QAOps: Introduction, Implementation, Process, and Benefits

Quick Summary: Late-night bug fixing and missed deadlines are the true headaches. But don’t worry, QAOps is here to support you. This innovative approach merges quality assurance and DevOps to deliver 2x faster and more reliable software solutions. Read on to learn everything you need to know about implementing QAOps, its lifecycle, benefits, and, most importantly, how QAOps can streamline your development process, improve product quality, and boost CX.

In this fast-evolving world where many organizations have shifted their paradigm for faster and continuous delivery, it’s important to maintain product quality as well. Quality must remain the utmost priority for every organization in the software development lifecycle, as it provides the best customer-oriented experience. Hence, a good quality product will always lead to better customer satisfaction.

So, when professional developers and operation teams from the software industry first started working together, someone must have come up with a unique thought. “Why not have the QA team and Ops teams collaborate too?”

Well, that’s what led to the merging of QA and Ops, and it has become a new trend - QAOps in the software testing industry. QAOps takes its place when we are bound to deliver the quality-driven project on time.

With the rapid rise and adoption of DevOps methodology in the industry, which makes the development process easier and more efficient, the concept of QAOps has made its way into the software industry. In short, QAOps is nothing but QA teams and IT operation teams working together to deliver high-quality software in a shorter time. QAOps eliminates the gap between QA teams and development for better collaboration and team bonding in the software development process.

Now is the time to understand what is QAOps, why it is important, and how it makes a difference in the development process.

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Introduction to QAOps Framework

The primary goal of QAOps is to enhance the software delivery process. This leads to better, quicker, and more robust software delivery without compromising the quality. In technical words, we can say that the QAOps framework consists of the QA processes in the software operation for a consistent and smoother operational process.

The QAOps framework combines the Software Development methodologies with the QA Reporting dashboard, QA methods, and automation. To summarize, QAOps is motivated by the key notions of continuous testing in DevOps, such as CI/CD, and putting together solid groups to deal with the pipeline, as well as attempts to apply something similar to Quality Assurance.

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What is QAOps?

QAOps is the method of integrating the CI/CD pipeline with the QA process. This means that software testing should be an essential part of the CI/CD pipeline during the development cycle. Therefore, QA teams must work collaboratively with the development and operation teams.

Here, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, and Continuous Delivery are the major factors during the QAOps implementation. However, the QAOps framework adheres to two major principles, which are as follows:

• The QAOps framework combines continuous testing with a CI/CD workflow in DevOps as a Service.
• The QAOps framework enhances the collaboration between professional developers and QA teams.

Understanding QAOps just based on an explanation can be difficult. You'll have a clear idea of it if you know how it fits within the software development lifecycle.

Lifecycle of QAOps Process

As we know, QAOps is about integrating the QA process for better product quality. QAOps makes extensive use of continuous testing concepts, such as CI/CD pipelines, and comprises three different phases, which are as below:

i) Trigger

Trigger is the important phase in the QAOps lifecycle. When the software is integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, this phase is accomplished by writing the appropriate tests.

The trigger step is used to create appropriate test cases to verify the technical functionality of the product without wasting time on useless test cases. This is why organizations should plan out their testing time to save money.

You should keep the following factors in mind while developing the trigger phase:

• At the initial level, plan out the tests
• Consider every type of testing which has integration testing
• Implement tests for code verification and deployment

ii) Execute

Execute phase comes into the picture after the approval of the trigger phase. This step has parallel testing for the framework and software quality testing to ensure that developers have all they need to produce the intended results.

Here are some of the major factors that influence execution planning throughout the development life cycle:

• Parallel testing at the initial step
• Identifying the appropriate support for all integration tests
• Examining the process's scalability as a whole
• Ensuring that the tests are performed in the correct order
• Dividing the workload of execution tests across several departments
• Ensuring that every framework and infrastructure is available for the entire process to go smoothly

iii) Report

Report is the final stage in the QAOps lifecycle, which gives the report of the outcome of the trigger and executed phase. The full process brief is prepared with a full description as a final report. It is recorded for future comparison and analysis by stakeholders.

Here, the team needs to focus on certain key areas to gain a better understanding of the report:

• Focus on the fundamental cause of the many steps involved
• Faster access to particular results with less ambiguity
• Quick report accessibility anytime
• Snapshot and detailed view of the complete project
• Checking the report's scalability while dealing with a huge amount of data
• Complete details of the report

QAOps Implementation in Testing Models

As said earlier, QAOps enhances collaboration in the SDLC. Aligning QAOps into the workflow makes things easier, especially when DevOps adheres to testing policies and digital assurance. The process helps to eliminate any communication challenges that may arise between developers, testers, and business executives at any level of development, while also allowing for a more modern style of technology development.

Following are the four QAOps applications that will give you a clear idea about QAOPs and their advantages to the testing process.

Automated Testing

Automated testing is one of the reliable methods of testing software. This model lets you compare the actual outcomes with the desired ones. Also, with the help of this model, QA professionals can monitor the test results and give relevant changes to the subsequent development teams.

