When I saw a test development knowledge system in our forum, I didn’t quite understand the left and right shift of the test. I read two articles and summarized them by force. Some of the contents were directly translated. About testing left shift and right shift. Testing to the left refers to early detection of problems, continuous integration, as much automation as possible, and a deeper understanding of customer needs to improve their experience. For tests to move to the right, it is relative to tests in the previous production environment, providing real environment, actual performance, and target user feedback and evaluation.
What is the meaning of left and right movement in software testing?
The test Move Left test method uses Test Early and Often to perform test tasks earlier in the product lifecycle (that is, move left on the project timeline). Meanwhile, the test right-shifting approach in DevOps testing is to be able to test in a production environment, preparing for undefined, unknown, and unexpected situations, such as a production environment.
Over the past few years, the widespread adoption of Agile and DevOps practices has led to a significant shift in the way software is developed and tested. Collaboration is key, with both developers and testers involved early in the testing cycle.
The two concepts that have become popular are left shift and right shift. As the name suggests, moving the test left actually shifts the process to the left of the development phase. This means that testing starts at the beginning of the development cycle and continues throughout the development cycle.
The test left
The goal is to prevent defects and reduce risks, not to deal with numerous bugs and critical issues after development. Thus, testers can be introduced early in the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) to proactively find and deal with defects. It also helps developers get things right the first time, with on-time delivery and quality assurance.
Also, consider the fact that defects are less costly to the project when discovered early. Testing to the left also means constantly testing to get a higher quality product. In this example, the roles and responsibilities of the tester are very important.
This approach also requires testers to first design tests with customer experience goals in mind. This, in turn, allows developers to build software based on these tests and meet customer needs.
The practice of left-shifting tests generally encourages the use of behavior driven development (BDD) and test driven development (TDD) to help prevent defects.
As an integral part of agile practice, testing leftwing includes agile test teams, in which testers play an important role. Testers are treated as stakeholders, participating in stand-up sessions, retrospectives, and various other interactions.
The test shift to the left relies on continuous testing and feedback to perform dynamic changes throughout the sprint.
Why did the test move left?
Better Design: Moving tests left uses a design thinking approach where testers and developers focus on customer/end user expectations and experiences. Through continuous testing and brainstorming – sometimes leading to the identification of critical design or concept flaws. These discoveries often lead to better products and customer experiences.
Release quality: Bugs are found and fixed early. The model accelerates the focus on quality from the start, and defects caught by this approach can be easily fixed at a lower cost than at the end of the cycle.
Better timelines and Investment RIO: As testing quality becomes everyone’s job. With less rework, projects stay true to schedule. This ensures faster time-to-market and better ROI.
In short, the test left shift process includes:
As soon as possibleTest and test frequently to reduce the overall cost of the project and maintain qualityContinuous testingThe feedback loop is shorter to avoid the final resolution of the defect- Keep everything
automationTo improve the time to market - Design according to customer needs to improve the overall customer experience
Testing moves to the right
Where testing left-shift ensures quality and business requirements are met, test right-shift methods to ensure operation and performance in real-world environments. This practice allows testing to be moved into production through controlled experimentation, involving functionality, performance, fault tolerance, and user experience. Testing in production allows you to use real-world user experiences and analyze use cases that are difficult to replicate or anticipate.
That said, moving tests to the left helps the team prepare for unexpected events such as performance issues, crashes, failures, and the like.
While the test shift to the left is absolutely necessary for agile testing, it may not be sufficient to ensure software quality in terms of user experience and expectations.
Test right-shift testing starts with testing tasks in the late production phase of the software. You are now testing the right side of the software application, which is a build and usability. These tests are conducted to ensure stability, performance and usability standards. In this way, feedback and comments can be gathered from target users to understand how the software functions in the real world. This helps further improve the quality of the software.
Why does the test shift right?
While test left-shift testing brings early and continuous software testing to prevent defects, test right-shift testing practices have their own set of advantages, such as:
Improved customer experience: By changing the testing right, customer feedback is carefully collated, and then questions are translated into technical and business terms. This isolates each problem and leaves room for improvement to enhance the customer experience.
Scope of automation: It is easier to automate a functional and stable application than a partial or unstable one. Once the application is stable, user interface (UI) automation is necessary for rapid testing. Moving tests to the right of tests enables you to do this. Once the application is stabilized at the core functional level, it is critical for rapid testing. Moving tests right to tests enables you to do just that!
Wider coverage: The test right move approach has wider test coverage than the test left move because testers can access the entire system without pressing deadlines. It allows testers to do more testing, test in time, but also test delay for better quality and customer experience.
Many scenarios are ideal: due to the high risk and risk factors, practices like dark startup, business switching, and Canary deployment are ideal for proper migration testing for target users.
In short, the test right shift process includes
- Test in production environment to ensure the product is in
In the real worldStability and performance - You can from
Get feedback and comments from your target audienceTo ensure customer satisfaction - Ability to test in a test environment
Impossible to create usage scenarios and actual load levels
We can see here that the test left shift is all about getting the code right the first time and reducing time-to-market, while the test right shift is about supporting perfect practical usability from the customer’s point of view. Testing to the left allows you to save time, testing effort, risk, and resources, while testing to the right is more about getting the user experience and production scenarios right.
The original link: https://www.qmetry.com/blog/shift-left-and-shift-right-in-software-testing/
You can also check out this article on testing left and right shifts here.
http://www.testclass.net/post/shift-left-and-shift-right
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