{"id":13954,"date":"2019-06-27T18:03:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T12:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cigniti.com\/blog\/?p=13954"},"modified":"2020-08-20T00:02:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T18:32:58","slug":"digital-transformation-continuous-agile-devops-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/digital-transformation-continuous-agile-devops-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Digital Transformation Right with Continuous testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agile manifesto came into existence almost two decades back, changing the IT industry out and out. Emphasizing value of the items<\/a> on the left more than the items on the right, Agile manifesto focused on cutting down the delivery time and determined working software as the primary measure of progress<\/a>. While revolutionizing the SDLC processes, it also set the precedent for birth of DevOps, which took place about a decade later than Agile. Contrary to the popular belief of Agile and DevOps being two different methodologies incompatible to each other, DevOps is the most logical continuation of what Agile set out to do \u2013 increased collaboration, shorter feedback cycles, and broken silos.<\/p>\n

The evolving IT ecosystem supports rapid innovation and frequent deployments, raising customers\u2019 expectations and demands. In order to satisfactorily fulfill those demands, enterprises are en route their digital transformation journey, which goes beyond just the technological nuances.<\/p>\n

As defined by Forrester, Digital transformation is not just about technology; it is about reimagining your company. It is the necessary but challenging journey of operating digital-first with the speed and nimbleness to change or introduce new products and experiences rapidly, exploit technology to create lean operations, and free people to do more complex tasks that create value.<\/em><\/p>\n

The customer-oriented organizations are making mindful attempts and strategic modifications to adopt digital transformation, which requires a holistic approach with sound planning and solid foundation. Necessitating the involvement of both technology as well as people, digital transformation can adeptly help enterprises achieve scalability and cost effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Instead of an \u2018Agile or DevOps\u2019 strategy, digital transformation needs an \u2018Agile and DevOps\u2019 strategy. Diego Lo Giudice, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, says, \u201cit is simply unacceptable for any IT organization to focus on an Agile-only or DevOps-only journey. They are two sides of the same coin, and one completes the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Digital transformation puzzle supported by an \u201cAgile and DevOps\u201d approach still misses a critical piece rendering it incomplete, inefficient, and ineffective \u2013 Continuous testing.<\/p>\n

What and Why of Continuous Testing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Continuous Testing is defined as \u201cPeople, processes, and technology to deliver quality at speed and minimize business risk by conducting all Agile testing activities continuously in parallel to and in an integrated fashion with ideating\/planning, building, integrating, delivering, and deploying features into production. Testing also happens post-production by leveraging the DevOps feedback loop\u201d <\/em>by Forrester.<\/p>\n

Continuous testing<\/a> enables businesses to meet the client demands of quality at speed, while supporting the developers fulfill their CI\/CD pipelines in time. The quick cycles of Agile and the automation capabilities introduced by DevOps, both mandates as well as facilitates the continuous integration and continuous testing practices. As testing shifts to the left, starting early in the SDLC, businesses are able to mitigate the risks associated with each release.<\/p>\n

Continuous testing approach allows businesses to get off the \u2018firefighting\u2019 mode and be proactive when it comes to dealing with software failures and errors. As per the Forrester Wave Q1 January 2019 report<\/a>, customers identified test automation and non-functional testing, which includes test data management and shift-left performance testing, as the most impactful set of services for Continuous testing. For any enterprise aspiring for digital transformation, continuous testing is indispensable. Continuous testing is infeasible without automation. In order to establish regular two-week Agile sprints for frequent software delivery, 80% of the test cases need to be automated.<\/p>\n

The three ways guiding the \u2018Agile & DevOps\u2019 digital transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the sprawling foothold of Agile and DevOps, backed by continuous testing, enterprises are able to follow \u2018The Three Ways\u2019 described in The Phoenix Project<\/em> for optimizing business processes and improve profitability. The three ways are:<\/p>\n