Artificial intelligence | 10 Nov 2023 | 15 min
Your business is approaching the final stages of a critical software project, and with looming deadlines, your hardworking development team is in a race against the clock. However, as the project nears completion, a common issue arises. That is – comprehensive testing has been neglected and postponed until the last minute.
This often leads to serious problems, like important errors and issues showing up right before the project is ready to launch.
The result? Frustration, budget overruns, and missed deadlines.
I bet you and your team would prefer to avoid facing such challenging situations.
This is where the concept of “shift-left testing” and “shift-right testing” comes into play as a solution to this age-old problem.
In this blog, I’ll help you understand the testing concepts, their significance for your business, and ways to implement them in your development process.
Keep reading for the bonus element!
Fig -1.0
As mentioned in the above diagram, the core idea of shift-left testing is to start testing as early as possible, focusing on preventing issues rather than just finding them.
It involves – running quick, test automation at important stages of software development to catch and address bugs and potential problems proactively.
Such an approach boosts software quality and cuts down on the time spent dealing with issues that tend to grow bigger as development progresses. Thus, generating a more thorough testing approach throughout the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This leads to a stronger and more dependable final product.
Well, let’s understand its significance closely in the next section.
Here are the top 6 benefits of shift-left testing by which you can redefine your software journey:
Now that you are well equipped with the basics of this approach, let me help you to implement it to experience effortless defect management.
To implement shift-left Testing effectively in your software development process, consider the following steps:
When talking about implementing this testing, you need to be aware of various sets of approaches. Let me break them down for you in a minute further.
Here are the 2 sets of approaches:
It enhances cross-team collaboration and improves the understanding of features. This results in timely feature deliveries.
So, using TDD or BDD ensures that features are built correctly from the start, promoting the shift-left testing process.
Note: Sometimes, despite planning things ahead and starting to detect bugs, we still might miss out on other factors that may influence the entire development process. To tackle this, another approach must be used. It’s called “shift-right testing”.
Onwards to knowing it!
Shift-Right Testing starts as the post-production testing, uncovering unexpected scenarios that may not have been detected within the development environment. This process helps identify the risks specific to the production environment for any given project.
Referring back to Fig -1.0, shift-right testing is exactly the opposite of shift-left testing. It moves testing to the right side of the timeline. The goal here is to identify the expected production behavior of that application under actual user counts. Additionally, it tests the performance of applications under actual load in production.
With this approach, findings are managed in a continuous loop. The feedback is provided by the development, quality assurance, and operations teams.
Therefore, shift-right testing has become a vital part of DevOps, enabling SDLC to:
If you want to know what advantages it brings to your business, I’ve got you covered further.
Here are the top 6 benefits of shift-right testing:
By now if you’re intrigued, read on to learn how to put this approach into action.
To implement shift-right testing, consider the following steps:
Shift-Right Testing focuses on the production environment. It usually involves choosing stable and productive testing scenarios for better performance.
Let’s explore some of them!
These are the different approaches:
For these scenarios, shift-right testing helps to judge the most optimal version of an application.
On the other hand, tests under the shift-right principle, such as – canary tests and dark launches, provide excellent scope for automation.
These help automate feature releases, keep teams updated on software performance, and promote optimal use of time and effort.
As we explored the specifics of both tests in detail, let’s examine the differences between them next.
Aspect | Shift-Left Testing | Shift-Right Testing |
Test Timing | Early in the development cycle | Post-production and in the production environment |
Focus | Prevention of issues | Detection of unexpected behavior and user preferences |
Benefits | Early bug identification, cost savings, high-quality code | Improved user preferences, continuous feedback loop, risk reduction |
Key Activities | Introducing testing early, developer involvement, automation | Testing in production, A/B testing, automation opportunities |
So, the choice between shift-left and shift-right testing depends on your project requirements. Adopting both approaches can offer a holistic testing strategy that enhances software quality, reduces costs, and ultimately delights the end users.
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