The Top 10 Continuous Testing Myths
Enterprise ecosystems are growing more complex by the day. As organizations push for more ways to deliver software faster, continuous testing is an important component! Check out this list of top 10 continuous testing myths that we run into most often.
1. CONTINUOUS TESTING = EXECUTING TEST SCRIPTS
While it’s important to validate if an application meets the agreed-upon requirements, continuous testing also comprises planning, analyzing, collaborating, thinking, exploring, automating, validating, reporting, reviewing and discussing.
2. ONLY AGILE TEAMS USE CONTINUOUS TESTING
Continuous testing practices can be leveraged for any project. If there aren’t any dependent systems available, teams can create virtual services to mimic those missing applications so testing can begin as quickly as possible.
3. CONTINUOUS TESTING IS SIMPLY A BUZZWORD
Over the years, continuous testing has proven to be valuable, while helping increase team productivity. It provides an automated approach to getting higher quality applications into the hands of customers.
4. ONLY TESTERS CAN USE CONTINUOUS TESTING
Ensuring an application works correctly is a total team effort: analysts, architects, designers, programmers, testers and operations engineers are all involved in building a solution.
5. CONTINUOUS TESTING DOESN’T WORK FOR LARGE OR COMPLEX SYSTEMS
API-level tests that validate integration points between systems can dramatically improve quality. Also, service virtualization can simulate missing application dependencies, while exploring traditional application scenarios. This is often critical when testing application interfaces to find issues quickly in large/complex systems.
6. CONTINUOUS TESTING ISN’T PART OF SECURE DEVOPS
Just because “test” isn’t included in the term, “Secure DevOps”, doesn’t mean it’s not part of a solution. In fact, it’s a necessary burden that reduces the risk of deploying defects to end users, while ensuring there is no lost business.
7. CONTINUOUS TESTING DOESN’T WORK FOR REGULATED INDUSTRIES
Even with some of the strictest compliance requirements within certain regulated industries, continuous testing can alleviate burdens by providing detailed logs and test reports, while showing compliance as part of the overall delivery process.
8. AUTOMATING TESTS ENSURES FEWER TESTERS NEEDED
Exploratory testing is something most test automation tools cannot do well, so a pair of eyes and hands (and sometimes ears) to scrutinize the application under test are still needed. Additionally, test analysts determine what tests to create and run, with what sets of data, and analyze the results.
9. CONTINUOUS TESTING ISN’T MEANT FOR CLOUD APPLICATIONS
Regardless of where your application under test is hosted (locally, in a private data center, in a public data center, or some combination), continuous testing practices can be adopted.
10. THE TEST TEAM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR QUALITY
Embracing the agile “whole team” practice improves quality dramatically. Fresh eyes on any piece of work is invaluable because everyone makes mistakes.
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