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Second-Gen_Test_Automation_Tool_Selenium">1 Second-Gen Test Automation Tool, “Selenium”</a></li><li><a href="#Scriptless_Test_Automation_Tools_A_Less_to_Zero_Coding_for_QA_Professionals">2 Scriptless Test Automation Tools: A “Less to Zero Coding” for QA Professionals</a></li><li><a href="#Selenium_Vs_Scriptless_Test_Automation_Tool_What_is_Best">3 Selenium Vs Scriptless Test Automation Tool: What is Best?</a></li><li><a href="#The_Comparison_Battle_Concludes">4 The Comparison Battle Concludes!</a></li><li><a href="#Testsigma_NLP_based_Scriptless_Test_Automation_Solution">5 Testsigma: NLP based Scriptless Test Automation Solution</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="second-gen-test-automation-tool-selenium">Second-Gen Test Automation Tool, “Selenium”</h2>



Selenium is a suite of web browser automation tools to automate browsers across a range of platforms. It is principally used to automate web apps for testing reasons even though it is capable of so many things. The majority of big-name browser vendors support it. Furthermore, many of these either have taken or are taking steps to make it a native part of their browsers. Besides, it is the core technology used in serried of other APIs, browser automation tools, and automation testing frameworks.



Selenium runs on various browsers and operating systems, and a range of programming languages and frameworks can control it. Plus, it can automate tedious web-based administration tasks.



It also provides for authoring tests without the necessity to acquire knowledge of a test scripting language (Selenium IDE). Selenium also provides a test domain-specific language (Selenese) to write tests in several popular programming languages, including Scala, Groovy, Java, Ruby, C#, PHP, Python, and Perl. The tests can then run against current and newest web browsers. Selenium deploys on Windows, macOS and Linux platforms.



Selenium is primarily composed of respective components with specific role assists the web application test automation development. These are Selenium Grid, Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment), Selenium WebDriver, and Selenium RC (Remote Control).







<h2 id="scriptless-test-automation-tools-a-less-to-zero-coding-for-qa-professionals">Scriptless Test Automation Tools: A “Less to Zero Coding” for QA Professionals</h2>



&#8220;Scriptless” implies “no scripting and programming”. This is somewhat misleading to the audience especially to those who are new to software testing. Scriptless testing doesn’t eliminate scripting and is not suitable for the actual coding of any test automation tool. It is an extremely flexible testing framework with minimal exposure to code. In layman’s terms, it can be said that scriptless testing is an approach to conduct testing without scripting or coding in any programming language. It reduces the time required for creating automated tests by considerably minimizing the amount of scripting needed. 



Scriptless Test Automation is a more structured model where the majority of test cases can be automated by functional users and those are reusable scripts. It is a myth that test architects will be involved in scriptless testing but in real-time they are not. Based on their expertise and knowledge, test architects will be involved in identifying the possible reusable part of the test scripts. When operational scope spreads out, few new components will be added to the application and then test architects will be involved to integrate them. 



Scriptless Test Automation is being refined to highly organized tools for use in multiple real-time test scenarios. The developers of those tools shall have analyzed various business cases, deployment environments, operational scenarios before building each reusable components for their tools. Hence they offer a good standard of practical reliability as well. 



With scriptless Test Automation, testers can create better automation scripts that showcase the core functionality of the application. This type of testing will certainly reduce the number of licenses for the testing tools. Scriptless Test Automation will be more useful from product development companies where the same resources can be leveraged for multiple tasks. 



Thought it has many advantages, there are scriptless test automation frameworks that have complex underlying codes that need to be maintained and updated periodically. Those frameworks are not free – they consume initial and maintenance costs which is more than the tool’s cost. Therefore, choosing the right framework specific to your business requirement is the only manual effort you need to do. 



Using Scriptless Test Automation tools, the testing team does not need any coding or scripting knowledge to create automated tests. However, as a framework, it is a good practice to provide the capability of customization. 



For advanced users, customization can be done by writing their code for covering some unique test scenarios.



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<h2 id="selenium-vs-scriptless-test-automation-tool-what-is-best">Selenium Vs Scriptless Test Automation Tool: What is Best?</h2>



Selenium is required to be built on long term test automation to go at par with quality. For instance, if the testing team wanted to reuse test scripts then it is best to leverage Selenium IDE. Selenium IDE is one of the components of Selenium capable of recording, editing and debugging of functional test scripts. Test scripts have to be made from scratch by the testers, therefore, they are required to know programming or scripting. 



