Continuous Testing Tools: 5 Things to Look For

Testing continuously at multiple stages of the release pipeline supports delivery of high-quality software. Here’s how to pick an automation solution for your continuous testing needs.

The primary objective of continuous testing is to serve as a feedback engine in a release pipeline to increase speed and improve quality assurance.

To achieve this, several aspects of testing – not just the execution of tests – must be performed in a reiterative way, including the production and refinement of automated tests.

In this light, test automation works as an enabler, but does not in itself equal continuous testing.

Learn more about the role of testing in Continuous Delivery. 

What you'll find in this article: 

• Common continuous test automation hurdles 
• What to look for in DevOps continuous testing tools
• Why choose a no-code tool for continuous testing?

Common continuous test automation hurdles 

There are some common hurdles in software testing that make it difficult to test continuously. These include:

• Testers’ competences are not fully utilized
• The workload of maintaining test cases is holding back QA efforts
• Testers and developers are not able to work as an integrated team

These obstacles limit the efficiency of your feedback loops, and as such, need to be addressed. This requires the right automation solution.

Not all test automation tools are created equal. Some tools enable testing that is more continuous than others.

If testers end up spending more time on programming or maintaining test scripts instead of applying their highly specialized domain knowledge to designing test cases, testing won’t be continuous.

If the automation tool does not enable easy hand-over of test cases or provide clear debug information, same thing.

Learn more: How to optimize the development of automated functional tests in an agile setup.

Before you swamp yourself with the different options, you should list your requirements and do an initial search to see which testing tool best fits your organization. This way, you will be able to more quickly filter through the tools.

What to look for in DevOps continuous testing tools

Below are five main factors to take into consideration at the beginning of your search. Consider these to find the ideal continuous testing tool for you and your team:

1. Application types supported: Not all testing tools support automation across technologies and systems.
2. Integration capabilities: Does the automation tool easily integrate with your pipeline?
3. Execution time: Can the test automation platform scale the execution of test cases to keep run-time at a minimum?
4. Learning curve: How long will it take your team to adopt the tool in their daily work?
5. Alignment with business expectations: Will this tool help you achieve the level of process optimization required to meet business goals?

If you break these five elements further down, you'll see that there are a number of specific features and capabilities you can look for in a tool for continuous testing. We've listed these as eight points in this downloadable checklist. This checklist can be used in your search for a test automation and continuous testing tool. 

Why a no-code tool for continuous testing?

No-code test automation enhances the benefits of continuous testing, because it lets teams set up and maintain automated tests much faster than code-based solutions. Due to its visual language that everyone can understand, it also makes collaboration easier.

Leapwork’s no-code test automation platform fits seamlessly into your CI/CD pipeline to provide total visibility of testing activity, enabling agile teams to test continuously at high speed whilst minimizing the time spent on set-up and maintenance.

With Leapwork, teams can quickly catch bugs through automated test cases so that you can fix them as close to its origin as possible, before they make their way further down the release pipeline. The test automation platform thereby becomes a direct feedback engine in the release pipeline that reduces errors, lowers costs, and increases speed, ensuring the quality of your software.

In sum, Leapwork’s no-code tool for continuous testing lets you:

• Orchestrate easily: The platform integrates into your CI/CD toolset to deliver total visibility of testing activity, rapid feedback, and seamless collaboration.
• Improve quality: You can easily build and adapt tests to respond to changes in the user interface, so you can deliver high quality at speed.
• Increase speed & accuracy: Streamline delivery with shift-left testing, so you can fail faster and ensure accurate, repeatable tests.
• Optimize your resources: The platform comes with intuitive management tools for easy oversight so you can optimize test schedules and use resources more efficiently.

Learn more about continuous testing with Leapwork and download our full whitepaper on continuous testing in agile to learn about the benefits of no-code for continuous testing and continuous delivery and use our checklist.