Full Stack Testing

Chapter 4. Continuous Testing

Your fast feedback efforts are in limbo without continuous feedback!

In the previous chapter, we discussed how adding tests in the right layers of the application accelerates feedback cycles. It is imperative to receive such fast feedback continuously and not just in random bursts to seamlessly regulate the application’s quality throughout the development cycle. This chapter is dedicated to the elaboration of such a continuous testing practice.

Continuous testing (CT) is the process of validating application quality using both manual and automated testing methods after every incremental change, and alerting the team when the change causes deviation from the intended quality outcomes. For example, when a piece of functionality deviates from the expected application performance numbers, the CT process immediately notifies the team by means of failing performance tests. This gives the team an opportunity to fix issues as early as possible, when they are still relatively small and manageable. A lack of such a continuous feedback loop might leave the issues unnoticed for an extended period, allowing them to cascade to deeper levels of the code over time and increasing the effort required to remedy them.

The CT process relies heavily on the practice of continuous integration (CI) to perform automated testing against every change. Adopting CI together with CT allows the team to do continuous delivery (CD). Ultimately, the trio of CI, CD, and CT make the ...