On the other hand, Scriptless Automation Tools already provide ready-to-use automated test cases and reusable code objects. Mostly for Scriptless Test Automation tools, these features are out-of-the-box. It is not mandatory for the testers to know programming or scripting of some sort. It empowers testers and business users to automate testers without worrying about coding. The problem of coding is largely taken care of by the Scriptless Test Automation tool already. 



In terms of debugging test scripts, Scriptless Test Automation tools eliminate the need to repeatedly debug scripted test code as this already done by the tool itself, while in Selenium, automation testers when encountering any test script errors have to debug the test code manually. 



Setting up test environments for Selenium is difficult. Selenium uses various plugins to support Test Automation thus making it a must for system owners and administrators to update and configure everything manually. Scriptless test environments can be built faster and maintained easily creating a hassle-free update environment.



Hence, making a Scriptless Test Automation tool a perfect fit for Test Automation for Agile and DevOps. 



Using Scriptless Test Automation Tool, the testing team can easily automate large test suites faster almost double the times faster compared to Selenium. It greatly reduces the “go to market” time, which comes in handy when there are major software updates. In short, the more the test coverage, the better as it produces a well-refined product which is a win-win situation for the business. 



Scalability and Flexibility is one of the most desirable in Scriptless. It is flexible to work with various browsers available in the market and it scales an amount of workload as much as the business requires. For Selenium to be flexible enough to work with multiple browsers, it needs to have components 



<h2 id="the-comparison-battle-concludes">The Comparison Battle Concludes!</h2>



It’s time to reach our conclusion. Both contenders, Selenium and Scriptless Test Automation Tools do what they do best. Now, which is better?&nbsp; 



Overall, Scriptless Test Automation Tools have an edge over Selenium. Scriptless test automation tools can easily be set up, configured and maintained and does not require any plugins as Selenium does. It can handle the bulk amount of test cases way faster than Selenium.



Scriptless Test Automation Tools do not require that their functional users know scripting and programming. Users can conduct their QA activities with “<a href="https://d1gm6dy5ofa99q.cloudfront.net/assets/videos/common/automated-testcase.mp4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">ready-to-use</a>” test steps which already exist within the platform. 



Unlike Selenium, one needs to add Selenium IDE to leverage playback tool which grants users feature slightly similar with reusable codes scriptless has. If we talk about scalability and flexibility, scriptless is the one in favor. Everything you need is already available. Selenium, for the most part, requires components to utilize and fully leverage it. 



The battle is over. If you are looking for the perfect Automation Testing Suite and a complete solution fit for Agile and DevOps environments, then a Scriptless Automation Tool is definitely for you.



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<h2 id="testsigma-nlp-based-scriptless-test-automation-solution">Testsigma: NLP based Scriptless Test Automation Solution</h2>



When we start talking about Test Automation, we can create a list of issues every business is facing and some which are critical for the business. Some of the major pain points include the usage of multiple tools required in testing sessions, rigorous scripting and coding, test automation frameworks, test lab, integrations and other QA related concerns that need to be addressed.&nbsp; Even with all these, your testing team is all over the place. 



It’s time to say goodbye to all this.



Say hello to Testsigma<a aria-label="It’s time to say goodbye to all this. Say hello to Testsigma, a complete test automation ecosystem.
 (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">,</a>&nbsp;a complete Test Automation ecosystem! Testsigma is an NLP based Scriptless Test Automation tool meant for all! The tests are written in simple English and can automate Web, Mobile apps and API services. To learn more about the tool, the product and services, reach out to the chat section or visit the <a aria-label="Testsigma is a Scriptless Test Automation tool meant for all! It can automate Web, Mobile apps and API services in plain English.
To learn more about the tool, the product and services, reach out to the chat section or visit the Testsigma's&nbsp;home page. (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma&#8217;s&nbsp;home page</a>.



