CI/CD Testing Done Properly (Agile Testing)

CI/CD is a way of developing software and deploying it so that changes occur quickly, frequently, and with high quality. It has become increasingly important as organizations move towards digital transformation and the need for instant feedback on ideas or products.

Agile testing is an approach to testing software where you write tests first and then develop code around those tests. Having tests first helps ensure that your code does what it’s supposed to do before you go through all the time involved in writing code, only for it to break later on when someone else changes (or even adds new functionality). 

What is CI/CD (continuous) testing?

Continuous automated testing is the process of executing tests on every code commit. It can ensure defects are found soon after they are introduced into the codebase rather than when they reach production. It is a testing practice requiring automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline.

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) tools automate tasks, so you don’t have to rely on manual efforts. These tools can help you get faster feedback about your product quality by allowing you to run unit tests quickly during development or even before committing code changes into your repository. CI CD integration tools should always run some tests whenever you add new changes. This helps catch errors before they become part of an integrated build but there are many other ways organizations use CI/CD tools beyond just running unit tests.

Why is continuous testing important?

CI/CD automated testing is important because it forces you to test your software at the end of each sprint. Continuous testing involves running automated tests as soon as a build is completed, which allows for faster feedback and more reliable results. Because continuous testing occurs in short intervals throughout the lifecycle of a project, it can help prevent bugs from being introduced into production code.

There are many different ways that CI/CD testing can be implemented within an agile environment by using various tools such as Selenium WebDriver or Cucumber BDD (Behavior Driven Development). These tools allow teams to automate their workflow, so they don’t have to perform all of their tasks  manually!

What are agile testing and agile development?

Agile testing is a part of agile development, an approach to software development. The philosophy behind agile development is that it’s better to deliver small chunks of functionality early and often than one large chunk at the end. This means that you should be able to see working code in your daily builds and get feedback on whether it works or not as soon as possible.

A common misconception about agility in CI/CD pipeline testing is that it means not doing formal testing or automation-but this couldn’t be further from the truth! One thing to love about Agile testing and agile development is how many different kinds of people can contribute to making it better. These include testers, developers, product owners, and anyone interested in making sure the user experience for our users is great can help make Agile Testing strong!

What is a test environment?

A test environment is an environment used to test a new release of software or hardware. The test environment must be identical to the production environment, except for the tested changes. An important thing about test environment management tools is that they need to be compatible with the operating system used in production. 

Why is a test environment important in the CI/CD process? 

Agile testing is important to CI/CD because it lets you focus on one function simultaneously. You can maintain code austerity and repeatedly test, which in turn helps you expand your application knowledge.

Another big benefit of agile testing is that each feature can be tested as soon as it’s implemented, making the process more efficient and helping reduce bugs from getting into production. This will save your team from spending countless hours fixing issues with older code bases when they could be focusing on newer features instead!

Agile testing best practices

Agile testing best practices are defined in detail in the following sections:

• Test planning and test design: From the beginning of a project, you need to decide what tests will be used for your CI/CD pipeline. During this stage, it’s also important to define how much time should be spent on each type of test, as well as how many resources will be required for its implementation. Then, once you have selected your actions and metrics that will contribute most effectively towards achieving your business goals, you can plan the initial test cases accordingly.

• Test execution and reporting: With all your plans in place, it’s time for execution! Everyone involved must know their responsibilities regarding each step (from writing code to deploying products). This includes not only developers but also testers who need to make sure that everything works as expected under real conditions before being released into the production environment by either manual or automated means. 

Types of agile testing

Understanding the different types of agile testing and how they differ is crucial.

• Exploratory Testing: This type of testing is often done by developers or users unfamiliar with the product to identify unexpected behaviors or errors. The goal is to gain as much information about an application as possible without having a specific target.

• Acceptance Testing: This kind of testing focuses on verifying that an application works according to its requirements, which are established by end users or other stakeholders. It can be performed by either developers or testers, depending on what’s needed.

• Smoke Testing: Smoke tests are part of automated continuous integration (CI) build processes and verify basic functionality before moving onto more complex tests involving more variables and data sets being tested simultaneously. 

Characteristics of a good automation

There are some characteristics of a good automation framework.

• It should be able to run in any environment.

• It should be able to run on any platform.

• It should be able to run on any browser.

• It should be able to run on any device, i.e., mobile phone, tablet, and desktop computer, with various screen sizes and resolutions.

• The same code base can be used for running automation tests across multiple platforms.

Benefits of agile testing vs. traditional testing

• Continuous processes ensure test coverage in all iterations.

• Iterative processes ensure that there is no “big bang” release where all the bugs come out at once. This allows you to work on defects one-by-one until they’re resolved, instead of having dozens or hundreds coming out at once (which would be overwhelming).

• Collaborative means everyone involved in the project gets regular updates on what’s happening with it so they can participate in meetings and discuss issues as they arise.

What kind of continuous testing is important?

Continuous testing is a broad term that encompasses many different types of testing. Below is a list of the most common types of continuous testing:

• Functional Testing: Used to verify the behavior and performance of a piece of software from an end-user’s perspective. It focuses on requirements and specifications rather than implementation details as unit or integration testing does.

• Performance Testing: Measures how well your application meets its speed, scalability, availability, and recoverability requirements under controlled conditions (e.g., load). 

• Security Testing: Checks if an application’s design mitigates threats against its integrity by verifying permissions granted during authorization logic execution paths through source code analysis while monitoring potential violations using test frameworks.

Agile testing tools

• Kanbanize

• Bug Shooting

• Selenium WebDriver

• Jmeter

• Worksoft

• nTask Issue Tracker

• JunoOne

• Appium

• JIRA

Conclusion

The value of CI/CD and test automation is undeniable, but it’s important to remember that there are many different approaches to this style of testing. Several tools are available for agile testing, and some common characteristics are shared by all good automation tools.