Before the QA analysts suggest product modifications, they must first understand the product, its features, and its functionalities. They use this information to determine the number of tests to automate based on the product stage, so they can adapt them to their desired outcomes.

Regression Testing

Regression testing takes place when the software is already built and published. Also, QA teams can execute this testing when they need to update the existing framework and publish the product in the market again. However, QA teams can only use this model to run the test if the newly required updates result in significant changes to the product.

In fact, this test can sometimes create unnecessary defects in the product as it tries to add new functionalities to the product. QA teams can smoothen this process without wasting money and time on the changes to avoid this mishap.

Parallel Testing

If you want to check whether every part of the product is working smoothly, then Parallel testing should grab your attention. With this testing, the application undergoes many automated tests simultaneously, eliminating testing costs and time. The QAOps framework can enhance testing within the same delivery pipeline within a certain timeframe.

During the QA testing process, one thing to keep in mind is that the amount of data stored on hardware and infrastructure is very large, so analysts will need a robust testing cloud to handle the increasing data processing demand. If the tests are successful, the QA analysts will be able to detect any flaky tests earlier in the process, which saves time and money.

Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is known as “confidence testing” or “build verification testing”. It’s used to identify whether a deployed build is secure or not. Smoke Testing vs Sanity testing is a popular debate yet either will not be carried out if the features don’t function properly or issues have not been resolved, so developers don’t waste time installing a broken test build.

Scalability Testing

Once you launch the software product, scalability testing comes into the picture. This non-functional test is conducted based on the product's performance with users. Scalability testing is used to define how perfectly the software operates under various loads. In this scenario, consumer feedback is critical in determining what modifications need to be made in order to increase performance even further.

QAOps team requires access to the scalability framework and the ability to run the appropriate tests to foster the test speed with each step. These tests can become less complicated and easier to carry out with their assistance.

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Advantages of QAOps

In this competitive world, where every software development company is on the verge of offering customer-centric products, the QAOps process smoothens the development process to achieve its goal. However, organizations can leverage various benefits with the integration of testing methods with QA operations.

• The QAOps methods need testing and reporting on the end result, ensuring that the development and operations teams better understand the entire process. This accelerates bug fixing early without sacrificing time or testing expenses later.
• One of the first goals of QAOps was to ensure that new products were of higher quality. In comparison to traditional software testing approaches, when the QAOps procedures are implemented along the software project delivery pipeline, any product may be anticipated to maintain quality requirements.
• QAOps ensures that the time it takes to deliver a finished product is reduced along with effective software testing. This is due to the teamwork of development and quality assurance teams, who collaborate to improve their abilities and save time for future upgrades.
• The operation team avoids any delays by having the QAOps operations run continuously. This allows the team to test new applications without being slowed down.
• QAOps testing implementation leads to a better customer experience, ensuring the product’s better quality and performance. After all, the primary goal of every software company is to satisfy consumers.

Challenges Associated with QAOps Implementation

Leveraging QAOps can be a transformative journey, but it comes with a fair share of challenges. Here are some specific hurdles organizations often face:

Cultural Resistance: It is one of the biggest challenges that businesses face while implementing QAOps. Traditionally, development and QA teams have operated in silos, with distinct roles and responsibilities. Contrarily, QAOps operates in a collaborative culture where both teams work together towards a common goal. This can be difficult to achieve, especially in organizations with established processes and hierarchies.

Continuous Learning: QAOps domain is constantly evolving. That’s when keeping up with new tools, methodologies, and best practices is essential for organizations to remain competitive. For that, firms need to invest in training and development to equip teams with the necessary QAOps skills.

Integration Inefficiencies: Sometimes, integrating various QAOps tools (e.g., CI/CD pipelines, test automation frameworks, defect tracking systems) can be complex due to compatibility issues. Furthermore, ensuring that data is properly synchronized across different tools is another headache, especially in heterogeneous environment.

What is the Future of QAOps?

QAOps is a reliable and suitable method to automate the processes between operation teams, developers, and QA professionals to deliver software faster. The rapid growth of QAOps has gained a lot of attention in the software development industry to ensure high-quality software.

With the widespread adoption of DevOps in recent times, QAOps is poised to become the next trendsetter. Therefore, companies and QA professionals must be prepared for this shift by thoroughly understanding how the process works.

The best QAOps practices ensure faster delivery without compromising quality. Hence, this not only benefits software development companies but also improves user experience, resulting in a win-win situation for both.

Wrapping UpUndeniably, QAOps is a transformative force that can strengthen your software development projects and help you achieve a better customer experience (CX). By seamlessly integrating it into your DevOps pipeline, you can get 2x faster releases, high-quality software, and satisfied customers.If you are actually considering QAOps implementation for your upcoming projects, we recommend hiring DevOps engineers. They specialize in integrating QAOps strategies tailored to your specific project needs.To discuss your project and explore how QAOps can transform your business, feel free to connect with our experts.