 



<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Background vector created by brgfx &#8211; www.freepik.com</a>

Selenium vs Scriptless Test Automation

<a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Testsigma provides an option to schedule test executions along with real-time Executions. The Scheduling option allows us to execute the tests on local devices or on the cloud automatically during regular intervals when it isn't convenient for the user to start an Execution.
 (opens in a new tab)">Testsigma</a> provides an option to schedule test executions along with real-time Executions. The Scheduling option allows us to execute the tests on local devices or on the cloud automatically during regular intervals when it isn&#8217;t convenient for the user to start an Execution. 



Scheduled Executions



Testsigma provides an option to Schedule Test Executions along with real-time execution. The Scheduling option allows us to execute the tests on local devices or on the cloud automatically during regular intervals when it is not convenient for the user to start an Execution. For Example, we can start regression tests outside office hours so that productive time is not lost and hardware resources are freely available.







<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Creating_Scheduled_Execution_in_Testsigma">1 Creating Scheduled Execution in Testsigma</a></li><li><a href="#Which_is_the_best_tool_for_Test_Scheduling">2 Which is the best tool for Test Scheduling?</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="creating-scheduled-execution-in-testsigma">Creating Scheduled Execution in Testsigma </h2>



Once you create a free trial account with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Once you create a free trial account with Testsigma, you will be taken to 'Dashboards'. (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank">Testsigma</a>, you will be taken to &#8216;Dashboards&#8217;. To create a Schedule, you can navigate to the Executions page by going through: 



Test Development &gt; Test Plans



 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Schedule.png" alt="Schedule" class="wp-image-17505" width="840" height="390" /></figure>



 



1. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Click on the Schedule button. A ‘Create Execution’ page would appear like below:



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1920" height="892" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Schedule1.png" alt="Schedule" class="wp-image-17509" /></figure>



2. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Enter the required details such as the Schedule Name, Description, Select Frequency Schedule Date and Time.



3. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Here are the different types of Frequencies: 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="1920" height="892" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Schedule2.png" alt="Schedule" class="wp-image-17514" /></figure>



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>If we set the Frequency as Don&#8217;t Repeat, the scheduled execution should be run only one time.</li><li>If we set the Frequency as Daily, the scheduled executions should run daily.</li><li>If the Frequency is set as Weekly, executions should run weekly.</li><li>If set as Monthly, the executions should be run every month.</li><li>Setting the frequency of execution as Hourly allows scheduled executions to run every hour.</li></ul>



 



Minute of the Hour: Set the Minute of every Hour when you want the execution to be performed.



For example, if you want to execute a test every 15 minutes, you need to create 4 schedules &#8211; At 0th Minute, 15th Minute, 30th Minute, and 45th Minute 



This will run at the 0th, 15th, 30th and 45th minute of every hour.



 



4. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Click on the Create Button.



 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="600" height="375" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Scheduled-Executions-Testsigma-1.gif" alt="Creating Scheduled Execution in Testsigma" class="wp-image-15344" /></figure>



 



You may set up scheduling on a one-time or recurring basis.&nbsp;Instead of waiting to execute your tests one after the other, you can choose to run your tests simultaneously (<a href="https://testsigma.com/parallel-test-runs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="You may set up scheduling on a one-time or recurring basis.&nbsp;Instead of waiting to execute your tests one after the other, you can choose to run your tests simultaneously (in parallel) across various test environments, set and receive email notifications of the run status. (opens in a new tab)">in parallel</a>) across various test environments, set and receive email notifications of the run status.



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<h2 id="h-which-is-the-best-tool-for-test-scheduling">Which is the best tool for Test Scheduling?</h2>



Choosing the best tool for test scheduling depends on your specific needs, team size, and project requirements. Suggesting Testsigma: It offers codeless test automation with built-in scheduling features. It allows parallel test execution and easy integration with CI/CD tools.

Scheduling Test Runs/Executions in Testsigma

Top Eight Essentials to move to Automated Software Testing

How To Start Automation Testing From Scratch? | 8 Key Notes To Start With

Best practices in test automation in an agile environment mean that frequent software releases to production must exhibit the best possible quality.It is essential to synchronize automated testing with the Agile development methodology to ensure that all necessary elements are considered before releasing software into production. Testing early and often is crucial for attaining high quality in frequent software releases. Furthermore, test automation becomes increasingly important during the continuous deployment phase, as it provides immediate feedback to the development team.



