8 Ways Continuous Testing Empowers Your Software to Avert Failures

The frequent occurrences of software failures have disarrayed the traditional software development processes and instilled the need for a more advanced approach toward software building and testing. Even a minor fault in an application may cost an organization its reputation, leading to financial losses and decreased user base. In order to prevent this, being proactive remains the only option in the dynamic digital world.

Per the latest Software Fail Watch Report from Tricentis, an estimated total of 3.7 Billion people were affected through 606 investigated failures, resulting in a revenue loss of more than $1.7 Trillion.

With organizations increasingly leaning toward DevOps integration and Agile methodologies, a robust testing strategy has become essential. As the organizations are transforming digitally, they require a full-proof testing strategy that will ensure optimum efficiency and mitigate software failures.

In this day and age of digital arrangement, users expect ace services and swift delivery.

Organizations no longer have the luxury of time that they used to have with traditional software development life cycles. In such a scenario, Continuous Testing emerges as the only aid. Continuous Testing refers to unobstructed testing at every step of a software development life cycle. However, performing conventional testing methods at each step will consume a lot of time, which is not at spare in the evolving tech world. Therefore, instead of implementing Continuous Testing as a standalone, it is only wise to automate the process. Integration of test automation with Continuous Testing will enable developers to perform a step-by-step quality evaluation in a rapid yet efficient manner, ultimately reducing software failures and generating higher ROIs.

Software bugs, security vulnerabilities, and usability glitches are the most common trigger for software failures. An end-to-end, automated testing solution can be the perfect answer to all these woes. Test automation surpasses the limitations of a human eye and is better equipped at detecting hidden errors and defects. Doing so in a continuous manner will eliminate the errors in their entirety, thus gearing the product to deliver a seamless user experience.

Here are 8 ways in which Continuous Testing helps organizations avert software failures and generate higher ROI:

1. Accelerates Software Delivery Pipeline
2. Guarantees Risk-free Output
3. Improves the Overall Code Quality
4. Dissolves the Silo Framework
5. Establishes Consistency and Transparency
6. Delivers Better Test Coverage
7. Supervises Unfaltering Code Execution
8. Draws higher ROI

Accelerates Software Delivery Pipeline

With an uninterrupted, real-time feedback mechanism, continuous testing omits the tedious to-and-fro between development and testing. Its ability to get coherently incorporated with the process facilitates establishment of the agile strategy and minimizes the delivery time by speeding up development and deployment.

This further reduces the average time consumed by a single software development life cycle from months to a few hours and drives faster releases of software to the end user.

Guarantees Risk-free Output

Continuous Testing gets rid of any bugs or glitches at their onset, thereby supporting production of a secure, error-free, user-friendly software. Through timely defect fixes, continuous testing brings down any application-bound risks and leads to a fail-proof final product. This allows organizations to stay compliant with their pre-determined timelines without compromising on software quality.

Improves the Overall Code Quality

Since continuous testing diffuses a bug at its very inception, it leads the developed code to perfection and results in production of a successful, trustworthy, and competent software. The enhanced code quality shortens the time taken for final code review. With fewer bugs identified and lesser reworking required, the code translates into an efficacious application that is capable to meet both user needs and business goals.

Dissolves the Silo Framework

The legacy development processes are forward-looking strategies with literally no looking back. It is only at the time of testing, that a flaw is detected. In such cases, the code is sent back to the development team and the entire process has to be repeated. Not only are these processes time-consuming, but also financially draining. By incorporating automated continuous testing at each stage, the barriers between development, testing, and operations team are lifted, allowing them to work in a collaborative manner towards a spotless end product.

Establishes Consistency and Transparency

Test automation ensures that testing design is relevant to the advanced hardware and OS versions. By maintaining the same configuration for all the related tests, automated continuous testing helps organizations to uphold consistency across different platforms. The Continuous test automation makes the process traceable and measurable, thus imparting transparency to the process.

Delivers Better Test Coverage

Within a short period of time, automated testing is capable of completing laborious tasks such as authenticating databases, file content, and memory. Continuous test automation elevates a software’s quality with its ability to map volumes of test data against lengthy codes under different test environments. The wider testing range of continuous testing is integral to the identification of maximum possible defects in a code.

Supervises Unfaltering Code Execution

Continuous automated testing offers an objective view of the code, rendering the testing process easy and rewarding. By eliminating human intervention during testing, it generates higher productivity, better reviews, and enhanced security and vulnerability checks. The absence of human interaction invalidates the need for refreshment and breaks, resulting in increased output in lesser time. Its self-learning mechanism makes the traditional tool-infused processes redundant.

Draws higher ROI

An attractive ROI is the ultimate goal for any business. By reducing testing time and increasing the speed and efficiency of a development cycle, automated continuous testing prevents severe financial losses through its impeccable prognosis and bug detection capabilities. An orderly and smooth-running application results in satisfactory user experience, and thus, improves sales and produces high returns.

Putting It Together

Continuous Automated Testing seems lucrative in the time of digital transformation. However, there are still a number of challenges that an organization has to overcome before its complete implementation. Issues such as unclear test data management, insufficient resources, and ineffective and heterogeneous test environments are the main obstacles. Also, cultural shift among the development and QA professionals from the traditional processes, and the lack of DevOps skills and tools will be troublesome.

There are various options of Continuous Integration (CI) tools, which act as a build server and exist to simplify the entire process of automated continuous testing. Jenkins, AWS CodePipeline and Travis CI are the major players in this field. They support cross-platform configuration and ease the transition from legacy development systems to modern, digital software development life cycles.

Having said that, integrating Continuous Testing with the existing system will enable organizations to proactively respond to glitches, and instigate stability in their products. The lessened frequency and costs of correction ultimately reduce the risk quotient, prevents tiresome re-working and results in a highly efficient product. This reliable, well-built, user-friendly application keeps the customers satisfied with its seamless performance and makes the organizations happy with high ROI.

Cigniti’s Continuous Integration (CI) testing experts boast of a rich experience and can configure and execute popular CI tools such as Agile GO, Cruise Control, Chef, Puppet, Microsoft TFS, Jenkins, Bamboo, Hudson and so on, helping client’s DevOps teams. Connect with our experts and check out Cigniti’s DevOps Test Center of Excellence that extends a host of services.