In the current technology scenario, where almost everything is AI-integrated, quality control is becoming one of the main forces behind the success of software products. Tracking software development and testing status drastically improves quality levels. It helps monitor developers’ and testers’ efforts while ensuring that every Dev and QA parameter is followed. But what would be the most efficient tool for tracking the status? Tx-Insights is one of the in-house accelerators that keeps track of software development and testing status in real-time across the CI/CD pipeline. It helps ensure software quality, meets user requirements, and facilitates informed decision-making throughout the SDLC.

What is Tx-Insights?

Transparency is a key requirement for an enterprise’s seamless, continuous delivery pipeline. Fast feedback is another important aspect of transparency for large-scale product development, which is managed by multiple agile teams. Tx-Insights, an in-house analytical DevOps dashboard by Tx, enables enterprises to gain an end-to-end visual view of their CI/CD pipelines. This tool integrates with various systems within an enterprise, extracts relevant data, saves it, and makes the recorded metrics available via a dashboard view. The metrics include:

• Test coverage percentage

• Number of security violations

• Risk tracking

• DevOps maturity, and more.

The Tx-Insights collector integrates a configuration management database to support this metric’s data collection, including application details like health status and stakeholders’ details.

Why do Enterprises Struggle with CI/CD Visibility?

Enterprises often struggle with CI/CD visibility as it requires advanced technical administration expertise. Let’s take a look at the challenges associated with CI/CD in the modern enterprise ecosystem:

• Lack of logging and monitoring leads to missed malicious activities that delay detecting and mitigating security vulnerabilities. Without sufficient visibility, detecting the root cause of issues during CI/CD becomes difficult, making debugging and fixing time-consuming.

• Siloed visibility and insights limit the understanding of CI/CD processes for development, operations, and security teams. This results in inefficient problem-solving as teams do not have the full context of the problem and its impact on the pipeline.

• Unauthorized modifications increase security risks as attackers might gain access to the CI/CD pipeline and introduce buggy code or vulnerabilities. Poorly handled access controls create issues that hackers can exploit to collect sensitive data or modify the pipeline.

• Insufficient testing results in faulty code release that might disrupt services and impact the overall user experience.

Tx-Insights provides a single, end-to-end dashboard view of the enterprise CI/CD pipeline, establishing a clear logging and monitoring mechanism. It allows teams to collaborate and communicate better, reducing bottlenecks and establishing a continuous learning and improvement culture.

Key Features and Functionalities of Tx-Insights

Centralized DevOps Metrics View:

Tx-Insights single dashboard monitors key DevOps performance indicators across teams and tools. It covers deployment frequency, build success rates, lead time, and more. It eliminates the need to pull data manually from various systems, saving time and improving visibility.

CI/CD Pipeline Monitoring and Analysis:

The platform tracks every stage of an enterprise’s CI/CD pipeline, offering clear insights into pipeline duration, failure points, and bottlenecks. With this data, teams can pinpoint inefficiencies and optimize their automation workflows.

DevOps Maturity Measurement:

Tx-Insights assesses DevOps setup against defined benchmarks, measuring pipeline speed, test coverage, failure recovery times, and other measurable factors to highlight where Dev and QA processes stand and where they need work.

Risk Identification:

By linking development metrics (like code changes or test failures) with operational indicators (such as incident frequency or downtime), Tx-Insights helps teams detect patterns that may cause deployment risks. This allows for early intervention and better release stability.

Agile and Continuous Improvement:

Tx-Insights breaks down metrics over time, giving a clear view of trends. It supports sprint-based development by allowing users to track improvements or regressions from sprint to sprint, helping guide planning and retrospectives.

Business Benefits of Leveraging Tx-Insights

• Consolidates view of CI/CD and DevOps data into a single, accessible dashboard. Real-time visibility allows teams to make faster and better-informed decisions at every development and deployment stage.

• Automatically tracking pipeline metrics such as test pass rates, build times, and release frequency enables teams to maintain consistent quality.

• By quantifying progress across sprints and releases, teams can identify what’s improving and what’s not and where immediate attention is needed.

• The platform offers structured metrics to measure the maturity of DevOps practices in terms of automation, speed, and stability.