The automated tests should be reliable and implemented continuously to get instant feedback. You must ensure that most quality assurance is completed while new features are developed within the <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/sprints" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">s</a><a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/sprints" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">print</a>. The new functionalities should not hamper the workflow of the existing features of the application.



The concern is that the Sprint duration is low, making it practically impossible to execute the entire test case when the application advances towards the end of the Sprint. An automated Test Suite is your answer here.



Prioritize and group Test Cases into Test Suites. An initial investment in planning and designing the test automation process would pay off in the long run.



Introducing automation testing into Agile and Continuous delivery has a risk of failure. This is because the test object changes with time as the object is improvised by the developers in every Sprint. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/software-test-automation-what-to-expect-near-future/">Test automation that undergo constant changes</a> would eventually require high maintenance.



So, an obvious question arises, “How do you create a sustainable automated testing architecture for Agile and Continuous Delivery?”



Even though test object changes continuously, working in Agile and Continuous Delivery without Test Automation to cope with changing requirements is impossible.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Best_Practices_in_Test_Automation">1 Best Practices in Test Automation</a><ul><li><a href="#Keep_Tests_Small_And_Run_Lean">1.1 Keep Tests Small And Run Lean</a></li><li><a href="#Create_High-Quality_Test_Scripts">1.2 Create High-Quality Test Scripts </a></li><li><a href="#Introduce_DevOps_When_Possible">1.3 Introduce DevOps When Possible</a></li><li><a href="#Work_Closely_With_Business_Analysts">1.4 Work Closely With Business Analysts</a></li><li><a href="#Implement_A_Sound_QA_Practise">1.5 Implement A Sound QA Practise</a></li><li><a href="#Follow_The_Best_Practices_For_Test_Automation">1.6 Follow The Best Practices For Test Automation</a></li><li><a href="#Automate_The_Deployments">1.7 Automate The Deployments</a></li><li><a href="#Use_the_Best_Automation_Tool">1.8 Use the Best Automation Tool</a></li><li><a href="#Keep_A_Check_On_The_Development_Environment">1.9 Keep A Check On The Development Environment</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">2 Conclusion</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">3 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_are_the_Best_Test_Automation_Practices_you_Follow_while_doing_UI_Automation">3.1 What are the Best Test Automation Practices you Follow while doing UI Automation?</a></li><li><a href="#How_many_Test_Automation_is_Not_Limited_to_Test_Execution">3.2 How many Test Automation is Not Limited to Test Execution?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="best-practices-in-test-automation">Best Practices in Test Automation</h2>



Here are some of the test automation best practices you should follow:



<h3 id="keep-tests-small-and-run-lean">Keep Tests Small And Run Lean</h3>



Your <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-at-the-speed-of-agile-and-devops/">continuous testing</a> process should aim at providing value to the business. Instead of investing in producing artifacts that may not pass any value, create an aesthetically lean <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/software-testing-strategy/">testing strategy</a>. Short test cases will help you remove unnecessary test data, enable instant modifications as per regression requirements, and help slice down the maintenance of large test suites.



<h3 id="create-high-quality-test-scripts">Create High-Quality Test Scripts </h3>



While writing test scripts, testers should ensure that the scripts are flexible to accommodate <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/requirement-traceability-matrix-regression-testing/">regression testing requirements</a>. The scripts may be measured for accuracy, maintainability, portability, integrity, and performance. This will ensure a seamless execution of <a href="https://testsigma.com/regression-testing/automated-regression-testing">regression tests</a> without much intervention from the testers. 



<h3 id="introduce-devops-when-possible">Introduce DevOps When Possible</h3>



DevOps collaborates the development, testing, and operations role in a product life cycle. With DevOps, you can make the most out of collaboration and cross-functioning of the Dev and QA teams and yield a high-speed delivery process. Since <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-devops-is-important-for-modern-businesses/">DevOps</a> is driven by shared development, integration, and accurate time testing, the Agile cycle becomes more efficient when backed with DevOps. <gwmw style="display:none;">



<h3 id="work-closely-with-business-analysts">Work Closely With Business Analysts</h3>



<a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Continuous testing</a> would require you to test correctly from the very beginning. Make sure that the entire team has a clear picture of the product and business requirements before flagging off Development. This means that the QA team should work closely with Business Analysts best if <a href="https://dzone.com/articles/continuous-testing-functional-experts-agile" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">they are a part</a> of the Test Automation process. Ensure that every user story you create matches the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/acceptance-criteria-vs-acceptance-tests/">acceptance criteria</a>. Create an end-to-end test scenario based on the current trends and analytics in order to understand user activities and behavior.



