How can you innovate your testing and quality assurance processes?

DevOps practices emphasise collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement. By adopting DevOps practices, you can improve the quality of your product and reduce the time and cost of testing while also improving the speed and efficiency of your development process.

Continuous testing should be integral part of any DevOps and Agile based delivered framework. This approach will ensure quality engineering practices are adopted at every phase of SDLC. Automation through capabilities like Unit Testing, System integration testing, Functional testing, NFR testing and UAT should be triggered as part of the DevOps pipeline. Automated script development during the current sprint is the key to this approach. This can be achieved using model based testing and low/no code approach for automated script development. Orchestration of test execution using DevOps orchestration can establish continuous testing process.

Adopting Agile and DevOps principles enhances collaboration and streamlines the SDLC. Utilizing frameworks like Scrum and Kanban promotes efficiency and responsiveness, while continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous testing ensure that quality is maintained at every stage. This approach fosters quicker bug detection, less rework, and aligns the product with user needs and business goals.

Adopting DevOps principles in whole or part will definitely improve matters. Even simple changes like documenting in full the installation process required for a new release on each environment will significantly reduce both configuration errors and the time lost to "environment proving" when a new release is installed So far as Agile is concerned this should generally only be attempted as part of a company wide initiative as Agile requires a change of mindset and approach from the entire organisation and not just your specific project project team. Attempting to integrate agile concepts into an existing waterfall process will often leave you worse off than if you had never attempted the changes.

When we talk about Test Automation and AI, need to consider two different perspectives: AI enhance Test Automation: With solutions like Generative AI taking the world by storm, there are use cases that can generate Test Scripts and Test automation solutions using this technology. Many enterprises are exploring this option to enhance their test automation solution. This will improve the productivity of quality engineers. Test Automation as an solution to accelerate Quality engineering for AI applications: Test automation can be achieved by automating end to end test execution of AI Infused applications. There is a need to execute test cases multiple times with different data points, API level testing is more efficient.

AI and machine learning can help you identify patterns and trends in data that humans might miss. Implementing AI and machine learning algorithms in your testing and quality assurance process can help you detect issues early and improve test coverage.

What people are currently calling AI is actually just an improved version of Machine Learning. This makes it great at assimilating existing knowledge but I have yet to see evidence of true intelligence in so far as it can analyse something and come up with an insight which is entirely new I think it will be some time before an AI can functionally decompose a spec and write the appropriate level of scripts to the standard of an experienced test analyst.

AI are greats for the Visual Testing to point out UI errors in the system. Thats whats been done and implemented in the testing using AI powered tools. So may be add something related to visual testing.

Test automation and AI in quality assurance significantly enhance efficiency. Automation handles repetitive tasks, improving speed and consistency, while AI, utilizing machine learning and natural language processing, can generate and analyze test cases. Together, they enable faster test creation, dynamic execution across platforms, and intelligent analysis, identifying root causes and recommending improvements. This tech-driven approach reduces human error and makes the testing process more agile and adaptive.

Shift-left and shift-right testing approaches emphasize quality throughout the SDLC. Shift-left testing moves quality checks earlier in the process, helping validate requirements before development, thereby preventing defects. Shift-right testing extends checks beyond deployment, collecting user feedback and resolving issues in live environments. Together, they foster alignment with customer needs, enhance quality and reliability, and minimize costs and risks. These strategies form a comprehensive approach to continuous quality assurance, from design through to ongoing maintenance.

Shift Right is just a way of saying "we get our customers to test the product after go-live" in a way that will not be immediately understood by a non technical audience. I would have thought it is a dangerous strategy for many companies especially if theri rivals are choosing not to shift right and deliver high quality software before go-live and not afterwards Shifting left on the other hand is an excellent concept which is far from new the sooner you begin reviewing your proposed delivery the earlier you can begin to address problems associated with it. This can mean that many defects which which would otherwise have been identified during testing are designed out of the product before a line of code is written

This is what I see as the most important part if anyone wants to built quality software and maintain the quality of the product. The culture sets the tone for the team to accept nothing but optimum quality of the product

Keep it simple: Ensure time for QA in delivery planning Ensure the whole team appreciates the need for QA, from sales through to support Ensure dialogue and common understanding between Dev and QA Make sure Devs are doing their part, via unit tests Resource the test team appropriately and give them suitable tools Circulate key metrics - number of production and UAT issues raised

Fostering a culture of quality involves making quality everyone's responsibility within the software development process. This means enhancing collaboration across roles, providing training on best practices, and recognizing efforts in quality assurance. An organization can create a cohesive and committed approach to delivering high-quality software by aligning developers, testers, and stakeholders around shared quality objectives, celebrating successes, and learning from failures. Encouraging this culture doesn't just improve the end product; it builds a more engaged and effective development team.

"Fostering a culture of Quality" is one of those things which like democracy and mother's apple pie everyone is in favour of theory so why is it not more common practice? the answer is that to bring in such a culture the entire management philosophy of many companies would need to change in ways such as junior staff could ask for a major release to be cancelled or delayed and expect to be listened to highlighting issues with existing processes and suggesting a better way of doing things would enhance your career prospects and not destroy them... improvements to a process do not always lead to a lower head count.... a manager's prestige is not based on their budget or the size of their team etc. etc. and this rarely happens

Collaborate more effectively: Collaboration can help you identify issues early and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Encouraging collaboration between developers, testers, and other stakeholders can help you improve the quality of your products and reduce the time and cost of testing.

Proper diagnosis of the requirement during the initial stages of the project is key. If the functional team/ business analyst involved accurately scopes the project eliciting the requirement against functionalities needed, testing and QA will be quick and add real value. I would advocate using business analysts with testing skills take over testing roles. The involvement in the requirements gathering, engaging the stakeholders fosters relationships and trust. This goodwill will definitely come handy at UAT. Easy to become a change agent. A lot of times testing fails due to resistance or being considered not important. By involved in validating the requirements, it’s easier to put together test script and cases that achieves sign off

Innovating testing and QA processes requires a holistic approach, emphasizing empathy, creativity, and team dynamics. An example is a team improving by addressing communication issues. Integrating ethics and compliance, especially in sectors like healthcare, is vital. Global considerations, like cultural understanding, affect distributed teams. Innovation in QA is a continuous process, needing regular adaptation to technology and alignment with organizational goals and values.