The Importance And Challenges Of Continuous Testing

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In all stages of software development, you'll want to ensure that you're testing and making your product the best that it can be. Right now, developers are using continuous testing to make this process faster and better. Why is this so important to you, and what are the challenges that you'll face? Let's take a look.

What Is Continuous Testing?

Firstly you need to know what continuous testing entails. This is an autonomous process that's done without any human interaction. When you can use it in your development process, it works to remove any bottlenecks and allows you to deliver your product faster.

Why Use Continuous Testing?

There are many benefits to continuous testing in your development cycle, and you'll want to be able to take advantage of them as much as you can. Here are some of the benefits that you can take advantage of:

1. Faster product delivery

With software development, there are new advances being made all the time. That includes in the software itself, and in the tools used to make it. That includes project management tools like Zentao, where teams can be more effectively organised to make a better product.

The same goes for continuous testing. When you're using this process to check your product, you're freeing up time that developers can spend elsewhere on the project. That leads to faster development times, getting that product out the door quickly, and quicker profits.

2. Better product quality

As well as using continuous testing to get faster product development, it'll also give you better overall product quality too. When the product is being tested by AI, it'll be able to give you actionable feedback that you can use to improve the product overall.

Once it's released to the public, you'll get better customer satisfaction too, as most pain points will have been handled already thanks to the testing. Again that protects and  boosts profits, as you'll be known for creating a reliable product.

3. Combining different testing methods

When you use continuous testing, you're actually using two different testing methods. One is shift testing, which involves frequent and agile testing early in the product's life cycle. The other is shift right testing, which involves testing in a production environment.

"These two testing methods will give you a more robust overall testing experience with your product" says Dale Saunders, a business writer at Speech writing service and Lucky Assignments. "Because of this, you'll get better results from your testing, and be able to iron out more kinks in the code before you release the product."

4. Bringing teams together

One benefit you may not have thought of is the way continuous testing will help teams work together more efficiently. Without continuous testing, you'll have different teams working on testing at different stages, and that may lead to less consistent results across the board.

There are many ways of bringing teams together, such as online project management tools. Continuous testing is another great way, as all teams will be involved with the testing cycle. That means everyone's in the loop, and has a better idea of what's happening.

Challenges Of Continuous Testing

While there are lots of benefits to continuous testing, and it's something you should be considering, there are challenges to be aware of too. Here's what you need to be aware of before investing in it:

1. Lack of standard tools

There are lots of standard tools in other testing models that you can use, but when it comes to continuous testing there aren't any available right now. As such, if you want to use it you'll have to create an in house testing solution, and that's going to take up time and resources.

While that is a challenge, the benefit is that once you've created those tools, you have ownership of them. You'll also be able to tweak them to your needs as much as you want, so it's easy to have a tool that gives you exactly what you need when it comes to testing.

2. Need for more infrastructure

If you're going to get into continuous testing, then you'll have to set up all the infrastructure for it. Again, that may take up more resources and time than you were expecting. "You may need to set up additional test environments, or advanced tools" says Geraldine Powell, a project manager at Gum Essays. "Many project leaders aren't expecting to have to do this, and think that it may be too much for them to take on."

While this does look intimidating, you'll see that actually once you have everything in place, it's easy to get started. With that infrastructure, you'll be able to use it for other projects too.

3. Data management

Data management will always be a concern, but in continuous testing there will be some unique needs. For example, storing test data locally can result in different versions of test data being used, which creates issues during the testing process.

You can of course store data in a central location, but that can create additional problems such as network latency. That's something that you'll need to keep in mind.

4. Scalability issues

In continuous testing, not all testing processes will be able to be scaled up when needed. The real issue here is that the problem won't become apparent until you've been through a significant amount of tests, and the system starts to get highly loaded.

It's difficult as when you're at this stage, it'll be difficult to switch to a different framework. You can keep an eye on your frameworks and try to spot issues early, but in most cases it won't be possible to do so.

These challenges will be something you have to be aware of, but you'll see that you can still reap the benefits of continuous testing in your software development cycle. As such, it's something that you want to start incorporating into your own development cycle. Once you get to grips with it, it'll be able to bring a lot of value to your final product.

Need more help? Check out the Zentao blog. They have more articles on project management tools, software management, building cross-functional teams, and so much more.

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Author bio :

Eula Skiles is a writer with Speech writing service and Lucky Assignments Belfast. She covers digital development and marketing. She's also a contributor to the Gum Essays blog.