5 Factors you should know about how Quality Assurance fits in DevOps

A combination of Development and Operations, DevOps methodology was envisaged to bring about a greater synergy between the two teams from the perspective of faster development and deployment of software and ensure better customer experience. And since maintaining quality at each step of the process is the main thrust of DevOps methodology, how could DevOps testing be left behind. If Agile is about continuous integration and improvement in the software development life cycle, DevOps, mainly executed by DevOps specialists is about combining the former two along with adding another one called continuous deployment. DevOps testing strategized by DevOps specialists brings customers at the core of everything. The approach deals with keeping the software updated with various changes that take place from time to time based on the emergence of new glitches or changing customer preferences and market dynamics.

The implementation of DevOps Quality Assurance is necessary to uphold the primary objective of adopting DevOps – to provide quality customer service at every stage. Often the operations team is a different entity altogether that does not have any coordination with the development and quality teams. However, as customers have the operations team as their only interface on a real time basis, any service issue faced by them on account of a software glitch needs DevOps specialists to come into the picture.

Let’s discuss the five factors that are responsible for DevOps Quality Assurance to fit into the DevOps testing scheme of things:

1. DevOps Quality Assurance as the pivot: Since upholding quality both in the form of finished product and service rendered is intrinsic to DevOps, DevOps testing team cannot be divorced from operations or for that matter, development. In fact, both the operations and development teams should focus on maintaining quality at every stage of the continuous integration, improvement and deployment processes. The role of DevOps specialists is to oversee the maintenance of quality not only in the entire SLDC process but thereafter as well.
2. The link that connects development and operations: Given the broader objective in achieving a better customer experience, upholding quality at every stage – right from writing the code and deploying software in the market to resolving issues when customers approach - remains an imperative. DevOps Quality Assurance needs to work in tandem with both development and operations teams by being a bridge between them.
3. Automation leads to better QA: The approach of DevOps Quality Assurance puts greater emphasis on automating the entire testing process for better and faster identification of glitches. And as opposed to the traditional testing model where quality assurance comes into the picture post development, thereby leading to delay in time to market and lesser compliance to quality, DevOps testing is all about testing the codes simultaneously while writing them. Moreover, DevOps specialists work on updating the software from time to time with newer versions as a part of continuous deployment.
4. Faster time to market: In the competitive world of today where the demand for developing new glitch free applications is on the rise, DevOps testing ensures faster development and deployment of software.
5. Better customer experience: The success of any software depends on factors such as better usability, security, performance, and a good user experience. And since DevOps specialists ensure customers do not face any issue with the software given their emphasis on quality, customers can enjoy better user experience.

Conclusion

DevOps testing is necessary to achieve the objectives of implementing DevOps – to provide better customer experience on a continuous basis. Thus, as part of the entire process, DevOps specialists help in building a bridge between development and operations.

Michael works for Cigniti Technologies, which is the world's first Independent Software Testing Company to be appraised at CMMI-SVC Level 5, and an ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 27001:2013 certified organization.