• Tx-Insights updates metrics in real time, helping Agile teams stay aligned with sprint goals and make small but meaningful changes without losing momentum.

• When performance slips below these standards, Tx-Insights flags the deviation, enabling immediate action before it impacts product stability or release timelines.

Summary

Consolidating critical DevOps metrics into a unified dashboard empowers teams to make informed decisions, improve product quality, and manage risk effectively. Designed to support large-scale Agile environments, Tx-Insights helps eliminate silos, track DevOps maturity, and drive continuous improvement. Partnering with Tx will ensure your business can access intelligent, scalable, and performance-focused solutions to strengthen your software delivery processes.

The post Turn Siloed Metrics into Business-Driven Insights with Tx-Insights first appeared on TestingXperts.

Protecting sensitive data against cyber threats is one crucial step in the software application industry. The rising number of cybercrimes and security threats has dramatically changed how businesses operate and innovate. Traditional DevOps practices can no longer keep up with high-velocity, continuous delivery software development. One of the reasons is that a separate cybersecurity and QA team handles the security aspect in the DevOps ecosystem at the end of the SDLC. DevSecOps seeks to cover this gap by integrating security controls throughout the SDLC. Tx-DevSecOps is an accelerator that assists QA teams in utilizing its high-speed, shift-left approach for continuous security across development and testing.

The Need for Integrated Security in DevOps

The process of integrating security into DevOps is called DevSecOps. Due to the increasing sophistication and frequency of security threats, it has become crucial for modern development processes. Enterprises embed security practices throughout their DevOps pipeline to identify and address vulnerabilities as soon as they appear to reduce risk and improve security posture. This enables organizations to deliver software quickly and on a scale without degrading their IT security posture. Here’s why integrating security with DevOps is essential:

• DevSecOps facilitates early identification of vulnerabilities and provides quicker and cost-effective remediation measures.

• With proactive vulnerability mitigation, enterprises can reduce the risk of data breaches and reputational damage.

• By integrating security in the development pipeline early, organizations reduce the cost of fixing issues post-deployment.

• Automated security tools and practices enable faster software releases without degrading security.

Role of Tx-DevSecOps

Tx-DevSecOps is an advanced security automation accelerator and an extension of Tx-DevOps, a DevOps framework by Txs’ DevOps Center of Excellence (DCoE). Although Tx-DevOps helps teams improve the time-to-market ratio by streamlining development and operations through DevOps Consulting, IaC, CI/CD implementation, and test automation, it still requires transformative processes, organizational culture, and technology shifts.

Tx-DevSecOps addresses the growing demand for secure development practices by seamlessly integrating security into every stage of the SDLC. By leveraging the shift-left approach and latest automation tools, Tx-DevSecOps supports early vulnerability detection, robust application security, and continuous compliance.

Key Features of Tx-DevSecOps

Tool-Agnostic Integration:

Tx-DevSecOps is designed to integrate seamlessly with any continuous integration (CI) pipeline. It enables enterprises to embed security into their development workflows without disrupting deployment processes. Its flexible, tool-agnostic approach ensures compatibility across diverse technology stacks.

Automated Security Checks:

Security is automated throughout the DevOps lifecycle using Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST). These automated validations help identify vulnerabilities in code, dependencies, and runtime behavior, ensuring secure application development from start to finish.

Compliance Management:

Tx-DevSecOps enables organizations to meet international regulatory standards through built-in Compliance as Code (CaC) and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) policies. It supports frameworks such as GDPR, PCI-DSS, OWASP, and SOC 2, enabling continuous compliance and reducing the risk of audit failures or penalties.

End-to-End Vulnerability Management:

With full lifecycle visibility, Tx-DevSecOps facilitates proactive identification, tracking, and remediation of vulnerabilities. It uses the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to prioritize risks effectively and eliminate duplicates, streamlining the remediation process and helping teams focus on priority tasks.

Benefits of Implementing Tx-DevSecOps

Accelerated DevSecOps Adoption:

Tx-DevSecOps helps businesses align their secure DevOps initiatives by providing a pre-built, scalable framework that integrates seamlessly into existing DevOps workflows.

