February 4, 2019

SDLC Tools For Testing: The Right One For Each Phase

Automation

The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is accelerating. And you need the right SDLC tools to keep up. This includes tools SDLC automation testing.

Mobile and web projects are becoming more and more Agile, with manual testing methods being replaced by automated processes. It’s a sign of the times: automation in the DevOps pipeline is needed for successful development projects today.

But which testing tools should you use? Answering this question is critical to building the proper testing strategy. And it's necessary for continuous testing activities in each phase of the SDLC.

Keep reading to learn which SDLC tools you should be using.

Table of Contents:

What is the SDLC?
Why You Need SDLC Tools For Automation
When Is the Testing Phase in SDLC?
Additional Testing SDLC Tools
Standard Phases of the SDLC
SDLC Testing Tools For Each Phase
SDLC Automation With Perfecto

What is the SDLC?

The software development lifecycle (also known as the SDLC) is the process of releasing high-quality software to production while maintaining low costs and a short overall production time. There are 5 SDLC models: Agile (the most popular model to date), Waterfall, Spiral, V-Shaped, and Iterative.

Why You Need SDLC Tools For Automation

Organizations transition to Agile in order to release more features faster and meet customers’ digital experience expectations. This new velocity concept added complexity each phase of the SDLC. DevOps is the software engineers’ solution to that complexity.

The DevOps pipeline describes the actions from writing the first line of code until it is delivered to and used by customers. This process defines actions, stages, and when to move between stages.

The foundation of an efficient pipeline is automation. Automation can include:

Building the software.
Copying, moving, and deploying the app or microservice.
Automated testing to verify the artifact’s readiness to proceed to the next stage.

The way to achieve this level of efficiency is by employing automated testing and SDLC tools at each stage in the pipeline. Such tests have different targets, as described below.

When Does Testing in SDLC Begin?

It's really important to consider testing in SDLC. Testing is an important part of SDLC automation. But you have to choose the right SDLC tool for each phase.

A Quick Overview of SDLC Tools for Testing

Before getting into too much detail, let’s take a look at the types of testing tools of the automated testing platform spectrum. These tools can be divided into two major groups:

▪ White-box — Tests written by the developer with access to the code, flows, and native objects.

▪ Black-box — Tests written by external test engineers without access to the code and using flows, which simulate the user experience.

Espresso and XCUItest are the leading mobile white-box test automation tools, while Appium and Selenium are the leading black-box tools. Black-box testing can be done through either code-based or codeless automation solutions.

For mobile test automation, there is a big difference between these SDLC tools. White-box testing relies on an IPA/APK package that includes both the app under test and the test suite that is needed to test the app — these packages are executed on the device upon installation.

Black-box test tools are executed remotely and communicate with the application via the network (mostly via HTTP).

White-box tests are executed on the device, which makes the execution faster — up to 8x faster. They have full access to the application code and thus have direct access to objects, making scripts much more stable. Both black- and white-box test tools are needed for the different phases of the SDLC.

Additional Tools for Testing in SDLC

Keep in mind the other popular tools and test automation frameworks that leverage Selenium/Appium WebDriver configuration and execution. This allows the test developer to focus on application flow and tests. Frameworks include:

Protractor
Gauge
Galen
Nightwatch
TestNG
JUnit
Webdriver.io
BDD frameworks like Quantum

Such frameworks also enable test developers to add unique test scenarios for specific technologies.

For example, one might use Protractor for specific Angular-based application testing due to the unique capabilities the framework has for object identification support. In a different case, teams could leverage Galen to develop visual testing scenarios for their responsive web application testing.

Including unique scenarios such as these enrich the testing process across the SDLC, and thus, the end product.

Standard Phases of the SDLC

Developer Local Build — Component Team

Developers write code and then integrate it with other team members’ code. After finishing a feature, and before committing the code, the developer must verify that the component is still stable. This means getting the latest code, merging changes on the local machine, and executing unit tests. This ensures the latest addition did not break the team’s code.

Hourly Build — Component Team

Every hour, component codes are built and all unit tests are executed to verify the code is ready to integrate with other teams’ code.

Hourly Build — Application Build

If all component tests pass, a full application build gets executed every hour. This build contains all the applications’ components. At this point, functional testing verifies that the app is stable and ready to move to staging. Regression tests test it with other apps and services and verify the new functionally hasn’t broken existing features.

Nightly — Integration Test

After verifying that the app is stable, it is moved to a staging environment. Full functional testing has been executed on the app to verify that it works with all other services.

Pre-Prod Tests

This is the last stage before release to production. This environment contains real production data and tests in this environment are focused on coverage and performance.

Monitoring

After releasing the app, these tests verify the production service is up and running and available to customers.

SDLC Testing Tools For Each Phase

Here is a map of the required test types and testing tools for each stage in the pipeline for responsive web apps:

SDLC Automation With Perfecto

Both black- and white-box tests can help improve overall pipeline quality. Keep in mind that each phase of the SDLC requires a different testing tool that provides relevant feedback at each stage.

As you move to the pre-production stage, the same tests are still relevant and executed. However, the coverage, the environment, and the resources used are different due to the objective. At that stage, the goal is to reduce the risk of escaped defects and improve the customer’s digital experience.

Once you have optimized your SDLC with the right testing tools at each stage, accelerate your entire testing process — from test creation to test execution and analysis. Perfecto is the only end-to-end platform to offer that.

See how Perfecto can help you maximize your test automation to achieve full-blown continuous testing.

Try Perfecto

Mobile & Web Test Coverage Guide