The age old process of waterfall development is becoming the way of the dodo bird. The waterfall development process required all the requirements up front before a line of code is developed and if there are problems along the development path this can cost a lot more money to fix. Then came the agile approaches where you breakdown a monolith set of requirements into smaller bits of time typically two week sprints. The problem has been testing that was still in general manual and labor intensive. Then along came automated testing!
Automated testing is a technique in which software (called automation software) performs the execution of actions that were earlier done manually. For example, launching the browser, entering the text into fields, sending data through APIs, etc. This is made possible through test scripts that contain these commands, which are converted to actions by a tool.
Automated testing is generally applied to areas where repetitive work is taking a toll on the testers. For instance, constantly verifying hundreds of input data into a field is something no tester would want to do every fifteen days. We can invest this time into other high-value tasks, which can be made possible only through automated testing.
Continuous delivery and its relation with automated testing
Continuous delivery is the phase we encounter after continuous integration. In continuous integration (or simply CI), we integrate the new code into the existing code base and verify whether the integrated code works well. Once this phase is passed, continuous delivery (or simply CD) is triggered, where we release the software to the users. This includes all the features created and merged between two continuous delivery cycles.
The process of CI and CD can be done manually – meaning we must integrate the code manually and then run multiple tests. Lastly, we push the changes to production and release them to the end-users manually as well (including the diffs and merge conflicts). If we could implement automation into this cycle, this complete task can be run on auto-pilot, and we can focus on other testing domains.
Automated software testing for continuous delivery creates a pipeline in which the first part is CI, and the successive part is the CD. The pipeline is then attached to the normal SDLC flow, where a developer can push the code into the pipeline, and the pipeline can take care of the rest. The actual work of testers comes into scripting those automated test cases for quick delivery.
Best Practices for Automated Testing Tools
Here are some best practices in selecting an automated software testing tool:
1. Choosing an appropriate tool
Select a tool that is right for you based on your requirements and budget. Choose a tool that can integrate Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline that can increase the output of the team.
2. Consider the cloud if it makes sense
Cloud technology has improved in recent years and can provide many benefits. These benefits include working from anywhere, enhanced collaboration, and the ability to work together from anywhere. However, consider your cost management plan as well because this can end up costing you a lot of money if not managed. If you do go down the cloud route find a tool that will work in the Cloud environment.
3. Implement continuous monitoring
When continuous delivery is implemented and automated, much of the code gets pushed without any manual intervention. This is good, but only as long as all the code is good and properly tested. However, we cannot be ensured in software development, and mishaps can happen at every stage.
Due to this, we implement various checkpoints to keep things in check. If you are performing automated testing for continuous delivery, monitoring is a must and should consistently be implemented. This can also be made automated if the cloud-based tool supports it.
4. Keep the team updated
Keep your Development team updated about all these changes and what go through the CI/CD pipeline. Even if your testing shows all Green/Passed or Red/Failed the team should be kept informed as to the status and health of the pipeline. This also helps in debugging and resolving problems quicker if the development team is kept in the loop even with automation.
In any event, I hope this was interesting for those who may be in the development process of software or support software development. Please note, I have been skipping a few posts during the week due to moving and work migration. I hope to be back to a regular schedule after June 23, 2023. If you have not read all my past posts this a good opportunity to do so.
Thank you!
Lori
Reference: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/automated-software-testing-for-continuous-delivery
I have lost a lot of faith with the Medical Community and the Governments over the last several years, but there are a few good things that can raise above the corruption and the pushing of drugs a new approach to heal people. The following is from www.gaia.com and written by Hunter Parsons that does not involve any drug or pushing an ineffective so called vaccine that the drug company is not held accountable in any way but they use sound! The use of sound can regrow bone tissue! Here is the story:
"The future of regenerative medicine could be found within sound healing by regrowing bone cells with sound waves.
The use of sound as a healing modality has an ancient tradition all over the world. The ancient Greeks used sound to cure mental disorders; Australian Aborigines reportedly use the didgeridoo to heal; and Tibetan or Himalayan singing bowls were, and still are, used for spiritual healing ceremonies.
