For many organizations, DevOps is the logical next step after the introduction of the Agile way of working. One of the thoughts behind Agile working is to get feedback as soon as possible and to implement improvements in subsequent iterations. In the DevOps philosophy, this feedback includes both the functional aspects, as well as the non-functional aspects such as availability, performance and security. By merging the responsibilities of Dev and Ops teams, the DevOps team becomes responsible for all aspects of the product. The DevOps team must continuously weigh up new features and the stability of the product in production. Investing in new tests or better monitoring is sometimes more important than adding an extra feature.
DevOps means working in a multidisciplinary (cross-functional) team in which all disciplines are represented and in which people are jointly responsible for the continuous development and management of software. As a team you are the owner of the product, so you are also responsible for any incidents.
Within the DevOps team, the tester acts as director of the test activities and works together with the developers in the implementation. Especially in DevOps, Testing and QA will play a more strategic role as the connecting factor between development and operations. A true DevOps tester takes the team in tow for a continuous quality focus, lets developers create and execute unit tests, provides support in clarifying requirements and advises on the test pyramid. The tester’s toolbox has been filled with many new (open source) tools in recent years. In close cooperation with the developers, the tester will supplement existing tests or add new frameworks.
The role of test engineer is increasingly changing into the role of a quality engineer, the team member who takes up his or her position in the team with the focus on quality. Starting at business analysis, via construction and TDD, CI / CD we’ll reach – via BDD and ATDD – business value testing and we’ll look at the performance in the production environment. Polteq supports this change with, among other things, the new DevOps training TMAP: Quality for cross-functional teams. This training is concluded with a recognized certificate and gives a flying start in a DevOps team.