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A paradigm shift has taken place in the overall Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), where instead of just focusing on the development and delivery; software businesses are looking more into supporting customers after the delivery of software as well. In other words, providing support services such as attending to queries, removing bugs (if any) or providing updates from time to time have become the responsibility of businesses. This is important, for the absence of any customer support service can lead to dissatisfaction among customers and loss of credibility for the business. Hence, to cope with the changing market dynamics and customer preferences, businesses have opted for DevOps and through it, the DevOps testing framework.

The adoption of DevOps quality assurance stems from the following reasons:

• Ever increasing demand from customers for better quality products and services
• Increased demand from stakeholders and clients to develop and deploy new softwares quickly
• Demand for a new approach to develop and test software, as the traditional model is slow and not fully capable of meeting rising customer expectations
• Need to leverage the strengths of development and operations teams with increased synergy
• Need to provide continuous customer support and bring out newer versions of software to suit the changing market dynamics and customers’ requirements

What is DevOps?

As opposed to the traditional model of SDLC, DevOps or DevOps quality assurance envisages the combination of Development and Operations functions of an organisation where developers, DevOps testing specialists, and members of the customer support team are able to work in tandem with the stated goal of delivering continuous development, deployment, and improvement of software.

What does DevOps testing framework aim at?

• Continuous testing during the entire SDLC with increased focused on automation
• Leveraging cloud based resources to be used by DevOps testing specialists for simulation
• Providing DevOps quality assurance during the development process and beyond
• Provisioning a one click DevOps testing framework through virtualization

The increase thrust on automation in DevOps testing framework involves innumerable test iterations on test data irrespective of the time period and geographical location. This leads to early identification of glitches and removal of bottlenecks, thus ensuring a smooth run for the software. Moreover, DevOps testing specialists coordinate with the operations team on a continuous basis to address customer complaints and, in league with developers, help the organisation to bring out updated versions of the software to suit customer requirements. 

In a traditional SDLC method each team working in respective silos is responsible for the smooth functioning of a part of the software that exclusively pertains to its area of expertise only. However, in DevOps testing framework each member of the organisation - irrespective of the team and department remains responsible for the overall quality of the product and its smooth functioning thereof. In case of a customer feedback not only the operations team but others including DevOps testing specialists have the responsibility to resolve the same at the earliest. The implementation of DevOps methodology takes Agile and Lean to their logical conclusion where continuous improvement in the product takes place even after it is used by customers. 

Conclusion

By adopting DevOps quality assurance, businesses are able to cut down on waste across functions and effectively increase the delivery time of software. Also, by emphasizing on continuous improvement of the product DevOps testing specialists and others ensure a good user experience.

Michael works for Cigniti Technologies, which is one of the top Independent Software Testing companies in the world to be appraised at CMMI-SVC Level 5, and an ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 27001:2013 certified organization.