Faster, High-Quality Releases:

By automating security checks and aligning DevSecOps best practices across the SDLC, Tx-DevSecOps ensures faster and more frequent releases without compromising quality. It supports effective CI/CD implementation, enabling rapid feature delivery and significantly reducing time to market.

Enhanced Productivity and Time Savings:

Organizations can save up to 25–30% of their time by leveraging the process visibility, automation, and streamlined workflows that Tx-DevSecOps enables. This leads to more efficient project execution and quicker decision-making.

Improved Code Quality and Security:

Tx-DevSecOps incorporates automated testing and security validations, improving code quality and reducing vulnerabilities. With comprehensive metrics and monitoring, teams can continuously enhance their security posture and application stability.

Minimized Manual Effort:

Automating security and compliance tasks across all development pipelines reduces the need for manual intervention. This allows teams to focus more on innovation and delivery while handling routine validations efficiently.

Continuous Monitoring and Feedback:

With real-time monitoring and integrated feedback loops, Tx-DevSecOps provides visibility into build, deployment, and runtime performance. This helps teams quickly detect and resolve issues, optimize reliability, and maintain consistent system health.

Early Involvement of Security Experts:

Security is embedded from the planning phase onward, ensuring that potential risks are identified and mitigated early in the cycle. This proactive approach reduces costly rework and enhances long-term software resilience.

Culture of Shared Responsibility:

Tx-DevSecOps supports collaboration by aligning development, operations, testing, and security teams. With shared goals and responsibilities, teams can deliver reliable, secure software faster and more consistently.

Policy and Compliance Agility:

Customizable pipelines and easy tool integrations simplify enforcing up-to-date security and compliance policies. Organizations stay aligned with evolving standards and regulations such as GDPR, OWASP, and PCI-DSS.

Summary

Tx-DevSecOps is a security automation accelerator designed to integrate robust security practices into the DevOps lifecycle without slowing development. As an extension of Txs’ Tx-DevOps framework, it addresses rising cyber threats by embedding security early using a shift-left approach. Tx-DevSecOps offers tool-agnostic integration, automated SCA, SAST, DAST checks, and compliance management to meet global standards. It enhances productivity, accelerates release cycles, and minimizes manual effort through continuous monitoring and feedback. By enabling collaboration and early risk mitigation, Tx-DevSecOps assists businesses in delivering secure, high-quality software quickly while maintaining a strong security posture and regulatory compliance.

The post Tx-DevSecOps – Bridging the Gap Between Security and Speed in DevOps first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. What is DevOps Transformation?
2. What does enterprise DevOps Transformation mean?
3. Seven-Step approach for Enterprise DevOps Transformation in the UK
4. Challenges and Limitations of Digital Twin
5. Future Trends and Innovations in Digital Twin
6. Conclusion

Today, businesses must adopt changes and implement them to survive and grow in a highly volatile market at the earliest in their organisations. Interestingly, small-scale companies or start-ups in the United Kingdom can easily adapt to these changes, while large-scale enterprises may face difficulties in adapting and implementing these changes.But, it is inevitable for businesses of all sizes to adapt to the new trends of digital transformation and DevOps methodologies to beat the competition.

To achieve a seamless DevOps transformation in their enterprise and gain significant results, businesses in the UK should follow specific steps. Even before highlighting the DevOps transformation steps, let us understand about DevOps methodology.

What is DevOps Transformation?

DevOps is an evolution from agile methodology and is an enterprise transformation approach. It aims to break traditional silos that earlier existed between cross-functional teams. This methodology brings the developer teams, operation teams, QA teams together. It puts individuals, processes, and products together to help organisations release high-quality software faster than the earlier traditional approaches. DevOps transformation is said to play a key role in achieving successful digital transformation for today’s enterprises.

What does enterprise DevOps Transformation mean?

Enterprise DevOps transformation is a process wherein enterprises reshape their organisational strategy and bring positive cultural change by implementing DevOps practices and breaking traditional silos. DevOps processes with CI, continuous testing, and continuous delivery results in improving business processes and ensures faster software delivery.

DevOps practices are combined with advanced technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to bring more agility in teams and speed up the software delivery process in the enterprises DevOps transformation journey.

