The world that IT and QA live in is changing rapidly. Business pressures are accelerating expectations for how fast new features are released into production. Agile cycles are increasing our release frequency for delivering those features. DevOps is disrupting the entire pipeline and enabling organizations to truly differentiate themselves from the competition.
Often our testing practices are stuck at the end of the development cycle and short-changed due to time overruns earlier in the lifecycle. QA is getting stuck to the right rather than shifting left. However, DevOps and continuous flow concepts are changing when, how, and how often testing can be done.
Continuous Testing enables a true “shift left” for testing elements and provides agility for how those testing elements are accomplished. Continuous Testing helps you succeed in this new high-speed reality.
Ensuring quality is not a simple task. It has become more complex with the new pressures, directions, and requirements that today’s QA organizations face such as many different types of testing, “stuck right, and left behind by DevOps. Continuous Testing can help address these QA challenges.
In this talk, Terry will address the technology, process, people, and cultural changes Continuous Testing requires. He will also explore how Continuous Testing helps QA keep pace and why QA must move towards a continuous testing footing to achieve fast, predictable, quality DevOps and delivery.
Takeaways from the talk:
Attendees will become more familiar with, or be introduced to, Continuous Testing including its drivers, QA challenges, as well as the key elements that make up Continuous Testing. We’ll delve into how Continuous Testing is enabling a true “shift left” for testing elements and providing agility for how those testing elements are accomplished.
A key takeaway includes the nine key elements teams must-have in order to be successful in moving towards a Continuous Testing footing and DevOps concepts.
These Continuous Testing elements include:
- Shift Left: Key to moving testing to earlier in the lifecycle and pipeline
- Test Automation: Critical to meet faster cycle requirements and maintain confidence and quality
- Pipeline Integration: Properly fitting QA into the life cycle and tool chain to connect traditional silos
- Ephemeral Environments: Building ephemeral environments that can be consistently, quickly and cost effectively spun up and torn down
- Test Data Management: Virtual, masked, production-quality data
- Continuous Monitoring: Monitoring throughout the lifecycle and environment stack
- Service Virtualization: Virtualization capabilities allowing test to execute regardless of availability
- Change Culture: Changing the way people think at every level of the organization, the way people are connected, and the way they work
- Align People and Organization: Shifting responsibilities and empowering many teams and individuals to contribute to the quality of delivery
No matter where you are on your Continuous Testing journey, the audience will learn how a pragmatic roadmap and high-quality delivery that will help your organization maximize quality while keeping pace with today’s business requirements.
The outcome? Better alignment with business goals today—and greater resilience for technology evolution in the future.
Terry Brennan
