How do you define shift left testing in QA engineering?

While Agile methodologies mention or rather warn us to stay away from the Waterfall method, there are still a few artifacts that are useful to us today. One is the SDLC V model, which can be considered a successor to the Waterfall methodology. There is the consideration for testing per development phase so that unit testing corresponds to the design of the interfaces and components phase, and things requirements are used for acceptance testing. All in all, the concept is not necessarily new but becomes more relevant the more Quality Engineering gains relevance, and it is about moving testing to the earliest phase possible; it's why we have Test Driven Development and is also why we have the "test early and often" kind of strategy.

Would you prefer vaccination or treatment? of-course, immunization. The same is here. We should IMMUNIZE our applications to prevent them from being impacted by those crazy bugs. Implementing a shift-left approach is an excellent practice to accomplish this objective.

Shift-left testing is an approach in Quality Assurance (QA) where testing activities are performed earlier in the software development process. This strategy focuses on early detection and prevention of defects, rather than finding them at later stages. For example, in a web application project, shift-left testing would involve Quality engineers in the requirements gathering phase to ensure clarity and testability and suggesting improvements for better testability. In the development phase, Test-Driven Development (TDD) is applied, where developers write tests before the actual code, ensuring immediate feedback and quick defect resolution. This proactive approach reduces the cost & effort of fixing bugs later in the cycle, higher ROI.

1. It is a proactive Quality approach which allows Quality engineers to align in software lifecycle from requirements gathering, defining and analysis phase. 2. Allowing to brainstorm and identify gaps early in requirement, dependencies, impact on other components and systems as well for corrections. 3. Ability to automate early example testing Webservices and APIs till UI screens are ready and identifying bottlenecks. 4. Ability to performance and security test the infrastructure, code and integration points to correct the course of development approach early as required. Also, this allows to minimize rework costs significantly by fixing issues early in cycle and improving software quality and providing higher ROI.

In shift left testing approach, we catch and address issues as we go along. We ensure high quality of each different component before combining all component. This idea of catching and fixing defects early in the software development life cycle helps to reduce defects in later stage. For example, if you are written an essay having many paragraphs so it would be great if you write one paragraph and then verify the correctness and fix immediately if any issues. Then proceed with next paragraph. In this way, you can complete the essay in short time period and quickly.

A fitting QA will have extensive knowledge of the business domain and will repeatedly provide customer value over the full cycle. To that end static testing must be part of a conscious execution process.

- Cost saving by static testing: resolving bugs cost and efforts needed for it increases in next stage. The sooner we resolve, the less money we spend. - Collaboration: because of its nature (early QA involvement) it promotes close collaboration between developers, testers, and other stakeholders throughout the development process. - Continuous feedback: developers can rapidly address issues - Technical Debt Reduction: Why creating bugs in backlog when we can prevent happening them from the beginning? - Customer-Centric approach: QA is a representative of customers. So this practice emphasizes delivering high-quality software that meets customer needs and expectations.

1. Early Issue Identification : Catch the issue early before shifting it to later stage. 2. Cost saving : Fixing defects at early stage like in verification of document phase, or during development helps less defect Identification at system and acceptance level test. 3. Collaboration : Helps Testing team to be more engagement with business representatives and developer from the beginning of the project. 4. Improved Software Quality : Fixing defects early helps to reduce number of defects in system and acceptance testing phase.

- Money. It's cheaper (and faster) to fix a bug when it's discovered earlier. Eg.: It's cheaper to fix issue with application logic on the level of requirements design than after testing phase, when code is implemented. - Customer satisfaction. We're lowering chances for bugs reaching production environment.

Shifting left testing involves testing activities earlier in the SDLC. So as a manual test engineer, we can contribute effectively to shifting left testing in different ways: - Engaging in requirement gathering and planning meetings can help to identify potential gaps and edge cases in requirements and prevent defects from being introduced later in the development stage. - Discussing upcoming features and potential changes before the implementation with developers and BAs. - Participating in design reviews to provide insights on usability is no less crucial. - Define test strategies as soon as requirements are defined. - Review documents, designs, and code (if applicable) to find defects early. - Outline TCs, scenarios, and AC early.

