The core objective of agile methodology is to develop and deliver products faster. As businesses embrace test automation in agile software development, the overall productivity and deployment of software development activities accelerate to deliver high-quality software. Businesses get a fully functional, bug-free, and flawless product as a final product.

However, implementing the right automation testing tools plays a vital role in enhancing the effectiveness of the agile and DevOps implementations.

Content

1. What are Agile software development methodologies?
2. Where does test automation fit into agile development?
3. Four key factors that depict the importance of test automation in agile ?
4. Benefits of implementing test automation in an agile environment
5. How to implement test automation in agile?
6. What tests can be automated in agile?
7. Five major automation testing tools businesses can leverage
8. Conclusion

Agile software development methodologies

Agile software development methodologies include Scrum, Kanban, Extreme programming, Lean development, and Crystal development.The scrum method is an important agile methodology wherein the development and testing activities are run parallelly within sprints.

A set of features are released in each sprint during the agile process, and continuous development and testing are performed to ensure faster releases. But, to ensure faster and quality releases, manual testing does not suffice in the latest agile and DevOps scenarios. Thus, businesses should embrace test automation using the latest automation tools to carry out the testing in an agile environment.

Where does test automation fit into agile development?

The product is developed in iterations during the agile development, and testing is done within sprints. Each time a new feature is added to the software, the software needs to be tested again to ensure there are no bugs. Testing each feature manually becomes almost impossible for the QA team with so many new features added. Hence, automation testing should be leveraged for faster testing outcomes in agile development. Businesses should leverage various automation testing tools, such as Selenium, TestNG, Appium, Tricentis TOSCA, etc.

During automation testing, testers need to develop test cases according to the needs of the software to be tested. These test cases can be executed multiple times while performing continuous integration or continuous builds. This form of automation testing ensures that the software remains bug-free, and even if a bug is introduced, it can be easily identified in the early stages and can be fixed early.

This form of automation testing ensures that the software remains bug-free, and even if a bug is introduced, it can be easily identified in the early stages and can be fixed early.

Four key factors depicting importance of test automation in agile

Test scripts reusability

Automated test cases can be reused, which means these test scripts can be re-run several times in different ways. This test reusability will reduce the maintenance costs to a great extent. The application of reusability eliminates human errors and saves cost.

Optimal test coverage

Test coverage plays a vital role in improving the efficiency of software testing activities. The depth and scope of tests are increased through automation testing activities. This is because testers need not run all the tasks manually. Instead, the testers can create a test suite for every feature of the application, such as internal programs, data tables, and memory contents.

By leveraging automation testing, complex test cases can be automatically run, ensuring better and faster test coverage. The manual testers’ work is reduced, and they can be used for other important tasks.

Faster test execution

The efficiency of the development process is significantly improved by the test automation process. Testing is done parallel to development to ensure all the bugs and issues identified are resolved at the earliest. Further, this sort of testing is also known as the ‘Fail Fast’ method, wherein as the defects are found early in the SDLC, they can be fixed early, and it also saves a lot of time.

Typically, if the automated testing is performed from the initial unit testing phase, then the defects can be found early and fixed, rather than fixing them at a later stage. Moreover, the time-to-market of a software product is also drastically reduced through the application of continuous testing. Developers and testers can save time and ensure to deliver a high-quality product at a quicker pace.

Cost-effectiveness

At the initial stage, the cost of test automation will be more as the required training, tool cost, and tool setup needs to be taken up to ensure effective test automation. However, with the test automation once set up, the cost factor will be reduced as the automation activity goes on for a longer time.

Further, without investing any additional costs, test cases can be run several times as and when required, thereby improving the overall speed and efficiency of the software testing activities.

Benefits of implementing test automation in an agile environment

•Parallel testing can be performed wherein the same scripts are run on different devices

•When the testing is done using test scripts, the reliability factor is scaled up to an all-new level

•Agile software development can be carried out at a faster pace through the strategic application of test automation

•Initially, the costs are high for implementing test automation in agile, but, eventually, the ROI is more

•If a specific test script is developed, it can be used several times to test the software for bugs.

•Test automation is an innovative way for carrying out agile methodologies cost-effectively and efficiently. Thus, it helps to improve the overall software testing activities by enabling a high-quality product in a shorter time with faster releases.

How to implement test automation in agile?

Develop an effective plan for agile automation

For the success of an agile project, it is essential to prepare an automation testing plan that must cover the automation framework and. Also, ensure a proper collaboration between QA and the development teams.

Determine the test cases that can be automated

Not all test cases can be automated; therefore, identify the test cases that can be automated beforehand.

Conduct parallel testing

With automation in place, QA teams can execute several tests on different devices, browsers, and operating systems simultaneously. Specifically, parallel testing saves a good amount of time for the teams.

Adopt DevOps Integration

DevOps ensures proper collaboration between developers and operation teams. Also, testers can integrate the automation tool into CI/CD pipelines for effective testing.

Select the right automation tool

Testers should select the right test automation tool (open source or commercial tools). Test automation tools reduce regression testing time and ensure faster testing outcomes with high-quality software. However, while selecting the test automation tool, testers should ensure that the tool matches their technical skills, software testing needs, current IT infrastructure, etc.

What tests can be automated in agile?

•Unit tests

•Smoke tests

•Integration tests

•Regression tests

•API tests

•Security tests

•Accessibility tests

•Performance tests

Automation testing tools to leverage

•Selenium

•Tricentis TOSCA

•Appium

•TestNG

•Katalon Studio

Conclusion

Automation testing helps QA teams create test cases that run automatically when new code is pushed to the code repository. Automation testing also scales up the agile development activities if combined with the right tools, expertise, and an effective automation testing roadmap.

