Enabling QA teams to find bugs sooner & dev teams to fix them faster and cheaper
By moving quality considerations to the start of a development project, Shift Left enables QA teams to find bugs and defects sooner and development teams to fix them more quickly and less expensively – before they impact a customer. This model ensures quality throughout the entire software development lifecycle, reduces costs, accelerates release cycles and increases customer satisfaction.
QA and test management have become very complex in the digital world with the numerous platforms, OSs, devices, use cases and variety of network connections and carriers involved. Mobile, web and hybrid apps have to be tested across multiple permutations and combinations. In our experience with both market leaders and emerging innovators, we see organizations come up against several common challenges as they try to ensure quality products and services in mobile, web and IoT.
According to a recent study by quality consultant SQS AG, 56% of software defects originate during the requirements phase of a project, and 27% in the design stage. This compares with only 10% that originate during the development (coding) phase.
In traditional software development and test processes, testing is initiated at the coding stage – when 83% (56% + 27%) of the bugs have already been introduced. The impact of this is significant – both in terms of time to resolution and cost.
A recent study titled “The Journal of Defense Software Engineering” by CrossTalk, measured the difference in the time it takes to resolve an issue/defect found at the early and late stages of the software development lifecycle. The study determined that it can take as much as 150x longer to resolve a defect found in production vs. one found at the requirements stage; and 30X longer than one found in design.
IBM Research also looked at the relative cost to correct bugs and defects based on when in the software development lifecycle they were identified and resolved. The study showed that defects identified and resolved during the Requirements and Design phase of development are 60-100X less expensive to fix than those discovered and fixed after product release.
(Defects introduced during the requirements and design phase are typically more severe and therefore more difficult to remove via testing.)
In software development, prevention is always better than a cure. To develop high quality applications at a competitive pace, Test/QA teams must find and resolve defects earlier in the development process; i.e., they must “Shift Left.”
At Infostretch, we have extensive experience in helping organizations “Shift Left.” Leveraging proven best practices, tools and frameworks, we optimize testing and QA and embed Shift Left concepts and procedures into the application development lifecycle with the goals of “Prevention” and “Prediction.”
This includes a well-defined and structured defect prevention methodology shared by project implementation teams to identify, analyze and prevent bugs and defects throughout the development lifecycle. Standardizing and automating these processes across the team creates greater predictability in identifying defects and our extensive experience in the field of testing gives us access to a large base of knowledge to prevent potential defects before they happen.
Our approach to Shift Left encompasses the end-to-end software development lifecycle.
Infrastructure should not be overlooked. In many cases, your team will be prepared and available to conduct early testing, but the test environment will not for any number of reasons. This can create big inefficiencies. To resolve this, plan, create and virtualize the services wherever needed.
In the traditional Agile approach, “Without Infostretch” below, there is a linear process starting with requirements and continuing through design and then development. User stories are defined, sprint planning takes place, sprint execution of a periodic time – let’s say for example a sprint of two weeks is started. This two-week sprint contains two weeks of application development and two weeks of testing in parallel.
In the Shift Left Agile example below labeled “With Infostretch,” the testing and automation teams are involved from the start of the project. So, they fully understand the requirements. Now when development starts, the test and automation can identify the test cases for automation, create the test scripts and also validate these test scripts for automation – all in parallel. Testing is accelerated because only execution of testing scripts needs to take place. As a result, testing cycles can be completed with 1.5 weeks, a 25% reduction.
By embracing Shift Left, companies can identify and correct defects as they occur, speeding cycle time, reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction and service levels. Shift Left does not happen on its own though. It demands accountability and increased communication with all stakeholders across the software development lifecycle. But the results are worth it. At Infostretch, we have seen organizations reduce overall testing cycles from 1-2 weeks to 2-3 days by implementing the Shift Left methodology with Agile testing and increased automation.
We would love to hear more about your project.
Even a short phone call can help us explain how our solutions can accelerate your mobility, jump start your continuous delivery and help reduce costs. And that’s just for starters, understanding more about your project will enable us to build a solution that fits your objectives, infrastructure and aspirations!
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