Test Automation: When All Else Fails, Ask Dilbert

The technology landscape is moving at the speed of light, placing greater demands on the IT team to develop and deliver efficient and effective solutions with incredible accuracy and minimal efforts.  How many of you are nodding your head or smirking because this is your reality?

All organizations, especially software development teams, require speed in order to stay in front of the competition. Otherwise the alternative is “I win and you lose, with reputation and performance at risk.”

For teams using DevOps, enter test automation. 

Why integrate test automation into the DevOps process:

• Drive acceleration;
• Improve accuracy in the testing process; 
• Force collaboration and integration across teams and the process; and
• Address one of the major dysfunctions in the industry – silos.

When all else fails, take advise from Dilbert…. Don’t lie and don’t look the other way. Address the bugs.

DevOps with Test Automation

Application leaders are requiring the use of test automation as part of the toolchain not only to succeed with DevOps initiative(s) but, moreover, to accelerate, scale and enable continuous testing, which is essential for DevOps.  Across the development and IT operation team(s) there is a shared goal which is: build, test and release software in a more reliable manner. Simply put, DevOps addressed the dysfunctional nature of how teams operated and the cultural silos bred within organizations by breaking down barriers and fostering an environment of collaboration, improved workflow management, shared goals, and trust among teams. 

Integrating test automation engineers into the DevOps team and culture has become a business imperative for delivery success.

Here are 5 tips to consider when evaluating your approach to test automation:

1. Test engineers should have a comprehensive understanding of the functionality of the application, technical landscape, test automation tools and the ability to create test scripts in parallel with the development of the software.
   
   
2. Use top-of-mind knowledge of protocols to execute the scripts using CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) tools while collaborating with development and  operations.
   
   
3. Note:  Scripts, supported by CI/CD tools, automates the build – deploy – test process on a go-forward basis.
   
   
4. Keep your pulse on the growing trend toward adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide autonomous test automation. Many tools are building a decision-tree like concept to simplify test creation and maintenance.
   
   
5. If you have a test automation strategy and tools that you are happy with, then rule-of- thumb is to assess capabilities and roadmap of the tools every 6 to 12 months to make sure that it continues to align with your organization’s expectations, plans and roadmap.
   
   

Related:

DevOps: Fundamentally a Digital TransformationAn organization’s digital transformation journey usually starts with adopting Agile or Lean development practices and then adding or implementing DevOps. You ask: Why DevOps? What is DevOps?  Read more.