Continuous Testing

Jenkins is an open-source automation tool written in Java with plugins built for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. It provides a user automation server which can be used to automate many tasks related to building, testing and delivering/ deploying of Software.

Some of the Key Factors to Understand Jenkins are listed below:

• Continuous Integration– It is a software development practice that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository at a frequent interval of time. All integration is verified by an automated build to detect integration errors as quickly as possible. Hence, every commit made in the repository is then built due to which the team can identify the bugs early.
• Continuous Delivery– It is a set of practices planned to ensure that code can be quickly and safely deployed to the production by delivering every change to a production-like environment and assuring business application and services function as expected through precise automated testing.
• Continuous Deployment– In continuous deployment, every change made is automatically deployed to the production. It is the next step after continuous delivery.

So, Jenkins allows a user to continuously deliver their software by integrating with a large number of testing and deployment technologies with the help of continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.

Why Jenkins Should Be Used Irrespective of The Traditional Way Of Deployment?

Let us assume a scenario where the whole source code of the application was built and then deployed on a test server for testing, it seems like a precise way to deploy a software but this process has many defects such as-

1. Developers must wait until the entire software is developed for the test result
2. There are many possibilities that result might show many defects, it becomes difficult for the developer to identify all the provided bugs and also to verify the whole source code of the application
3. It slows down the software delivery process
4. The whole process was manual which increases the chances of frequent failure

Hence, Jenkins is the best way to continuously trigger a build and test for every change made in source code. There are multiple plugins available in Jenkins which helps to achieve continuous integration and deployment such as Maven, GIT, Selenium, Puppet, etc.

GitLab’s Jenkins integration allows us to trigger a Jenkins build when a code is pushed to a repository, or when a merge request is created. Now let’s look at how we can integrate Jenkins and Gitlab. Maven’s Jenkins integration allows adding all the dependencies for the provided application and Selenium Jenkin’s integration allows automated testing for the provided application.

How to Set Up Jenkins?
The following are the steps to start with Jenkins:

1. Open Chrome Browser and go to “https://jenkins.io/download/” and choose the specific platform from the list

2. Go to the downloaded location and unzip the package and run Jenkins.msi file

3. Setup the Jenkins.msi file and finish the setup while providing the location for the same

4. After successful installation of Jenkins.msi file, the user needs to search “localhost:8080”, a browser tab will popup asking for the initial Administrative password

5. User needs to copy the provided location “C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\Jenkins\secrets\initialAdminPassword” and paste in the system’s location where you will set the initial password for your Jenkins

6. Users need to customize Jenkins as per the requirement then, click on install suggested plugins

7. After all suggested plugins were installed, the “Create First Admin User” appears. Fill all the required fields and click on the “Save and Finish” button

8. After successful creation of the admin’s user, Jenkins dashboard appears to “create a new job”

Continuous Integration is a set of practice to build the code with every commit. Jenkins is the famous CI tools that helps to execute a continuous integration pipeline. Jenkins pipeline can be easily created in two dissimilar ways – Jenkins Job Builder and Declarative Pipelines. Jenkins Continuous Integration helps in test automation, giving speedy feedback, reduce the development cycle, and assists in continuous integration of code.

With Enterprises increasingly leaning towards agile methodologies and DevOps integration, a smart testing strategy has become critical. The businesses are transforming digitally, they need a robust and full-proof test strategy that will ensure optimal efficiency and decrease software failures. Companies no longer have the luxury of time that they used to have with traditional SDLC. In such scenarios, Continuous Testing emerges as the only answer.

Continuous Testing mainly refers to unobstructed testing at each phase of a software development life cycle. The comprehensive study from Forrester and DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) shows that continuous testing is significant for the success of DevOps and other digital transformation proposals and initiatives. However, adoption levels of Continuous testing adoption are low, even though test teams had already started practicing DevOps. Those selective enterprises have already attained remarkable results in terms of accelerating innovation while reducing business risks and improving cost efficiency.

Why Continuous Testing Strategy?
DevOps is mainly considered as a philosophy and process that guides software testers, developers, and IT operations to produce more software releases at higher speeds and with better outcomes. On the other side, continuous delivery is the methodology that invokes DevOps principles.

Continuous Delivery is about automating tasks to reduce manual efforts in the process of constantly integrating software. This paces up to push the tested software into production. Expert QA teams can make improvements along the way derived from continuous automated feedback about what truly works, and what is required to be done better.

The shift to experimentation is an essential part of making an agile landscape for digital transformation. The IT Companies can easily launch the perfectly working software, by adding additional functionality to existing systems and then work on improving and correcting the highly prioritized list of glitches. Even dealing with the critical issues in the shortest possible time with the tight feedback loops.
Continuous Delivery model also gives IT companies the agility and production readiness it requires to promptly respond to market changes. It makes your end products more stable, your teams more productive, and accelerate your flexibility to facilitate fast and continuous innovation everywhere. Additionally, you can drive faster growth, help the business expand into new areas, and compete in the digital age with the improved responsiveness that this model reflects.

Four Sub-dimensions of Continuous Deployment

Using SAFe for Continuous Delivery:

• Deploy to production– Covers the skills required to deploy a solution to a production environment
• Verify the solution – Encompasses the skills required to confirm the changes operate in production as planned before they are released to customers
• Monitor for problems– Covers the skills to check and report on solutions
• Respond and recover– Includes the skills to rapidly tackle any issues that happen during deployment

Agile and DevOps Digital Transformation- The Three Ways
With the sprawling foothold of Agile and DevOps, backed by continuous testing, companies can follow ‘The Three Ways’ explained in The Phoenix Project to optimize business processes and increase profitability. These ways stand true for both the businesses as well as IT processes.

The 3 ways guiding the ‘Agile and DevOps’ digital transformation are:

• Work should flow in one direction- downstream
• Create, shorten, and amplify feedback loops
• Continuous experimentation, to learn from mistakes and attain mastery

These three ways assist in imparting direct client value by integrating the best quality in products while managing efficiency and speed.

DevOps is Key to enable Continuous delivery
Continuous delivery perfectly suits companies that are well-equipped with a collaborative DevOps culture. In a continuous paradigm, you can’t afford silos and handoffs between operation and development teams. If an organization does not embrace a DevOps-based culture, they will face complexity in building IT and development environments that are needed to compete in the digital era.

It is a concern when professionals need to focus on relentless improvement in technology. In different cases, it calls for an important shift in mindset. For example, to achieve the continuous delivery objective is to speed up releases and improve software quality, and for that we need to make a smooth shift-left of a series of activities like security and continuous testing. This necessitates cross-functional and proactive communication at each level of the organizations to bridge the gap that has traditionally existed among the businesses.

Instituting such culture will also encourage autonomous teams. Development and operations teams need to get empowered to make their own decisions, without having to undergo complicated decision-making processes.

Industry Insights
Digital transformation, Agile, and DevOps will continuously thrive, and become the norm. It is time that companies should start taking it seriously to transform digitally. Irrespective of the tools and methodologies used, digital transformation efforts will fail without a continuous testing strategy.

Digital transformation, Agile, and DevOps are together building a future where innovation is at the heart of all the processes. But this picture needs continuous testing to become truly complete. Integrating Continuous Testing with the existing system will enable organizations to proactively respond to glitches, and instigate stability in their products.

ImpactQA experts with years of experience in Continuous Integration can configure and execute the most popular tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, Microsoft TFS and more.