A QA engineer carries out different tests. This member of a QA team checks a product for bugs and makes lists of defects for developers to fix. Some suppose that QA engineers fix bugs, but they never do. They only report what to improve. The improvement itself is a task for developers.
In a DevOps scenario, the development and testing process QA is integrated and takes on a collaborative approach. QA quickly feeds fresh development code into the production environment with the collaboration of the DevOps team. The DevOps team then provides the necessary tools and infrastructure to make the process smooth. In addition, they make sure that all changes function as expected. To ensure quality throughout the delivery cycle, both teams (QA and development) share the responsibility. Therefore, everyone involved in DevOps is responsible for the quality of the product and its timely delivery.
QA and Development
Developers and QA testers both have significant roles in DevOps. Project managers have to ensure that the developers and QA testers have a collaborative approach to deliver high-quality products on time. For example, developers should ensure that there are no bugs in what they develop, and testers should report bugs on time to get them fixed on priority.
QA and Operations
The cooperation of OPS and QA has a significant role in making the product more convenient for users. Operations (OPS) ensures that the product is available for the end-user, whereas the QA engineers have to approach it in a way that justifies the efforts of the whole team.
Parallel Tests
Parallel testing is a methodology where DevOps teams can use available resources more effectively and accelerate releases. QA engineers have to ensure that the product fully regulates the testing environment. The team has to run tests continuously and test software without extending the delivery time. Checking the software in parallel helps the QA team run tests under different circumstances, which come up with better-attested outcomes.
QA Responsibilities in DevOps
A QA Engineer has numerous responsibilities in DevOps to provide a successful product. We shed light on a few of them:
- They not only detect bugs in the application at the starting phase but also ensure that bugs don’t reappear in the product to ruin the user experience. They also suggest solutions to identified product problems.
- Analysts need to investigate product quality and make continuous improvements to boost customer satisfaction.
- The Quality Control team is also responsible for automating and standardizing the testing environment. Manual testing should be avoided.
It is the QA team’s responsibility to properly plan, create and manage the overall Quality Planning strategy. This strategy helps engineers improve the quality of the product and detect bugs in the application at different stages. This helps improve the application experience and boosts customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
QA’s role is changing in the current climate, where timely delivery of products is essential for a great customer experience. An inherent danger with the increasing demand for speed is releasing the build into production without paying close enough attention to quality assurance at all stages of the SDLC. Such compromises can be disastrous.
When the Agile model first appeared, it soon grew in popularity, eventually overtaking the traditional model to become the preferred choice for software development. The future belongs to DevOps. It is an ongoing process that continues to bring improvements. In strenuous and demanding scenarios, there is a constant need to test the product to ensure faster time to market while maintaining cost-effectiveness. As discussed above, QA has become inseparable from DevOps.
To enjoy the benefit of QA’s full potential with respect to DevOps, explore working on different automation and continuous integration tools. Take into consideration how much automation is actually required, because this may vary from project to project while remembering that continuous automation lies at the core of this concept.
This post was published under the Quality Assurance Community of Experts. Communities of Experts are specialized groups at Modus that consolidate knowledge, document standards, reduce delivery times for clients, and open up growth opportunities for team members. Learn more about the Modus Community of Experts program here.
