The current ethos of software development sounds something like the refrain of a 2000s rock song: faster, better, stronger. But unlike a one-hit wonder, software companies need to make this intensifying drive for faster, better development processes sustainable for the long haul. After all, any process that can’t be repeated is useless in a DevOps world where high-performing teams are deploying changes on a daily basis. To adapt, developers are embracing packaged applications and agile development practices to accelerate product velocity. But unless software testing evolves to match this new reality, the drive for faster deployments will end with unhappy development teams and unhappy customers.
Faster delivery is the new norm, especially as consumers expect vendors to quickly adapt to their changing needs. Quality, trust, and convenience are the new pillars of converting - and keeping - customers. Being able to consistently deliver new (and bug-free) features is essential for building valuable customer relationships. As the common thread between code and consumers, effective software testing is fundamental to growth in this new era.
The core structure of applications and websites is transforming as companies find new ways to integrate third party software into their products. While these tactics enable software developers to take advantage of best-of-breed solutions like Salesforce to enhance their understanding of the prospective customer experience or embed payment options via API, they can also complicate the testing process. Quality teams that rely on manual testing or siloed teams of manual testers and QA engineers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain test coverage across APIs and third party applications.
Low-code test automation is closing the “possibility gap” for quality teams looking to quickly adapt their testing strategy to these new realities. Some forms of testing, like API testing, simply haven’t been possible for manual testers. Considering that roughly 200 million APIs are now in use, manually checking every API used on an application or website isn’t the best use of software testers’ time or talents. Instead, embedding API testing into end-to-end tests or running local API tests as standalone quality checks during development helps quality professionals evolve testing in tandem with changing development practices.
Similarly, more software companies are adopting dynamic architectures that match the speed of DevOps and changing consumer needs, resulting in complex user journeys that include isolated web components and third party applications like Salesforce. To accurately test these customer experiences, quality engineering teams need solutions that maximize their talents to ensure that each component of the user journey works as expected. But shadow DOM elements often exist outside the abilities of manual testing and testing tools, limiting the effectiveness of quality testers as they work to improve test coverage.
Fortunately, AI and machine learning are unlocking automated testing that can evaluate quality, even for shadow DOM elements. Using Salesforce-specific selectors, modern test automation solutions can locate elements vulnerable to sudden changes and auto-heal the associated test steps when Salesforce updates their applications. Quality teams can manage the prospective customer experience more proactively with less rote work. Low-code makes these capabilities even more useful since everyone, regardless of coding experience, can create tests for these challenging quality issues.
Quality engineering delivers positive customer experiences through testing embedded in development pipelines. By connecting code to their customers, quality engineers unlock a new level of product quality that ensures businesses can retain users with delightful user experiences. Though software development itself is undergoing radical transformations with DevOps adoption and an increasing reliance on third-party software, quality professionals can keep pace with testing solutions like mabl.
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