Seven-Step approach for Enterprise DevOps Transformation in the UK

1. Plan strategically as a first key step

Before starting the agile and DevOps transformation process, it is essential to prepare a DevOps transformation plan. The plan should cover all aspects of the transformation journey and guide teams to move ahead in the transformation process.  

At this stage, it is essential to ensure that the goals and objectives of the transformation are communicated across the organisation; teams should be assured of management support in the challenges ahead, and transparency across teams. Securing and gaining trust from individuals is critical for the success of the DevOps transformation process as it considerably reduces the chances of resistance.

2. Establish DevOps Centre of Excellence (DCoE)

DevOps Centre of Excellence (DCoE) is a shared platform where DevOps practitioners share their experiences and learn from each other. The DevOps CoE must include representatives from all delivery teams and vendor organisations. It should be led by an enterprise leader who has support from all levels in the organisation. It is preferred to have an experienced external partner to conduct the initial phases of CoE. This DevOps transformation takes a time of 12-24 months to ensure the complete transition.

3. Build a culture of learning and collaboration in the enterprise

DevOps brings a change in the business processes, and the organisational culture is more prone to resistance from employees. This sudden change can also cause some temporary strain to some parts of the business. Still, it can effectively be addressed by building a culture of inclusion, boosting the morale of individuals & teams, and ensuring collaboration between teams. It is more likely that with agile and DevOps transformation, practitioner’s roles and responsibilities will change. Thus, teams should be provided with an ideal organisational culture and learning environment that empowers them and fosters a collaborative environment. However, businesses must note that cultural change has to happen from the top down.

4. Set up DevOps KPIs and governing mechanism

At this stage, organisation must streamline their business processes, align communication channels to achieve successful DevOps transformation. Enterprises must establish DevOps Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to govern the culture of the enterprise.

The organisational culture typically needs effective governance, and this is where governing principles come into the picture. Governing principles or DevOps KPIs ensures safe and effective DevOps transformation. Enterprises must set the roles and responsibilities of DevOps practitioners, share awareness about team collaboration to empower teams.

5. Conduct workshops for scrum teams

This step plays a vital role in the DevOps transformation journey. It is essential to conduct workshops for the scrum teams with the help of subject matter experts (SMEs) to ensure the right sizing of tools and processes. At this stage, enterprises must look at their existing tools and technologies to identify which tools will work for the organisation, and action can be taken accordingly. Further, this step also ensures that selecting tools, accelerators, and methods is more purposeful and help teams realize the DevOps goals. As the DevOps process moves, the intake process can be altered based on the need and further evolved according to the needs and feedback from experts.

6. Run the pilot program and compare results with KPIs

At this stage, the DevOps practitioners identify the right applications and domains to apply DevOps practices. The identified portfolio should be such that it can be scaled up to the enterprise level. The right way to execute this step is to apply the pilot projects according to the domains of the development process.

Ensure that all the details needed to run an end-to-end process such as toolset, personnel, manual, and automated testing processes are all set ready. Run the pilot test and compare results with KPIs to measure the level of success.

7. Gather feedback and scale-out DevOps program

The last and final step is to gather feedback from the pilot tests’ metrics and scale them through multiple releases across different application portfolios. Since DevOps is not a one-time process, it is essential to ensure continuous feedback, optimisation, and continuous deployment throughout the DevOps transformation journey.

Conclusion

Digital transformation and DevOps have become the core elements for today’s enterprises in the United Kingdom. DevOps practices have completely reinvented the way businesses deliver the product to the customer enabling a great user experience. With the help of DevOps, enterprises can deliver high-quality products to the customer faster than ever. However, it is quite challenging for enterprises to completely transform their existing business processes and adopt DevOps.

Therefore, to ensure a successful DevOps transformation process, enterprises should build effective DevOps transformation strategy, follow step-wise DevOps transformation approaches, and lay out a proper DevOps transformation roadmap. Businesses in the UK must seek the help of DevOps transformation services providers to start their DevOps transformation journey and achieve quality results tailored for the UK market.

The post A Seven-Step Approach to Enterprise DevOps Transformation first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents

1. What are ‘Containers’ and why do we need them?
2. Containers and DevOps: What’s the connection?
3. Conclusion

What are ‘Containers’ and why do we need them?

