TL;DR: Automated testing tools enable fast, accurate, and highly efficient software testing at scale. The best tools today offer intuitive controls and user-friendly functionality, making automation more accessible across the team. In this guide, you’ll learn how to select and implement the best automated test tools. You’ll also learn the best practices for DevOps test automation.

DevOps test automation tools can help teams deliver high-quality software with limited time and resources. These are our five recommended DevOps testing best practices, along with tools that make automation easier.

Best Practices for DevOps Testing

While every DevOps team has a slightly different approach to the development process as a whole, there are several steps teams can take to optimize their testing practices. Here is what you can do to optimize your DevOps testing practices.

1. Use Agile Project Management Practices

In DevOps settings, Agile is the name of the game. This project management process breaks the project into phases, called “sprints,” and emphasizes collaboration and feedback across teams. 

There are several reasons why Agile is the preferred approach for many development teams — it’s more adaptive to changes in requirements and customer feedback and allows for continuous improvement. Sprints also allow teams to continuously test and integrate their work for a higher-quality final deliverable.

This is a departure from the more traditional Waterfall methodology. Waterfall emphasizes using a linear, sequential approach that is typically more rigid and predictable than Agile.

While Agile isn’t for everyone across every industry, DevOps teams can use it to better adjust to changing project requirements and take a proactive approach to client feedback.

2. Automate as Many Tests as Possible

While most teams can’t automate absolutely everything in their DevOps process, prioritizing automation allows your team to focus less on tedious tasks. In turn, you can allocate resources toward more complex facets of the project.

Automating your DevOps testing process wherever possible allows your team to have better control over the entire process. In turn, this has multiple benefits once you’ve automated your testing framework as much as possible:

• Reduces the margin of human error
• Allows you to run tests and audits on your schedule
• Detects more potential code issues
• Enables easier prioritization for addressing problems
• Reduces the required resources for fixing issues

3. Emphasize Transparency and Openness to Feedback

In DevOps, transparency should always be a top priority. Being open about the processes you use or how you correct mistakes or bugs allows everyone on your team to create better applications.

It’s also essential to be open to feedback, no matter your seniority level — this is true in practically any industry. Even if you’re in a managerial position, your most junior developer may be able to find and correct mistakes that would otherwise cause major concerns down the line.

Encouraging and fostering an environment of transparency and open communication enables your team to catch mistakes and prevent them from becoming costly or dangerous for your application’s users.

4. Process Documentation

This goes hand in hand with transparency. By documenting your processes in a universally accessible place, you enable everyone on your team to better understand them. That way, a developer who just started yesterday has access to the same tools and frameworks and can pick them up right away.

Documentation is one of the cornerstones of how the U.S. Marine Corps trains its aircraft mechanics so effectively — virtually anyone can come in and follow the documented steps to maintain helicopters and fighter jets with minimal training.

While you don’t necessarily have to break it down as much as the Marines do, process documentation is a resource your team can use to successfully test your code and applications every time.

5. Have the Right Tools in Your Toolbox

Using test automation software streamlines the test automation process. Instead of forcing you to start from scratch — or, worse, continue to use only manual testing — the right tools make it easy to start using them quickly.

For example, Ranorex Studio helps teams automate UI tests, Selocity helps create robust web selectors faster, and DesignWise helps optimize and streamline test design so teams can automate more efficiently.

How to Implement Test Automation in DevOps

With the right tools, implementing test automation can be fast and manageable, even for teams with mixed experience levels.

Increase ROI With Repetitive Testing

It’s a good practice to start your test automation process with high-value, repetitive testing, like regression and integration testing. This will deliver feedback quickly for a fast return on investment, so you’ll see an immediate boost in value. You’ll also free up your team for more complex tasks. 

Customize Your Tools

When choosing automation tools, look for a suite that meets your team’s needs. That means assessing your technical resources: all the hardware and software you have at your disposal, along with any cloud-based platforms and existing CI/CD pipeline integrations. You should also evaluate your team members’ experience levels and technical backgrounds so you can decide what tools are best suited to them.

Start With a Pilot Program and Then Scale

Build your automation framework incrementally. Don’t rush the process. Automate one test suite at a time rather than attempting a complete overhaul. Making the process iterative gives you plenty of time to make corrections as needed.

Benchmark Progress and Set Goals

Establish clear documentation and testing standards before scaling your automation across DevOps teams. Ensure that your staff has the training they need to carry out the standard operating procedures. Starting with a pilot and then scaling enables constant improvement throughout the process.

Set benchmarks and measurable goals for test coverage, execution time, and defect detection rates to track the effectiveness of your automation. 

Test Automation vs. Manual Testing: Which Is Better?

In many situations, test automation outperforms manual testing. Automated tools enable fast, consistent tests that can be conducted at a large scale. Fast test results allow teams to identify and fix bugs quickly, reducing the software’s time to market.

Automation also reduces the drain on your personnel and other resources. For teams operating on a lean budget, this is a major consideration. Automated tools often come with a higher up-front cost, but they quickly pay for themselves by reducing labor hours and freeing up your team to focus on other tasks.

Here are some of the most important factors to consider when deciding between automated and manual testing:

The Best Automated Software Testing Tools

Having test automation tools for DevOps in your arsenal makes it even easier to implement best practices your whole team can use. These are three of the best automated software testing tools your team can use.

Kiuwan

Kiuwan is an automated code review tool that enables DevOps teams to take a DevSecOps approach to developing and updating their applications. It offers a range of effective automated code review tools that allow you to create safer applications with fewer vulnerabilities in their source code.

The platform features both Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) programs that test your code to protect it against known vulnerabilities. Doing this makes it easier for developers and security professionals to address potential code security flaws before criminals and attackers can leverage them to steal user information and harm your business.

DesignWise

DesignWise helps teams design and optimize test scenarios so they can improve coverage and reduce redundancy before they automate. It supports faster test planning by helping teams focus on the most meaningful paths through an application.

By identifying overlapping or unnecessary scenarios, DesignWise helps teams streamline test suites, reduce maintenance, and move from test design to automation faster.

Ranorex Studio

Ranorex Studio is a suite of testing tools that enables developers and testers to automate multiple types of UI tests across different browsers and desktop environments, with support for common automation workflows. It also allows them to focus on creating the best possible product, detect and resolve bugs before software releases, and publish a higher-quality product even faster.

Ranorex Studio’s testing capabilities include:

• Functional testing
• Regression testing
• Black-box testing
• Cross-browser testing
• Keyword-driven testing
• And more

Ranorex Studio also integrates with dozens of other programs, including Jira, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Bamboo, Selenium Grid, and much more.

Request Your Free Trial

Ranorex Studio and DesignWise’s automation capabilities allow your team to roll out better work faster than ever, with fewer headaches. Request your free trial of Ranorex Studio and DesignWise today.