What are the benefits of using a continuous testing approach?

3 Shorter delivery cycles and lower costs

A third benefit of continuous testing is that it enables shorter delivery cycles and lower costs for the software products and updates. By automating and integrating the testing activities with the development and deployment processes, continuous testing helps reduce the time and resources needed to deliver high-quality software. Continuous testing also helps optimize the testing coverage and efficiency, which reduces the risks and costs of rework, delays, and failures.

4 Better alignment and compliance

A fourth benefit of continuous testing is that it helps achieve better alignment and compliance with the business and regulatory standards. By testing the software continuously, continuous testing helps ensure that the software meets the business objectives and value propositions, as well as the legal and ethical requirements. Continuous testing also helps monitor and report on the quality and performance metrics, which supports the decision-making and governance processes.

5 Greater innovation and competitiveness

A fifth benefit of continuous testing is that it fosters greater innovation and competitiveness in the software market. By testing the software continuously, continuous testing helps enable faster and more frequent delivery of new features and enhancements, which can increase the customer value and loyalty. Continuous testing also helps support the experimentation and validation of new ideas and technologies, which can drive the innovation and differentiation of the software products and updates.

6 How to implement continuous testing

To effectively implement continuous testing, you must adopt a quality assurance culture and mindset, as well as a set of tools and practices that support the approach. Automate as much of the testing activities as possible, such as unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, performance testing, and security testing. Utilize tools and frameworks that integrate with development and deployment tools like Jenkins, Selenium, JMeter, and Cucumber. Coordinate and manage the testing activities across different stages and environments of the development lifecycle with tools like TestRail, TestComplete, and Zephyr. Generate, manipulate, and anonymize test data with Faker, DataFactory, and Masking. Provision and configure test environments with Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS. Lastly, collect and analyze test data and metrics generated by the testing activities with Grafana, Kibana, and Splunk to provide insights into the test feedback.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?