Role of test automation in Agile and DevOps

Agile and DevOps methodologies are gaining huge demand across organizations as these methodologies can optimize and streamline testing and development activities flawlessly. As per research, around 94% of organizations embrace Agile and 74% of them embrace DevOps. By incorporating test automation in Agile and DevOps, the working of Agile and DevOps processes is taken to the next level. In this article, you will get to know about the strategic role of test automation in Agile and DevOps.  

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The strategic importance of test automation in Agile and DevOps:

With the advent of agile and DevOps methodologies, businesses can expect better communication among teams, greater speed and more flexibility between project members. It is quite challenging to implement manual testing in a fast-paced agile environment. A simple reason being faster feature updates of an application cannot be dealt with manually, hence, test automation needs to be implemented in an agile environment as speed plays a crucial role in an agile development scenario.

Numerous iterations take place in Agile and the product is tested frequently right from the initial stages of the software development process. Through this, bugs can be identified early on and thus fixed at the earliest.

DevOps methodology consists of continuous development, deployment and testing. The objective is to increase the frequency and velocity of the product that is going to be released. Test automation is used in a DevOps environment to deliver quality at speed. 

Following are the four key factors that depict the strategic role of test automation in Agile and DevOps:

1. QA costs are reduced: Consider a scenario wherein a crucial defect was missed in the early stages by a company and was only discovered in the later stages of the software development process or in the production stage. This may result in a damaged reputation, loss of clients and downtime which isn’t the ideal scenario for any company that is focused on growth. 

According to research, the downtime cost is approximately $5.600 per minute, which isn’t an ideal scenario. When test automation is introduced in agile and DevOps processes, businesses can expect cost-effective and early bug fixing, which in turn helps in cutting down a significant amount of QA expenses. 

2. Software quality is enhanced: As per research, around 42% of organizations have benefitted from implementing Agile. When the system features are verified early on in the development process, the risk of missing crucial bugs is reduced. This in turn helps in developing an IT solution through which risks can be mitigated and operations are carried out flawlessly before the app goes live. Another important consideration is that it must comply with the requirements.

3. Testing process is carried out at an accelerated pace: At every sprint of the project, testing activity is carried out through which an organization can find and eliminate software glitches right in the initial stages. Through this process, the cost of fixing defects and testing time is reduced and the IT product release process is carried out at a faster pace.

4. Test automation is a boon for DevOps: DevOps is about achieving speed and agility. Test automation can be incorporated into DevOps in advancing the capabilities of speed and agility. Testing activities can be configured so that they run automatically after the completion of the deployment process. As a result, when tests are run in parallel, then the product’s time to go live is reduced thereby optimizing the DevOps implementation process.

Following are the three key points a test automation team must know to apply automation in Agile and DevOps rewardingly:

1. Practical knowledge of various programming languages

2. A basic understanding of performing manual testing

3. An in-depth understanding of Agile and DevOps strategies.