Process

The core idea of DevOps is the various roles working together to create a stable software system. People can hear that, or read about it, or even observe it, but often, the best way for a team new to DevOps to understand it is to just do it. When you're starting out, that can lead to failures on a real system, so a simulation is a good idea. Try playing a game to introduce your team to DevOps.

In the movie RoboCop, the cyborg law enforcement officer advised people to “Stay out of trouble.” This article focuses on ways to stay out of trouble when building a software product by following the stages of software testing, using the 1987 movie’s titular character as an example. Let’s examine each testing stage and see if we can build a better RoboCop.

Traditionally, automated scripts are derived from existing test cases. But if we divorce the notion of “automation” from the notions of “test cases” and “test scripts,” we can think of automation as a judicious use of technology to help humans do their jobs. This broadens our world to include different tools that can help testers increase coverage, test faster, and detect trends.

When conducting load testing, if all you do is run the same tests and then examine data such as average response time, you could be missing some red flags. Load test models usually aren't analogous to the real world, so you may have disappointed users you don't even know about. It's our responsibility to understand what our tools do as well as what the results mean.