<h3 id="implement-a-sound-qa-practise">Implement A Sound QA Practise</h3>



Build an Agile QA strategy which drives development. Perform regular QA workshops that enable testers to improve their technical skills. 



<h3 id="follow-the-best-practices-for-test-automation">Follow The Best Practices For Test Automation</h3>



Know when you should follow the manual testing approach. Automate regression tests, performance tests, and security tests where possible. You need to strike a proper balance between Automated Testing and Manual Testing.



Ideally, you should perform automated testing from a Continuous Integration server. Create fast processing smoke regression packs and run them whenever the application updates.



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" width="3000" height="582" data-id="3782" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2.jpg" alt="write tests in simple english" class="wp-image-3782"/></a></figure>
</figure>



<h3 id="automate-the-deployments">Automate The Deployments</h3>



Continuous testing works best when the deployments are automated incrementally. Instead of waiting for DevOps to deploy the product’s release and QA team to test after that, automate the entire cycle.



Automation should not be limited to merely testing and verification. If you find the process lagging due to repetitive manual procedures, introduce automation to eliminate manual effort and time.



<h3 id="use-the-best-automation-tool">Use the Best Automation Tool</h3>



Be prepared to invest your time and effort in evaluating Popular <a href="https://testsigma.com/qa-automation-tools" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Automation Testing tools</a> in the market. Selecting the right test automation tools is a crucial part of the continuous delivery process. Before you pin down your choice on a certain tool, make sure that it meets the basic requirements to meet your test automation program.



Here are a few features to begin with, regardless of your custom testing needs: 



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>An OS friendly tool &#8211; The number of operating systems a tool supports, the better.</li><li>Intuitive &#8211; The tool should come with an easy-to-understand UI (videos, screenshots and logs for clear understanding for all user levels) and should provide relatively easy functionality. &nbsp;</li><li>User-friendliness &#8211; This will help the QA team to instantly start with the test automation process.</li><li>Seamless Integration &#8211; Tool should provide collaboration with Bug tracking, CI/CD integration and collaboration.</li><li>The tool should provide instant and precise results to make informed decisions.</li><li>A Steep learning curve – Easier the tool, lesser is the need for team training.</li><li>Tool should be versatile enough to be used in various other projects.</li><li>Data Driven testing &nbsp;&#8211; the tool should test multiple datasets and values and execute a single test script with different input values stored in Excel, CSV or XML formats.</li><li>Support Cross Browser/Cross Device testing in parallel and for all versions of web browsers.</li><li>Allow SMEs, QA Analysts, and stakeholders to provide their feedback and inputs</li><li>Adapt to changing elements of an application UI.</li><li>Finally, the tool should justify its pricing.</li></ul>



You may find a few other tips on&nbsp;<a aria-label="You may find a few other tips in&nbsp;How to select the right Automation Testing Tool?
 (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com/blog/select-right-automation-testing-tool/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How to select the right Automation Testing Tool?</a> 



<h3 id="keep-a-check-on-the-development-environment">Keep A Check On The Development Environment</h3>



QA team should keep an eye on the development environment. This may include virtual machines and cloud environments integrated with external databases and services. The idea behind this approach is that a bug may not always lie within the application. Sometimes, the concern could be the environment, network conditions, configuration, and backend database.



Keeping a check on the actual development environment will help you save time when detecting the cause of test failure.



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



Automating tests helps development teams ensure their code changes are tested and validated before they get released to the public. To get the most out of test automation, it is essential to use the right tools, create a good test suite, keep your code clean, and work together between dev and testing teams.



Testsigma is an awesome platform to help you with Agile and Continuous Delivery testing. It&#8217;s super easy to use, so you can still create and run tests even if you don&#8217;t know how to code. It makes test automation a breeze by giving you many cool features like easy test creation, integration with other tools, test management and analytics. Plus, it&#8217;s cloud-based, so it runs faster than ever! It has an AI-powered self-healing feature which helps reduce the time you have to spend on maintenance tasks so you can focus on other important stuff. 



