Continuous testing is a methodology that helps organizations identify defects at the earliest possible stage. It helps them ensure a defect-free product. Continuous testing refers to the process of running automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline to get instantaneous feedback on the business risks associated with a product release candidate. This article looks into Continuous Testing and Shift Right Testing, their benefits and challenges, and how they can help you get a successful release of your product.

What is Continuous Testing?

Continuous Testing is a set of activities that includes executing a set of tests on an application with the intention of finding defects, verifying bugs, and checking for code coverage. Continuous Testing processes are executed on a regular basis to prevent more valuable time from being spent on manual testing after the release of the product. In order to get the most out of Continuous Testing, automated processes need to be integrated into it.

How Continuous Testing Can Help Organizations?

Continious testing as a process can help teams release new features and updates to users with relative ease. Rather than waiting for the next big release, teams can use this process to test new features so they can be released in smaller increments. Continuous testing was initially advocated as a solution to reduce developer feedback wait times by bringing in development environment-triggered tests in addition to more traditional tests that are triggered by developers and/or testers. The scope of testing for continuous testing ranges from validating bottom-up requirements or user stories to analysing system requirements aligned with broader business objectives.

What is the goal of Continuous Test Process?

The primary objective of continuous testing is to make available quick and continuous feedback on the amount of business risk associated with the most recent build or release candidate. This feedback can be utilized to ascertain whether the application is ready to move forward in the delivery pipeline at that instance of time. Because testing begins early and continually, application risks get surfaced up as soon as they are added. Development teams now have advance notification to stop these issues from moving on to the next phase of the SDLC. This cuts down the time and effort needed to find and fix defects. As a result, the speed and frequency with which quality software is delivered can be increased, along with reduction in the technical debt.

What are the Challenges of Doing Continuous Testing?

Continuous testing can be difficult at times because it requires a lot of attention and coordination from the development team. It is also not for everyone, but those who implement it with discipline will have a greater likelihood of preventing bugs before they go out to the customer. Those that wait until the end of their project to test will have an increased risk of encountering problems due to late-stage changes in code or design. Having a fully functional and optimized delivery pipeline along with quality test automation is a pre-requisite for doing effective continuous testing. If your automated tests are not of high quality and if they lack in coverage, then there will be little to gain from this testing exercise.

Fanatiqa and Continuous Testing

It is best to follow a test-driven development process when implementing continuous testing. This ensures that the right tests are created in the right order. This is an emerging approach to software testing that directly follow the principles of Agile. The benefits it provides are the same advantages that Agile Software Development provides for software development teams, like speed and flexibility. Continuous testing is the key to Shift-Right Testing and helps you with faster release cycles and better-quality software. A smart and agile functional testing platform like Fanatiqa can be the best enabler for agile teams to implement effective continuous testing for their projects. Fanatiqa provides comprehensive auto generated test cases which can be continually run to uncover defects as early as possible.