There are many reasons why does DevOps recommend shift-left testing principles, let us learn more about testing principles with this article. 

Why does DevOps Recommend shift-left Testing Principles?

Shift-Left Testing refers to the practice of advancing testing, quality assurance, and performance evaluation tasks earlier in the traditional software development lifecycle. The main objective of shift-left testing is to identify and fix issues at an early stage. This will reduce the need for later codebase revisions, ensuring timely product delivery, and enhancing overall development speed and dependability.

It aligns with the DevOps principle of “Test Early, Test Often,” allowing teams to anticipate alterations in the development process that could impact product performance or other delivery procedures.

Ideally, shift-left testing should commence before the creation of the codebase, initiating the verification of APIs, container configurations, microservice interactions, and more based on the foundational technical documentation.

At times, shift-left testing can also include practices related to Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and use templates to confirm that the product being developed aligns with the client’s expectations as outlined in the business requirements. Ultimately, shift-left ensures alignment between the developed product and the intended design.

In shift-left, software development teams focus on detecting and rectifying issues before they escalate into bugs. This DevOps approach to shifting left emphasizes a consistent testing methodology throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Shift-Left vs. Shift-Right in DevOps

To grasp the concepts of shift-left and shift-right in DevOps, imagine the development cycle as a continuous loop or a Möbius strip, divided into distinct left and right segments.

Shift-Left: Pre-production Focus

On the left side of the development cycle, teams focus on developing and testing their applications during the pre-production phase. The primary objective at this stage is to build software that aligns closely with the specified design requirements.

By emphasizing early testing and development, the shift-left approach aims to identify and address issues at the onset, reducing the likelihood of more significant problems emerging later in the development cycle or during production.

Shift-Right: Production Focus

On the right side, we transition to the production phase, where the software becomes accessible to end-users. During this stage, the focus shifts to maintaining and sustaining the software to ensure it meets both reliability and business objectives.

Shift-right involves conducting testing, quality assurance, and performance evaluations in a production environment, under actual user conditions. Adopting the shift-right approach is crucial for ensuring that the software is capable of handling real-world user demands while maintaining high-quality standards.

This approach facilitates the identification of issues that may only surface in a live environment, allowing for timely resolutions and improvements.

While shift-left emphasizes early testing and development to prevent issues, shift-right focuses on ongoing testing and quality assurance in the production environment to address and rectify any emerging issues promptly. Both approaches are integral to a comprehensive DevOps strategy, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, reliable software that meets user needs and business objectives.

What is the Meaning of Shift-Left in DevOps?

In DevOps, ‘shift-left’ means integrating applications into the DevSecOps framework from the early stages of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). DevOps emphasizes continuous testing and deployment, which involves testing at earlier stages and leveraging automation.

This approach includes unit tests, integration tests, system testing, and API testing, which helps developers identify and address risks proactively, and improve product quality.

Continuous testing is a strategy that involves uninterrupted testing where a software change progresses seamlessly from development to testing to deployment within a continuous DevOps cycle. This strategy ensures that testing is done frequently, and across all levels, while leveraging automation.

Continuous deployment ensures that every modification undergoes testing and deployment before the product returns for refinement, enhancement, or further development. This iterative process continuously enhances the product with each deployment.

Why Does DevOps Advocate for Shift-Left Principles?

The main goal of DevOps is to create a reliable infrastructure and facilitate the delivery of highly scalable applications at a faster pace. In traditional development models, testing is usually delayed until the later stages, which leads to two significant challenges.

Firstly, there is a rise in costs associated with fixing bugs. Secondly, addressing defects becomes more complex, resulting in decreased product velocity.

1. Shift Left Reduces the Cost of Fixing Defects

According to a popular study, addressing defects during the production phase can be up to 30 times more expensive than resolving them during the development phase.

Bugs detected during the development phase are generally easier to rectify compared to those found in production, as the code units are smaller and more manageable at this stage. However, once these are integrated into the main branch, the scope expands, making it akin to locating a needle in a haystack. Increased dependencies also complicate defect resolution.

Given that it’s more straightforward to identify bugs early on, implementing corrective measures and strategies to address these issues becomes easier, enhancing the overall quality of the software development process and maintaining a high standard of codebase quality.

Why Does DevOps Advocate for Shift-Left Principles?

Given that it’s generally easier to spot bugs in the early stages of the development process, adopting Shift Left strategies ensures that issues are identified as soon as possible, maintaining the overall quality of the product from the outset.

Agile methodologies emphasize short sprints with clearly defined deliverables. These deliverables must be fully operational and align with both the business and functional specifications for the associated user stories.

By prioritizing quality early in the process, stakeholders can reasonably expect that all the code being deployed aligns with both the functional and non-functional specifications.

A Shift-Left Approach encourages a deeper understanding of business requirements, software design, architecture, and best coding practices right from the start. This enables business analysts, developers, and testers to pose critical questions and seek necessary clarifications before proceeding.

Such thorough involvement and comprehension allow Quality Assurance (QA) teams to gain comprehensive knowledge about the application and test various scenarios based on the anticipated software behavior. This results in a more robust development and design process, a feature often lacking in traditional models.

Arguably, an even more significant outcome is that Software Quality becomes ingrained in the overall company culture. This fosters a sense of responsibility among developers, DevOps engineers, business analysts (BAs), managers, and even high-level business stakeholders.

