The software cannot be complete without effective testing and error response. Because developers are getting more and more complex tasks, there is a need for appropriate tools and methods. Ten years ago, the IT industry offered DevOps testing services to restore order in development chaos.
But the fact is that this is not always enough for effective development, especially with complex tasks. So DevOps, along with its advantages, also has some limitations. And in this case, it makes sense to use TestOps.
Table of Contents
From DevOps to TestOps
To begin with, let’s talk about DevOps: what is its essence, what is it, and what opportunities and limitations it brings. DevOps is a pretty vague concept today. Many ordinary people may consider this a set of tools and software, but this is not quite true.
DevOps testing services are a collection of services, tools, policies, and management practices. All this represents a comprehensive approach for a guaranteed product.
In essence, DevOps involves merging the skills of system administrators and operations engineers with developers’ skills. This is combined with rigorous software testing before release, advanced monitoring, and the concept of accountability. The problem is that DevOps is largely reactive. That’s why we need to use Test Ops. But first, let’s take a little digression.
So, DevOps combines rigorous software testing before release, accountability, and, most often, the use of a CI/CD conveyor.
DevOps: What Is It, and What Is the Essence of This Approach
DevOps solves the problems associated with step-by-step software development. It helps solve several problems, including synchronization problems with departments. DevOps testing services principles are as follows:
Automation of everything that can be automated.
Using the same software and settings by all departments.
Unified development, testing, and release environment.
The desire for a quick release and getting to the end-users.
So, all participants in creating the project, including analysts, and testers, work in a single environment, speeding up the product release several times.
What are the main functions of a DevOps Engineer?
Such a specialist provides full automation of testing and acceleration of development. He ensures this because:
Configuring servers and automatically managing their configurations.
Creating and configuring virtual containers for quick launch of the necessary software.
Automation of testing and other code components.
Collecting data to monitor the entire system.
Fixing all problems and violations in case any of the processes break down.
At the same time, developers are often forced to somehow supplement this approach with the help of TestOps.
Test Ops: Why Using DevOps is Not Enough
Of course, in this case, a logical question may arise: why should we resort to Test Ops if DevOps testing services have already taken care of everything?
However, the fact is that technologies are constantly changing and improving and, accordingly, becoming more complicated. And today’s testing process includes many additional forms and factors:
Visual testing.
API testing.
Security testing.
Functional testing.
Here we face some problems, as long as all these are complex processes and their organization and implementation can take a long time. Not to mention additional problems for the developer.
Let’s also not forget that the tester has certain responsibilities, like testing and verifying the product. TestOps is responsible for using tools and defining technologies to implement some of the above types of testing.
TestOps is the optimization of all software development and testing processes. It connects all the disparate teams into a well-oiled mechanism and allows you to create better software.
It allows you to bring the product to release much faster and with even fewer errors.
TestOps Features
Considering that Test Ops refers to the use of QA testing automation approaches to monitor the performance of your production environment in real-time.
Active Testing Instead of Reactive
Test Ops aims to actively test the system to predict possible problems and solve them before they occur. This usually involves using automated tests to test a production system.
It sounds simple, but most automated tests are designed to run in your local test environment.
Testing With Real Options
The more complex the system, the more multifactorial the flows, and the more elements there are. For example, the login interacts with AAA, extracts the profile from the database, and serves the homepage from your external interface.
Test Ops allows you to see how the system reacts from the user’s point of view. Using your automated tests ensures that you are testing real use cases.
TestOps Identifies What DevOps Doesn’t See
As a rule, the user sees those errors that the developer may miss. For example, this is about logging in: it is too slow or displays the wrong element on the screen.
The server part may not notice such errors. This is especially true when dealing with caching on the network when some or all of your content is delivered from a CDN. These functions reflect traditional quality control methods in the operating environment, hence the term Test Ops.
Integration
TestOps exists to ensure that the product development pipeline has the necessary testing environments and tools. However, quality control engineers usually rely on pipelines that the IT department assembles without much involvement.
TestOps is changing this by owning DevOps-related testing activities, allowing quality assurance engineers and developers to fully control and control the development pipeline to adapt it to their needs.
TestOps vs. DevOps
Perhaps both of these concepts overlap and are somewhat similar to each other. Moreover, TestOps and DevOps are complementary approaches.
DevOps is responsible for providing and executing all lifecycle operations. It ensures the integrity of all these processes and smooth operation.
TestOps, in turn, guarantees the execution of all processes and operations and the necessary approaches to testing and fast delivery. In addition, it provides collaboration between both QA and Dev and Ops. Plus, it takes into account modern trends in development.
In essence, TestOps provides an automated approach to testing, while DevOps ensures that there is a proper environment for running tests.
How Can DevTestOps Help My Development?
As a rule, the division of labor increases efficiency, especially when we have a complex multi-factor system to work on. For example, we used to have physical servers. Testers and developers were forced to install everything manually. At the same time, we were forced to buy servers.
We have today: servers are easily available for rent, and you can transfer infrastructure tasks to the provider. No more OS installations — everything is available for delegating operations. So we got a significant simplification of tasks. But at the same time, we have significantly complicated the infrastructure.
Flexibility is achieved by increasing the number of configuration files, and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to find the causes of problems that users eventually encounter.
Thus, the current situation requires a specialist who, in addition to knowing the principles of testing and the market stack of technologies (databases, web services, programming language), also understands the overall structure of the product. That is, we need DevTestOps testers.
ZappleTech is a company that will help solve any problem related to development and testing. We know everything about testing methods, tools, and principles. Our case includes collaboration with healthy projects, education, and other fields.
Contact us to test your product and accelerate its successful release several times.
