Interview with Jasper Loos, Squad Lead Test Automation Architects
The software you develop as a company needs to work well. Imagine; you are working with your IT team to realize a product and you want to be sure that everything works. When you put all your heart and soul into that product, you don’t want to find out at the last minute that a feature doesn’t work.
If you want to be agile as a company and be able to quickly adapt to customer needs, competitors or changed regulations, then choose test automation. With test automation you implement automatic tests to control your own software. You will find errors within the software easier and faster, so users can enjoy your products without problems. Test automation is essential for organizations that work agile or DevOps and often want to release high quality software.
Earlier Involvement in the Development Process
With test automation, the rule is: the earlier you are there, the better. We integrate test automation into the CI/CD pipeline for our customers within weeks and have a standard approach to achieve the best customized solution. With a CI/CD pipeline, software goes automatically from a test environment to a production environment, where customers use it. What makes this so valuable is that we can set up and run tests for our customers faster than usual, so that the customer immediately has a clear picture of the quality of the product. This has its advantages:
- You save time. Because we are involved earlier in the process, we can determine a test automation strategy at an early stage. In this way, the at this point still small product is automatically tested from the beginning, which means that no time is lost in the future on manually testing previously developed functionalities.
- You save costs. Because we validate functionalities of the software earlier and more carefully, bugs are detected earlier, and we spend less time and money on the testing process. We can therefore deliver business value to customers more quickly.
- You are much more agile as an organization. And that is perhaps the most important thing of all. Especially if your company is in a very dynamic market, where customer demand is constantly changing and the competition switches at lightning speed, starting early with test automation ensures that you can adapt just as quickly.
Test automation is a rapidly changing field and there are many tools to choose from. By reasoning from the customer’s point of view to make the match with the right tools gives the best results.
For example, we were engaged by a customer to professionalize and expand test automation. A great challenge. As we were involved early in the process, the time of the test and development process remained the same, while the product itself grew much larger. As a result, the business value of the organization has increased tremendously through this approach. Whereas only a few users in the logistics chain used the website at first, there are now thousands.
Getting Started is Easier Than Thought
Test automation may be a far cry for some, but it doesn’t have to be. If you want to start using test automation with your organization, it really can be easier than you might think. A few tips:
- Don’t start using a popular tool right away, but think calmly and carefully about a strategy first.
- Make sure you hire or engage the right people to develop and execute your strategy.
- And, as mentioned earlier, choose your tools based on your product. Just because you’re well versed in a particular tool doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right choice for your situation.
Test automation requires specialists who have knowledge of both development and testing. It is important to stay up to date in the rapidly changing field of test automation. By getting involved earlier in the process, you will achieve the best results.
