The Role of Manual Testing in DevOps

According to Statista, in 2018 72% of companies have implemented DevOps. First introduced in 2009, this set of practices is now gaining momentum rapidly, forcing business to change the way they develop software.

In a nutshell, DevOps practices have two core goals:

• To shorten the development lifecycle;
• To ensure continuous delivery, not compromising on products’ quality.

In terms of business, DevOps offers plenty of benefits. Most importantly, this DevOps model helps companies integrate a clear and efficient segmentation of roles based on the concepts of CI (Continuous Integration) & CD (Continuous Delivery). Meaning it embeds the right specialist in the process just at the right time; builds on the culture of collaboration between teams with a goal to release products faster and more efficiently.

One way DevOps is ensuring shorter time to market is by steady automation of repeatable processes that otherwise may drain too many resources and time. Thus, we can say that automation is an integral element of DevOps.

Now, getting back to our topic, it is important to stress the importance of QA in such a highly-automated environment. Aiming to reduce costs, time, and effort, teams often make the same mistake by focusing too much on the efficiency of the workflow, but not too much on the end quality of the product.

Instead, teams should keep in mind that despite all the pros of quality assurance automation, human engineers are still crucial for the process. Though often undervalued, QA manual software testing services still plays a big role in DevOps and, in this article, we will explain why.

Manual vs. Automated QA

As a software QA service provider, we apply both manual and automated testing techniques in our projects. Each method has certain pros and cons, as well as different purposes. Ideally, automated and manual software testing should coexist to ensure maximum efficiency and end quality.

Pros of Manual Testing Approach

1. Avoiding automation errors
Human errors also can take place in software testing. However, in the case, a mistake is done by a human specialist, he or she most likely will be able to recognize it and come up with a solution that would fix it.

However, when you use automated testing, a machine is not able to recognize an error. All it does is following a specific set of actions pre-defined by a human.

2. Saving time
If automated testing is designed to save QA engineers’ time and resources in the first place, how can time be among the pros of manual testing you may ask? It is a natural concern. But, would you be surprised if we say that sometimes a manual approach is more time and resource-efficient that automated? Well, that’s true.

To begin with, it is worth saying that building an automated test case can take more time and resources depending on the complexity of the software. It is not a big issue if you are planning to test lots of similar products in the long-run. But, if it is a one-off endeavor, manual testing can be a more effective approach.

Another case when manual testing can be implemented in the DevOps environment is if a change is constantly made to the product. When changes are implemented, automated tests also need to be adjusted, which can push back the time of release.

3. Avoiding false positives and negatives
In more complex cases, automation testing can have higher risks of undiscovered false positives and negatives. This can be a big stumbling block for the QA process. That is one more case when manual testing brings more benefits.

4. Bringing creativity and skill to the testing process
Unlike manual, automated tests always follow a prescribed list of commands, which assumes a complete absence of creativity in the process. And this is one of the biggest pros of manual testing in contrast to automated.

As for the skill, it may not make a big difference if an engineer only knows the manual testing basics. However, if you employ an expert with vast experience in a particular field or a reliable QA testing service, their proficiency can play a crucial role in detecting bugs that a machine can’t recognize.

The Bottom Line

Software development is a complicated and ever-changing industry. Besides, it is highly competitive. Hundreds of thousands of new products are launched every year, so the businesses’ desire to automate the development and QA cycle is well understood. It is a good practice that reduces time, effort, and cost of quality assurance, meanwhile allowing QA engineers to focus on other aspects of testing. Besides, it is what helps ensure a smooth and quick release of products.

However, despite the benefits of test automation, there always will be a place for a manual approach. No matter how advanced it gets, automation can’t yet (or may never be able to) fully substitute quality assurance manual testing. After all, a human engineer is always needed to evaluate the product from the user’s perspective, as well as to detect more complex and unexpected bugs.