Leverage the test automation services from a next-gen testing services provider to get high-quality products with a faster time-to-market and quicker ROI.

The post Importance of Test Automation in Agile first appeared on TestingXperts.

Is your organization on the road to “going Agile”, but is confused with the level of changes involved? Have you already “gone Agile” but are not witnessing the anticipated results?

Contents 1. What-is-Agile-coaching 2. Benefits-of-Agile-Coaching 3. Conclusion

What is Agile coaching

The transition to agile impacts an entire organization and comes with its own set of challenges. When an organization or just a team transform from their existing way of working to Agile practices, the complexity of the transformation can be overwhelming at times. If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you would identify the importance of having a professional Agile coach to improve collaboration and increase efficiency, empowering you to derive optimum benefits from the agile framework.

With extensive Agile coaching, an organization’s product development agility can be improved. Here are 5 key benefits of Agile coaching that you may have never considered:

Benefits-of-Agile-Coaching

Immediate application: An exceptional Agile training program can offer a great jumpstart to an organization looking to implement agile methods in their current workflow with hand-holding on all Agile working best practices. The early days are most difficult and the coach can really help keep team’s effort on track.

Better Collaboration: An experienced Agile coach brings integrated methods for teams working across geographies and distinct cultures, but having a common agile interest.  A collective set of definitions that best elucidate agile terminologies and working practices can create an effective communication channel throughout the organization.

Improved Communication: Communicating the need for agile methodology is essential to inspire teams to embrace, scale-up, and thrive on agile methods. A coach builds out a vision showcasing the intrinsic worth of agile, how it develops the process and bolsters the engagement with customers. A coach will strengthen the need for communication as the basic foundation of Agile methodology.

Transformation Backlog: An Agile transformation must be piloted like an Agile project, which creates the need for a coach to create a transformation backlog. The transformation backlog is a list of work items created by a coach to evolve an organization into an Agile process. It can also be used to highlight major developments in the Agile process.

Continual Improvement: Corresponding to the importance of agile implementation is the continuous need to measure the organizational growth that agile adoption brings with itself. A coach forms a set of metrics to assess the amount of Agile adoption and also looks continuously at refining the practices. That’s how teams grow into becoming high performing Agile units.

Conclusion

Agile coaching is a sound investment for the organization in terms of time and money. As agile coaches bring the certified, as well as brand new practices and processes, there is a substantial value addition to the organizations. TestingXperts has created a complete support structure of agile coaches and consultants who work together and help organizations in successfully adopting and refining agile methods. Organizations working towards improving their agile practices can successfully navigate challenges and apply agile principles to real-world scenarios.

Connect with us and make your organization implement agile best practices, promote team collaboration, and design programs that enable you to respond to varying market conditions with ease and confidence.

The post Is Limited Agile Maturity Hurting your Development and Testing Process? first appeared on TestingXperts.

Agile methodology has transformed the software industry completely. Every organization is adopting agile in various forms and shapes to align with their business needs and to achieve their ultimate goal of being accessible to the market needs and end users. Therefore, agile methodologies are being executed in several ways. These days, agile methodology is perceived as a quick, responsive, and a flexible software development method. As a result, many companies have customized Agile Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to suit their needs.

Contents 1. Agile Methodology: Effective Transformation in Testing 2. Benefits of Agile Methodology 3. Conclusion

Agile methodology: Effective Transformation in Testing

However, with the passage of time, and the changing user requirements, testing became an important and the most significant aspect of the agile methodology. All these years, testing teams have been contributing to the agile methodology and have evolved immensely.

Here is the list of progressions made by the testing team from several perspectives:

Benefits of Agile Methodology

1. Great collaboration and complete involvement with the whole team: By shifting left in the development lifecycle give a chance to the testers to collaborate with the rest of the product team rather than just being an isolated entity that enters the phase just before the release. This value addition by the testers has revealed the evolution of their work and how they have become a great help to the other teams by collaborating with them.

2. Better-quality work with the best methods: The focus on test automation has helped testers in giving up repetitive tasks from their plates which were earlier done manually. This has given testers more time to analyze and perform better and bigger things such as competitive analysis; business needs accomplishments, end-user feedback analysis, etc.

3. Recognition for the work they do: Testing teams have their own accountability and have a better reputation than ever before. Nowadays, testers are involved in the project right from its production planning and designing stages, the development teams and the testers work together to bring out a better deliverable in lesser time. This level of contribution polish their skills and bring out their best in consideration that they were earlier not a part of.

4. Stronger connection with end users: With the understanding that in an Agile program, the product team as a whole is more accessible and involved with end users, testers as end-user representatives on the team have enormous potential to the front-end with users, be it usability studies, beta programs or product demos, etc. Currently, testers have a better understanding of the product from an end-user viewpoint which helps them get better in their own roles.

Finally and most importantly, agile has helped the testers to build quality with speed and contribute to the project in their own way.

TestingXperts with its expertise and extensive experience in agile methodology has been able to deliver high-quality projects within a shorter duration. Our software testing experts employ industry best agile and DevOps practices, in-house developed intelligent frameworks and processes that enhance the client’s processes to enhance process predictability and performance in the long run.

The post Agile Methodology- An Effective Transformation in the Testing Domain first appeared on TestingXperts.