Automated Testing in DevOps for Engineers

Unal Patel

July 9, 2022

 

As an engineer, you’re probably familiar with automated testing. Automated tests are an excellent way to validate features without having to run the feature manually. They also help developers avoid redundancy because several automated tests could validate the same feature, automated testing in DevOps for engineers and multiple of them could fail, leaving the developer to spend valuable time fixing each failed test. Automation testing frameworks come in many flavors, and a sound DevOps engineer should be familiar with several.

Automated software testing-DevOps for Engineers

Whether working on an agile or traditional project, you should invest in an automated testing tool. Automated testing tools help to ensure that software and applications are bug-free. They can run hundreds of tests at once and can be easily integrated into existing systems. The testing tool should also provide detailed test reports to help you analyze defects and other issues. The test report will be used to improve your product and provide insight into the root cause of the issues.

Automation can help you reduce the overhead associated with manual testing code. Manual testing, the traditional way of evaluating software, is often done after the application development process has been completed. It requires testing the entire software and can result in a long backlog of issues. Automation allows you to evaluate the software before it even gets to production. It also helps you avoid the risks of human error that can arise after a product enhancement.

DevOps for Engineers-Open source solutions

In the agile development world, open-source testing solutions have paved the way. Selenium WebDriver, for example, allows users to automate browser regression testing using a chrome add-on. The Selenium IDE is a similar tool that records browser interactions. It has a comprehensive API for automation and provides universal support for all popular build tools and environments. Besides, it allows users to create and automate UX test cases without coding.

The ELK Stack combines Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana, which allow developers to visualize data from any source easily. Combining these three tools reduces mean time to recovery, improves visibility, and promotes the DevOps mindset. In addition, by incorporating testing DevOps process, developers can adapt to changing market demands and improve customer satisfaction.

Collaboration-DevOps for Engineers

Collaborative practices require alignment between Ops and Dev teams. For example, the Ops team should be responsible for risk mitigation, and the Dev team should be responsible for delivering change. Ultimately, it’s everyone’s job to move fast and ensure that users are satisfied with the result. To achieve this, organizations should start with simple collaborative projects that allow teams to learn from each other. By collaborating during projects, teams can better understand and celebrate wins together.

If teams collaborate to deliver software that meets customer requirements, they can fix production issues more quickly and lower the mean time to repair. Teams should share a common language and focus on standard metrics to achieve this. The resulting culture will improve the overall performance of the entire organization and increase customers’ satisfaction. Here are three key improve collaboration in DevOps:

Metrics recording

Metrics recording is essential for any DevOps team, and there are several different types to keep an eye on. MTTR (mean time to recovery) is a significant measure. MTTR reports help project managers to create a baseline for their development pipeline and enable them to evaluate future procedures. In addition, teams that optimize for cycle time tend to have lower work in progress and less unproductive procedures.

Another key metric to track is the deployment frequency. Deployment frequency can also indicate pipeline problems, such as significant delays.