What is QAOps?
QAOps refers to quality assurance with software operations. It focuses on achieving the quality for the developed software with a DevOps approach in QA as a service.
Currently, most organizations are keeping the QA team separate from the software development process and involving them only for testing activities when the code is available in the test environment. It is the old approach now.
QAOps ensures that the testing team works closely with the developers and operations team and is part of the Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Deployment(CD) process to achieve the quality of the software product.
QAOPs Emphases on these two principles
- QA activities should be incorporated into the CI/CD pipelines
- QA engineers should work closely with the developers and operations team and be part of the Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Deployment(CD) process and pipeline design. It will increase the collaboration between QA and the developer's team.
QAOps Frameworks: Basic Practice
In general, the QAOps framework makes use of the following high-level practices to put the concept of QAOps into action.
Automated Testing:
Automation Testing is the process of using tools, scripts, and software to validate test cases by repeating pre-defined actions. It has become one of the reliable methods for software testing. It helps to speed up the testing process as it is done through programming.
Although it is impossible to automate every test due to the tool limitations, you should have high automation coverage by automating as many tests as possible. Integrating automation testing into the CI/CD process is one way to approach QAOps.
Parallel Testing :
Parallel testing is also one of the automation testing processes. Parallel testing means running multiple tests at once rather than performing tests serially. It helps to run the tests in multiple browsers and platforms at the same time. It is effective and increases test coverage. Users can achieve parallel testing by interacting with different tools.
Scalability Testing:
After every release cycle, your web application continues to scale, and with it scales the testing requirements.
Scalability testing is the testing of a software application to measure its capability to scale up or scale out in terms of any of its non-functional capabilities. The number of concurrent customer requests on the application can increase or decrease based on product usage at the given moment. So scalability testing helps you understand how your application behaves under different request loads.
Scalability testing helps the QA teams to reveal the performance issues and limitations of the web applications and gives the metrics in terms of Response time, Network usage, CPU usage, etc. QA Operations teams should be equipped with scalable infrastructure in order to be able to carry out testing rapidly.
Integrating DEV and OPS with QA:
The final and most crucial step to accomplishing a QAOps process is to integrate the QA activities as a part of the CI/CD pipeline. The best way to integrate Dev and Ops with QA is to request developers to design the tests and ops and product team to detect the UI/UX issues with the help of the QA Team. It gives an opportunity for both developers and the Ops team to work together to gain a better understanding of the QA process. This initial collaboration among different departments makes the SDLC process more effective.
Technologies and Tools for QAOps:
Below are the technologies and tools that are used as part of the QAOps process.
- Automation Tools: Selenium (with all programming languages: Java, Python, C# and JavaScript, etc.), Provar, Protractor, WebdriverIO, Katalon Studio, Tricentis Tosca, and others.
- Performance Testing Tools: JMeter, BlazeMeter, WebLoad, LoadRunner, Tricentis NeoLoad, etc.
- Mobile apps Automation Tools: Appium(with all programming languages: Java, Python)
- API Testing & Automation Tools: SoapUI, Postman, Runscope, Rest Assured(Java) and Requests(Python), etc.
- CI/CD Tools: Jenkins, CircleCI, AWS CodeBuild, Azure DevOps, Atlassian Bamboo, or Travis CI, etc.
Benefits Of QAOps
By implementation of the QAOps process, there are some benefits which are as follows.
- QA engineers are constantly learning new things, and their productivity and efficiency increase and this leads to a decrease in the client’s costs.
- QAOPs framework provides a collaborative relationship between the QA, Dev, and Operations Team. It also allows you to increase your skill level in different areas.
- QAOps process helps you fix the bugs faster and release the product earlier than expected as the QA, dev, and Ops team has a clear picture of the testing process.
- CI/CD testing allows the errors to be identified at an earlier stage which provides a reliable product.
- After QAOps testing, chances of better customer experience increase as it ensures better quality and performance of the product.
QAOps Challenges
Every new technology or process has an initial set of hiccups. The same goes for this QAOps process. Common challenges faced by QAOps teams are listed below.
- It is too difficult to learn new technologies & all the phases of SDLC for the QA Team members.
- It is a lengthy and expensive process.
- Organizations need to invest in the right resources and tools to cover various aspects of the software quality life cycle.
- The quality Assurance team may lose focus on QA activities by involving other aspects of QAOps.
Conclusion
Executing or implementing QAOps can give your organization an upper hand over your competitors in the software development industry, and QAOps paves the road to faster software delivery when correctly designed and implemented. It gives a better customer experience without any quality compromises.
Get Started With Fission Labs QA & Testing Consulting Services
Fission Labs offers QA team services that come equipped with QAOps capabilities. With our team of experienced QA personnel, we make sure that your QA & Testing ecosystem is streamlined and highly efficient. To get started on your QA & Testing consultation all you need to do is book a free session with our experts today.
Content Credit: Sudharsan Reddy Avula