How to Implement Shift Left in a DevOps Setting

Implementing Shift Left Principles in a DevOps process is straightforward and requires just a few simple steps:

1. Include Developers in QA Activities

Developers and testers should collaborate to ensure that code snippets are tested before merging them into the main branch. This practice ensures quality at the foundational level and helps address bugs before they impact other areas of the code.

2. Equip Testers with Basic Coding Skills

In an ideal DevOps environment, developers should have a basic understanding of testing, and testers should have some coding knowledge. While neither group needs to be highly proficient in these tasks, this practice enhances overall release velocity. Developers can conduct basic tests, and testers can assist with quick fixes.

3. Involve Testers in the Development Process Early On

Shift Left works best when QA teams are involved from the initial stages. Understanding the app’s design and development allows QA teams to plan a proactive Continuous Testing process and concentrate on potential design vulnerabilities.

4. Expand the Scope of Automation

Automation is crucial for successfully implementing Shift Left Practices in any DevOps process. Traditionally, testing was conducted at the end of the software development cycle because manual testing processes are too slow to provide timely feedback for Agile sprints.

Test automation significantly contributes to Product Release Velocity. A clear example is regression testing. Once a bug is identified during a sprint, the necessary changes are made and the new code is pushed into the system.

Before these changes can be merged into production, they must undergo regression tests to ensure smooth functionality. Automation testing can substantially reduce test execution time, allowing for quick turnarounds.

5. Harness the Power of Parallel Testing

Using parallel testing can further amplify the benefits of test automation. For instance, a test automation suite that takes 90 minutes to run can be executed in just 30 minutes by running tests in three parallel streams.

6. Conduct Tests on Real Devices

For optimal results, all tests, including unit tests, should be performed on real devices. Testing is only 100% effective when conducted under real user conditions. Emulators, simulators, and virtual machines cannot fully replicate the specific conditions under which devices operate, making their results less reliable for pushing code to production.

Both manual testing and automated Selenium testing require real device testing to produce trustworthy results. Organizations often opt for a cloud-based testing infrastructure to avoid the high costs associated with setting up an in-house lab.

The Advantages of DevOps Shift-Left Testing

Shift-left development practices in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) offer several benefits, leading to a surge in demand for skills in this area as organizations increasingly adopt DevOps services. Here are the key reasons why DevOps recommends shift-left testing principles:

1. Reduce Development and Testing Costs

As mentioned earlier, the cost and impact of fixing bugs escalate the later an issue is detected. Therefore, shift-left testing is performed after each build to identify and rectify errors early on. By uncovering flaws at an early stage, the shift-left testing approach can decrease overall expenses related to development, testing, and bug resolution.

2. Produce Cleaner, Higher-Quality Cod

Often, when defects are identified late in the process, they may remain unresolved due to the difficulty of addressing them. Early detection of bugs allows for their resolution, ensuring that the final product features higher-quality code and performance that aligns better with expectations and requirements.

3. Enhance Coordination in Bug Resolution

Shift-left testing promotes better coordination between developers and testers, as testing commences with the first build. In an environment that emphasizes speed without compromising quality, shift-left testing is the most effective way to align testing and development efforts.

4. Save Time

Since testing begins in the initial phase of the cycle, it is less likely to exceed the allocated budget or face delays. This enables timely delivery without compromising on quality, aligning with one of the key goals of the DevOps methodology.

5. Ensure Customer Satisfaction

With a shift-left approach, the code entering production at the end of the development cycle is cleaner, of higher quality, and more stable.

As a result, it can be deployed to production with minimal or no significant errors, allowing users to receive the desired functionality immediately rather than waiting for subsequent iterations.

How to Implement DevOps Shift-Left Best Practices in Your Project

Adopting a shift-left approach to leverage its benefits is not a linear process with a predefined timeline. It’s a continuous effort aimed at enhancing your development strategy in the long run.

To successfully implement shift-left best practices, consider the following guidelines:

1. Early Planning is Crucial for Successful Shift Left Implementation:

After identifying the basic requirements, all stakeholders should collaborate to integrate shift-left strategies into the process. Test planning and the creation of test strategies are essential steps for shift-left implementation.

2. Utilize Static Code Analysis:

Static code analysis allows for the examination of code without its execution and serves as an initial check for:

• Programming-related errors
• Violations of code standards
• Syntax anomalies
• Security issues within the codebase

3. Establish Continuous Feedback Loops:

The primary objective of shift-left testing is to bridge the communication gap between testers and developers and to address defects early in the process. Establishing a constructive feedback channel is crucial for fostering this collaborative behavior.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this is why DevOps recommend shift-left testing principles, due to the numerous advantages it offers throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). By emphasizing early testing and development, shift-left practices enable organizations to reduce development and testing costs, produce cleaner, higher-quality code, enhance coordination in bug resolution, save time, and ultimately ensure customer satisfaction with a more stable and reliable end product.

With the support of Bobcares DevOps support services, businesses can gain access to all the advanced features of DevOps, leveraging the expertise and resources needed to effectively implement shift-left testing and other DevOps best practices.

By integrating shift-left testing into the DevOps process, organizations can foster better collaboration between developers and testers, identify and address defects early in the development cycle, and deliver high-quality software solutions that meet both user expectations and business objectives.

As a result, shift-left testing has become an essential best practice in DevOps, contributing to improved product quality, increased release velocity, and enhanced overall efficiency in software development and delivery.