| | JULY 201919CIOReviewSOFTWARE TESTING FOR DEVOPS AND MICROSERVICES ERA ­ COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS AND INDUSTRY REALITIESFor a long time, Business organizations were limited by speed of software development by their IT organizations. Even though IT was seen as an enabler, businesses felt that they couldn't get their products and services rolled out fast enough to the customers. As IT embraced newer methodologies and IT architectures such as DevOps and microservices, businesses are feeling more confident about getting important features and services into hands of customers at a faster pace.Because of these changes, the world of software testing is undergoing a massive transformation. Every single aspect ­ people, tools and technologies, methodologies, delivery models--is rapidly evolving. There is overwhelming amount of information floating around all of us. It can be very difficult to keep a track of all relevant, useful information and to separate fact-from-fiction, theory-from-real world experience. Some of the most common misconceptions are around role of a software tester and role of software testing in general. While it's true that eventually for organizations that have fully transformed into DevOps/microservices world, role of software testing and software tester will be completely absorbed within other roles; most of the organizations will take several years to get there. And many organizations will decide to operate on a hybrid model­partly operating on newer methodologies, and partly continuing to maintain their legacy systems. For these organizations, it's important to understand common misconceptions and industry realities for software testing for DevOps and microservices era.Misconception #1: Testing is not required in the Microservices worldIndustry Reality:· Testing is done at a microservices level and moves inside the `pods' (scrum or agile teams working on a specific story)· Types and methods of testing change e.g. instead of usual systems integration test, contract testing (certifying that a specific microservice is fulfilling its functional, performance and security `contracts' under given conditions) becomes more importantMisconception #2: The Software Tester role is no longer neededIndustry Reality:· Traditional `black box' tester role transforms into `Software Development Engineer in Test' (SDET) or `Development Quality Assurance Engineer' (DevQE)· SDETs / DevQEs are integral part of pods, actively participate in every development cycle from day-1· While SDETs / DevQEs have deep expertise on development technologies being used within a pod, their primary focus is to look for errors in products being developed and quality assurance process compliance within that pod· SDETs / DevQEs will also automate as many test scripts as they can, which enables CICD pipeline and rapid deploymentsMisconception #3: Development and Testing is done by a single vendor (in organizations that rely on vendors / partners)By Sachin Mulik, VP, Quality Engineering, AmdocsSachin Mulik
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