DevOps is a multidisciplinary approach that creates an advanced development environment by combining development, IT operations, modern practices, and tools. When test automation is carried out along the DevOps pipeline it aids in faster deployment of the software. DevOps supports continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), allowing the testing to be conducted earlier in the software development cycle. When testing is conducted earlier, it offers a much larger scope to improve the product quality by rectifying the errors/bugs in the earlier stage, which would otherwise amplify and cause severe issues if left unidentified earlier.

The success of the DevOps lifecycle depends on test automation which ensures that the developed software quality is top-notch. Continuous testing is a critical part of the DevOps cycle that lowers the operational and infrastructural risk and facilitates greater quality and improved speed, reduced cost, and increased accuracy. Hence, the success/failure of the end-product depends on developing it in a DevOps environment and implementing automation testing along the pipeline.

 Test Automation and DevOps

DevOps is the modern-day software development approach that can achieve the desired speed and agility by implementing test automation. Automation testing plays a pivotal role as it supports the dynamic CI/CD pipeline of the DevOps cycle. DevOps is a cultural shift that organizations are embracing for better and faster deployment, and test automation improves the quality with nearly 100% accuracy.

By implementing test automation, DevOps practice can benefit from the following:

• Increases the process reliability
• Test automation can detect the bugs earlier, hence, making the product deployment easier and quicker
• The error rate is considerably reduced
• Simplifies the process and promotes accurate and faster test case execution

In the DevOps cycle, the test automation process has taken a shift-left approach, wherein testing is performed from the beginning of the software development cycle, reducing the length of delivery time while improving the quality of the release. This approach is purely focused on improving the quality to offer a great user experience, which will eventually improve the brand value and ROI.

How does the Automation Testing Process improve the previous cases?

The automation Testing process reduces the SDLC life cycles and follows the points mentioned below to improve the previous cases –

• Improves speed
• Offers fast feedback
• Provide reliable results
• Efficient result
• Minimizes time and cost
• Minimal human intervention

What role does Automation Testing play in DevOps?

Test Automation plays a crucial role in the following situations:

• Incorporating test automation in DevOps, manual testing is minimized considerably as the automation processes take over. As the process is automated, the obvious human errors can be reduced and proven to be successful for repeated executions and regression tests.
• It comparatively becomes easier to check an application after each step than to compare it at the end of the deployment. It makes it easier to correct each step than finding bugs after completing the software.
• As advanced coding knowledge may be required for conducting testing at the API level, automation testing handles this task with ease as the process is automated and does not demand any coding knowledge. However, coding may be required only to set the process.
• To correct the test cases in an estimated time limit and remove the errors, developers must change the code multiple times. The automation testing process offers an easy way to overcome these problems.

How to make test automation successful in DevOps

Here are a few points to consider yielding the best results from using test automation in DevOps:

Implementing testing simultaneous to the development

In the DevOps cycle operating on a continuous release approach, testing is carried out simultaneously to the development. By following this approach, issues can be fixed early and efficiently. This is an efficient way to reduce cost and improve time-to-market with improved quality.

Flexible test scripts

As the DevOps process consists of continuous integration, it is important to create flexible test scripts of higher quality to support the continuous integration process. The flexible scripts will support regression tests to ensure high accuracy and performance.

Choosing the right automation tool

It is important to choose the right test automation tool that will support the DevOps process efficiently. Make sure to use the tool that possesses all the capabilities that will suit your requirements.

Maintaining single test flow

It is recommended to test one thing at a time. Single flow testing will reduce the process complexity and makes it easier to find out the faults. Running multiple tests at a time can be a cumbersome process.

Building reusable test cases

Building reusable test cases will considerably reduce the time, cost, and hassle being taken to create a new test case. Organizations have reported that they have saved immense time and cost by creating reusable test cases.

Codeless test automation

Codeless test automation is the ideal choice for testing in a DevOps environment as it allows easy and faster product release across the complex CI/CD pipeline. Codeless test automation helps achieve the business objective by improving quality while reducing cost and risk.

Yethi’s test automation solution for banks and financial institutions

DevOps is the trend in the software development process banking and financial software processes are no different. To support the complex banking/finance software and ensure the developed software system is of high quality, Yethi offers a world-class test automation solution. Its test automation platform, Tenjin, is a 5th generation tool with robotic UI plug and play capabilities that can automatically learn and relearn to give higher testing accuracy.

Tenjin will help address the functional and non-functional issues in the complex banking/financial software system. With its half a million-test case repository, Tenjin can significantly help reduce time, effort, and money.