In short, Testsigma is perfect for Agile and Continuous Delivery teams who want to speed up their testing process while still delivering high quality products. Give it a try and see how it can help you!



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



<h3 id="what-are-the-best-test-automation-practices-you-follow-while-doing-ui-automation">What are the Best Test Automation Practices you Follow while doing UI Automation?</h3>



Identifying the test cases that can be automated when performing UI automation is essential. Creating a robust test automation framework and selecting an appropriate tool is vital. Furthermore, reliable and maintainable test scripts should be written and unique, stable locators should be employed. Synchronization techniques should also be implemented, as well as error handling mechanisms. To ensure the accuracy of the results, it is necessary to review and update the automation scripts regularly.



<h3 id="how-many-test-automation-is-not-limited-to-test-execution">How many Test Automation is Not Limited to Test Execution?</h3>



Test automation isn&#8217;t just about running tests. It&#8217;s a process that involves planning, designing, developing, executing and reporting on tests. You can automate a variety of tests, like functional testing (testing how the system works), performance testing (how quickly it runs) regression testing (checking for bugs) and integration testing (making sure different parts of the system work together). You also need to set up and maintain the test environment, generate test data automatically and analyze the results. In short, test automation is more than just running tests &#8211; it&#8217;s an involved process with lots of steps!



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<ts-linktext-value>Test Automation Challenges </ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/top-test-automation-challenges-to-look-out-for/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>ETL Test Automation</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/etl-test-automation/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Online Automation Testing Courses</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/top-20-websites-for-online-automation-testing-courses-and-certifications/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Build Test Automation Framework</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/build-test-automation-framework-from-scratch/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Top Automation Tester Skills</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/15-must-have-skills-for-a-top-automation-tester/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Agile Automation Testing in SaFe</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/agile-automation-testing-safe/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Elements of Test Automation </ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/essential-elements-of-test-automation/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>Top Test Automation Mistakes</ts-linktext-value>
<ts-linkurl-value>https://testsigma.com/blog/8-top-test-automation-mistakes-and-tips-for-qa-teams-to-avoid-them/</ts-linkurl-value>
</ts-link-item>
</customlinks>