Let's have some practical solutions rather than lengthy explanations: 1. Implementing a true BDD framework, including writing user stories to maintaining living documentation, not just using Gherkin syntax. 2. Involvement of QA in early discussions, like requirement analysis and design reviews: - Checking requirements for errors, ensuring they cover all user needs. - Ensuring design aligns with requirements. 3. In-Sprint Test Automation: Automate testing for tasks within the current sprint to provide timely feedback. 4. Use best practices for requirements, like maintaining a single source of information in Confluence for requirements instead of scattering them across Jira tickets. 5. Improve team communication to foster collaboration

A couple of points to help establish the shift left approach better - During requirements/design phases collaborative approaches of information sharing such as workshops, and walkthroughs help teams to resolve the issues early. - Requirement query resolution sessions and static testing review sessions between BA and QA is a highly effective practice to instil quality right from the early stages of a project. - The practice of “3 Amigo” sessions are very useful best practice to help BA, Dev and QA teams bring effective communication into the way of working. - Dev and QAs collaboration to drive TDD, End of development handover sessions, Unit testing results review sessions etc. add value in enabling a quality-driven delivery approach.

Identification of right Test tool, test approach, plan and strategy is key to drive this. 1. Progressive Test Automation approach allowing in sprint automation is key to be successful in shift left testing approach. 2. Frameworks like BDD and TDD plays a key role, finalization of the same based on use case is key to start with right framework in place. 3. Effective reviews of acceptance criteria during 3 amigos and refinements, helps in minimizing gas in requirements and proper test coverage in place.

Shift-left testing is an approach where testing starts early in the software development lifecycle, emphasizing defect prevention over detection. It involves Quality engineers (QEs) from the start, ensuring testable, clear requirements, and robust design. For example, during a web application development: In the requirements phase, QE verifies requirement clarity. Based on impact and defects cluster history plans coverage. During design, QE reviews for testability. In development, Test-Driven Development (TDD) is used for immediate feedback. Automated tests in a continuous integrated pipeline detect early defects. This method reduces defect-fixing costs and improves software quality by making it a shared responsibility across the team.

- Raising organizational awareness. Making sure that quality is everyone's responsibility. - Support from higher management. - Process maintenance and regular feedback on it. - Adding QA skillset to team members abilities.

It is worth accepting these trade-offs despite the challenges. What I would say is: - Culture/Mind-set changes due to "early-QA" principal - Lack of information and Test Data at the beginning - Manage and prioritize the large volume of feedback received from the beginning - Delays added to SDLC steps in general - Communication and collaboration problems - Lack of experience and expertise of the team members (for implementing shift-left )

1. Cultural and Mindset Shift Challenge: - Shifting from traditional testing to a shift-left approach requires a significant organizational cultural change. - Teams may resist changing their established workflows and processes. 2. Integrating testing seamlessly into the development process can be challenging. 3. Ensuring that testing tools and practices align with development tools and workflows requires careful planning. 4. Automating tests early in the development cycle can be difficult, especially when requirements and designs are still evolving.

Based on my experience, I've gained a lot of valuable insights through implementation of shift-left. Consider it a continuous practice, where you tackle challenges and make incremental improvements over time. Shifting left necessitates a Quality-First mindset and a culture shift, and it's an ongoing process, not a one-time implementation.

Given that the primary objective of shift left is the early detection and resolution of issues in the project's life cycle, there is no more fitting point to involve QA than in the requirement-gathering phase. Leveraging QA's domain expertise and involvement in the discovery phase or requirement-gathering workshops will introduce an evaluative element to critical business scenarios, thereby helping mitigate ambiguity. The implementation of 'Static Testing' by QA, utilizing specific checklists, will systematically identify and rectify defects in the requirements. Design static testing is another key phase where QAs effectively aid in the identification of design ambiguities, integration challenges, data mapping issues, and more.

- Check articles, case studies, books on recent trends. - Try to implement small improvements in your organization - incremental approach. - Talk with someone more experienced, from organization with more mature QA process. - Attend QA conferences.