What Is Shift Left Testing?
Written by: Luna Ticeu, Agile Test Engineer, TribalScale
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Have you ever wondered why software tests are performed in the final phases of the project lifecycle? Have you ever experienced projects where the testing phase took longer than the allocated time and was budgeted incorrectly?
This article explains the consequences of late testing in the software development lifecycle, Shift Left testing and why adopting this approach can improve the quality of your software.
How Traditional Testing Works
The traditional development model describes the software development lifecycle as a sequential, linear flow of activities. This means that development activities are completed one after the other. At the end of the process, the software is generated containing the complete set of resources.
Requirements Analysis — Analysis and complete understanding of the problem that the software seeks to solve, along with the survey of its requirements and restrictions. Product requirements, the services that will be provided, limitations and objectives of the software to be developed are defined by the customers.
Software Architecture — Designing solutions that meet all requirements and restrictions. In this step the data structure, software architecture, interfaces, etc. are defined.
Development — Software coding, where programs are actually created.
Tests — QA engineer tests the software’s internal logic and external functionality, identifying bugs and reporting them to the development team.
Deployment — On the server or on the client’s machine along with other utilities such as a database or other items necessary for its operation. Software is effectively delivered to the client along with all the documentation of what was developed.
Consequences of Testing Late in the Lifecycle
Despite being a widely used approach in the market, the testing stage occurs only at the end of the lifecycle, immediately before the product is released to the customer. As a result, usability and behavioural problems identified by QA engineers postpone the software release until they are corrected and retested.
This causes two main problems, testing becomes a bottleneck that prevents the ability of software projects to be delivered on time and generates a high cost of making changes and fixing issues.
How is Shift Left Testing Different?
When the software development lifecycle is viewed as a sequential, left-to-right process, the movement of anticipating testing activities is known as “left-shifting”. This move pushes tests to the early stages of development.
With Shift Left the testing phase is moved to the early software development activities, being performed earlier and remaining throughout the software lifecycle.
Collaboration—QA engineers have the chance to collaborate with other stakeholders such as the development, product, marketing, and design team, enabling the spread of a testing mindset across all phases of the project.
Understanding — Expanding the improved understanding of the project will help QA engineers to write effective test cases that will be instrumental in improving product quality and in the future these test cases can be automated.
Automation —This enables the reduction of human errors, increases test coverage and allows QA engineers to focus on other types of tests.
Why Adopt This Practice?
Collaboration & Communication Between QA and Other Team Members
Collaborating with developers on requirements and test scenarios that need to be covered increases the chances of mapping risks that can be discovered earlier in the software architecture phase.
This same collaboration allows planning the coverage of functional and non-functional tests to be defined and planned from the beginning of the cycle. With test coverage defined, QA engineers spend less time on repetitive manual testing and can focus on functional and exploratory testing that will add more value to testing.
Communication with developers, product managers and designers in the requirements analysis phase allows all teams to have the same understanding of the requirements and the cost of misinformation and rework is drastically reduced.
Testing is Faster and More Efficient
Defects identified by developers when code is in the process of coding review are the easiest to fix, because these code units are small and easily changeable. Once integrated into the project’s main source code, the code’s complexity increases, as does the effort required to find anomalies and correct them.
QA engineers also have more time to automate test case execution. This will help ensure that any code changes are safe and that QA doesn’t spend time retesting flows that have already been approved.
Higher Quality Product
Testing earlier in the development lifecycle results in a higher quality product as QA engineers have already mapped project risks and most critical test scenarios. They are less rushed to find all errors at the end of the project when there is little time to correct them.
The Shift Left approach emphasizes the need for developers to focus on quality from the early stage of a software build, rather than waiting for errors and bugs to be found later in the software lifecycle.
Conclusion
By adopting the Shift Left testing movement in your software development process, QA is able to quickly discover flaws, reduce the time required for testing and produce refined and quality software.
The movement is not limited to helping discover defects in the early stages of the project, but it also:
- Prevents the testing phase from becoming a bottleneck for software development.
- Helps the QA engineer to collaborate with all stakeholders, improve the competence of the business rules domain and create high-value test cases.
- Solidifies the importance of testing early and constantly in the development cycle of any project.
References
Luna is an Agile Test Engineer at TribalScale with experience in testing involving Web, Desktop, Mobile and API applications. She is passionate about software testing, loves exploring new technologies and thinking about how to break them. Outside work, she spends her time reading and has a goal to explore Calgary this summer.
TribalScale is a global innovation firm that helps enterprises adapt and thrive in the digital era. We transform teams and processes, build best-in-class digital products, and create disruptive startups. Learn more about us on our website. Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook!