Best-Automation-Testing-Practices-In-Agile-And-Continuous-Delivery_Testsigma

Best Practices in Test Automation for Agile And Continuous Delivery

pros and cons of Selenium Automation Tools

Pros and Cons of Selenium as an Automation Testing tool

Continuous Delivery envisages the release of reliable software in fast-paced short cycles automatically and frequently. 
These short continuous release cycles ensure a faster time to market and reduced business risk associated with every release.
Continuous feedback is important in a DevOps environment for continuous improvement, to identify and fix defects early in the development cycle. Continuous actionable feedback through Continuous Testing helps to release software products faster into production with lesser defects.
Continuous feedback in the delivery pipeline from Functional Experts, stakeholders, QA Analysts, Testers ensures a speedy release of quality software with less or no errors.
A good deployment pipeline has feedback loops at all stages of the development lifecycle. Feedback is required not only on the quality of your code, but on the quality of your requirements, and the quality of your processes for delivering software. At each stage of the pipeline, verifications need to be run, not just acceptance tests.
Development teams need adequate information regarding a failure. Feedback should automatically include all the necessary information and actions to fix the issues and proceed in the pipeline quickly, for instance, specify which test failed, how it failed, and provide adequate steps for action with the supporting information.
<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#From_Passed_or_Failed_results_to_Actionable_feedback">1 From Passed or Failed results to Actionable feedback</a></li><li><a href="#Feedback_from_the_team_through_Team_Collaboration">2 Feedback from the team through Team Collaboration</a></li><li><a href="#Testsigma_Approach">3 Testsigma’ Approach</a></li><li><a href="#Chat_with_our_test_experts_and_learn_more_about_Testsigma">4 Chat with our test experts and learn more about Testsigma!</a></li></ul></div>
<h2>From Passed or Failed results to Actionable feedback</h2>
While delivery speed is the key, ensuring the right user experience is critical. Hence, businesses need to continuously test in real user scenarios to seamlessly release software.
Along with the speed of delivery, the reliability and immediate feedback from cross-functional teams play an important role in continuous testing to help improve the quality of software.
In the Continuous Delivery process, every software change is a release candidate that continuously undergoes Testing before deployment. 
In such short cycles, there wouldn’t be much time to scrutinize the test automation results, instead, it would be time saving and easier to quickly identify if the continuous testing platform could give a Yes or No automatically to decide if the release candidate is safe to proceed further in the delivery pipeline.
Additionally, if instead of simple Passed/Failed results of test automation, a platform that can analyze the business risk associated with test failures and be able to say Yes or No to allow your &#8220;release candidate&#8221; to move forward in the delivery pipeline automatically with actionable results will help analyze, debug and fix the cryptic failures.
The actionable feedback will not just help you to understand the build status, but also provide suggestions to take release decisions automatically. This feedback should include all the necessary information to fix the issues and proceed further in the pipeline instantly.
This approach will save both time and effort required to debug and analyze the test results to proceed.
With short release cycles, it is very difficult to analyze the cryptic results of all the failed tests and the affected areas.
Along with the feedback from the failed tests it is also required to identify potential failures upfront but automatically fix them and suggest those areas that might as well be affected.
Before we flag &#8216;Yes&#8217; or &#8216;No&#8217; to a release candidate, the platform should perform all necessary checks automatically to ensure the quality of the release(Exploratory testing would be a plus). 
Along with validating the functional requirements, we need to asses the system requirements, achieve maximum coverage and assess the performance automatically to ensure an uninterrupted existing user experience while adding new features.
An Agile organization that follows Continuous Delivery and a continuous feedback approach Continuous Delivery and continuous feedback with the help of an end to end automation process can ensure the release of quality software faster with less or no business risks.
As the roles are redefined in Agile and DevOps, cross-functional teams and just anyone can take part in Continuous testing. Hence, the results/feedback must be understandable for everyone including non-developers.
<h2>Feedback from the team through Team Collaboration</h2>
In addition to actionable results, team collaboration is also important in DevOps.
Cross-functional teams across different geographical locations need a common platform to communicate the ambiguities in the automated testing process.
Team communication is important for teams to function effectively and produce quality products. Feedback is fundamental not only to CI/CD but throughout the application development lifecycle.  Feedback should be fast, and actionable and delivered in a way that lets teams respond rapidly. 
If the feedback is actionable and understandable to everyone, anybody can take the necessary steps to proceed further in the delivery pipeline. 
Traceability throughout the lifecycle is required for rapid response. Tailor your feedback process to fit your team. If an existing solution doesn’t fit or becomes outdated, You may need to create a new one that works. 
The main goal of continuous delivery is to make feedback loops shorter to ensure the reliability of software and analyze the business risk associated with it before the software reaches the competitive market. 
The continuous actionable feedback along the<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/enhancing-robustness-ci-cd-pipeline-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Continuous Delivery pipeline</a> ensures the reliability of the software being released. A well-designed delivery pipeline that integrates the team, process and tools offer no scope for failure.
<h2>Testsigma’ Approach</h2>
Testsigma’s non-cryptic easy to understand feedback of all test runs help teams take effective actions immediately.
<a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma’s</a> inbuilt automatic feedback mechanisms in the form of instant notifications and automatic suggestions from AI on executions help make effective decisions on the go. The AI indicates areas of failure and those that might as well be affected due to change.
Shift Left is imperative to Agile development and delivery needs. You need to identify if your <a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-automation-tool-ready-for-shift-left/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">test automation tool is shift-left ready</a>.
<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/how-does-testsigma-support-the-shift-left-approach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Testsigma is a strong advocate of Shift Left</a> testing. Testsigma allows testing at an early stage even before the application is fully available also as a part of every stage in the development lifecycle checking modifications as soon as they are introduced.
Integrations with collaboration tools like Slack lets you monitor execution updates, track and share the progress of tests automatically.
It is also easy to make changes to the automated tests since the test scripts are written in<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/natural-language-processing-nlp-based-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> simple natural language</a> statements. Even complex test scenarios can be automated easily with the help of detailed feedback from within Testsigma and the collaborating team.
Testsigma gathers continuous actionable feedback and helps development teams prioritize these actions. Clear documentation and points on improvement are important in the application development cycle to achieve Continuous Testing.
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Importance of Actionable Feedback in Test Automation for Continuous Delivery