Recently, a study showed an hour-long sound bowl meditation reduced anger, fatigue, anxiety, and ...
Not a fan of a Defense Agency studying Anti-Gravity and other Exotic Tech, but if the commercial world and make this technology cheap that will change our world yet again. The following is about three minute read and from www.gaia.com. The below was written by Hunter Parsons:
"Wormholes, invisibility cloaks, and anti-gravity — it’s not science fiction, it’s just some of the exotic things the U.S. government has been researching.
A massive document dump by the Defense Intelligence Agency shows some of the wild research projects the United States government was, at least, funding through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program known as AATIP.
And another lesser-known entity called the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program or AAWSAP
The Defense Intelligence Agency has recently released a large number of documents to different news outlets and individuals who have filed Freedom of Information Act requests.
Of particular interest are some 1,600 pages released to Vice News, which ...
As our technology gets better we are discovering more about the history of mankind and pushing the timeline back further and further. The following article is from www.gaia.com and written by Michael Chary that discusses this new find that changes the historical timeline:
"Over the past decade, there have been a number of archeological revelations pushing back the timeline of human evolution and our ancient ancestors’ various diasporas. Initially, these discoveries elicit some resistance as archeologists bemoan the daunting prospect of rewriting the history books, though once enough evidence is presented to established institutions, a new chronology becomes accepted.
But this really only pertains to the era of human development that predates civilization — the epochs of our past in which we were merely hunter-gatherers and nomads roaming the savannahs. Try challenging the consensus timeline of human civilization and it’s likely you’ll be met with derision and rigidity.
Conversely, someone of an alternative...
Not sure if you have heard of a show on YouTube called "The Why Files". If not you should check it out it is interesting and has some humor with it on different subjects. Last weeks was on a different theory how the Universe works and how main stream Science is attempting to shut it down like is always seems to do if it goes aguest some special interest. Today it is akin to what happened to those who questioned the Earth was the Center of the Universe that main stream so called Science all believed during the Renaissance period, They called any theory that the Earth was not the Center of the Universe misinformation. Does this sound familiar today? People laughed and mocked people like Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolaus Copernicus, Georg Purbach as crack-pots, conspiracy theorists, nut-jobs and they were suppressed and even imprisoned for their radical thoughts and observations. Again it sounds like today in so many ways. In any event this is a good one to ponder and see even if a bad idea ...
Seemingly chaotic systems like the weather and the financial markets are governed by the laws of chaos theory.
We all have heard about chaos theory, but if you have not or have forgotten what chaos theory is well here you go from interestingengineering.com:
"Chaos theory deals with dynamic systems, which are highly sensitive to initial conditions, making it almost impossible to track the resulting unpredictable behavior. Chaos theory seeks to find patterns in systems that appear random, such as weather, fluid turbulence, and the stock market.
Since the smallest of changes can lead to vastly different outcomes, the long-term behavior of chaotic systems is difficult to predict despite their inherently deterministic nature.
As Edward Lorenz, who first proposed what became commonly known as the Butterfly Effect, eloquently said, "Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.""
You may have heard the term about chaos theory as a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil,...
I for one have lost trust in Medical Doctors due to COVID and reflection that they seem to push pills for everything and untested so called vaccines that is using a unproven technology because the Government and the Medical Boards of the State told them to. There are a very few exceptions. Thus they do not address the key problem just prescribe more and more pills to keep you alive an sick longer for them and Big Phama to profit from you. Will AI do any better? Well that depends on what was used for the training of AI. If it also pushes pills and vaccines without question then you have the same problems noted above. However, if the AI Training includes all possible forms of treatment and they zero in on the right issues for the true problem then there is possibilities they would be way better than most of the current Medical Doctors today.
The following is from an article from interestingengineering.com and written by Paul Ratner:
"A new study looks at how accurately AI can diagnose patients. We interview the researcher, who weighs in on AI's role ...