Containers are the answer to the common problems faced by software to run consistently while moving from one computing environment to the other. This could be from a developer’s system to a test environment, or from a physical machine in the data center into a virtual machine in the cloud. Containers have become an integral part of the application development space, particularly in cloud computing. This is mainly because portability has been the biggest hitch in this space and given the proprietary nature of these public clouds, this method helps in abstracting applications into a virtual container that can be moved from one cloud to another.

The architecture of containers is an added advantage as it contains a standard method to divide applications into dispersed objects or also known as containers. This flexible approach offers more advantages around workload management and also offers the ability to make defect-tolerant systems. Containerizing the application platform can help in abstracting away the differences in the OS distribution. Another great benefit of containers is ‘modularity’ i.e., rather than running an entire application inside the container; the application can be split into different modules.

Containers and DevOps: What’s the connection?

You might have heard ‘DevOps’ and ‘Containers’ in the same sentence quite often Though, they are different concepts, but the effectiveness of containers makes it easier to enable DevOps workflows. Though DevOps is not tied to any particular technology; it can be implemented through any tool, it is convenient to implement DevOps with the help of containers.

-Containers have become an easy solution for the DevOps teams as it makes collaborating with various teams such as development, testing, and operation easier and convenient.

-Containers are able to support multiple frameworks, and it becomes easier to switch between different programming frameworks in DevOps.

-Rolling out application updates on a streamlined basis is required for a continuous delivery of software. When the application is distributed into multiple microservices, each one hosted in a separate container, you are able to update one part of the application by restarting the container without barging in the rest of the app.

Conclusion

While both containers and DevOps are helping improve software quality, the focus on automation and continuous delivery have been leading to various quality issues. Developers are often challenged with log files that are scattered in a variety of isolated containers each with its own log system dependencies. Continuous testing should be implemented to allow development teams to detect problems early on. If a continuous testing approach is not followed, fixing of errors will take much longer. TestingXperts’ intelligent continuous testing platform Tx-Automate has been enabling end-to-end automation of applications to enhance the quality of the software and increase speed to market. Connect with our Test Advisorsy services and allow us to help you build a defect-free and quality software/ application.

The post Containerization: Accelerate DevOps Adoption using Containers first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. DevOps QA Best Practices
2. Disentangle from the traditional roles and responsibilities of QA
3. Communication and Collaboration are Imperative
4. Include QA in the Requirements Gathering Process
5. Detecting Software Defects Early
6. Multiple Virtual Testing Environment is Essential
7. Conclusion

A highly iterative DevOps process lays more pressure on the QA role to properly evaluate software while working closely with developers, network professionals, and business stakeholders. In this article, we will explore how DevOps is the best way to strengthen the project and be absolutely sure of what you are shipping to the customer. With high-quality software as the main aim, here are some DevOps QA best practices that will help accelerate the software delivery and also maintain the quality of the software.

DevOps QA Best Practices

1. Disentangle from the traditional roles and responsibilities of QA:

The traditional roles and responsibilities of QA are more time-consuming, contradicting the basic fundamentals of agile, i.e. quick turnaround and early feedback. Hence, with DevOps, integrating QA early-on in the lifecycle helps to significantly reduce development cycles and also meet customer expectations as intended.

2. Communication and Collaboration are Imperative:

Strong communication and collaboration help in maintaining a clear focus on software quality while making an early release possible. Communication helps in making the objective clear while collaboration makes it easy to deliver the software on time. In several cases, a different pair of eyes looking at the same application helps to identify a different issue. Keeping everyone on the same page is vital to a project’s success.

3. Include QA in the Requirements Gathering Process:

It’s essential for every work stream to have a common understanding of what functionality is built. Involving QA at the start is vital, as the requirements/user stories get assessed from a testability standpoint. This helps in identifying critical areas for tests and planning the test efforts better. An added advantage is that everyone is able to collaborate with each other early on.

4. Detecting Software Defects Early:

One of the main advantages of DevOps methodology is the way its iterative approach helps in detecting software issues. This is very critical to minimize re-work effort and thereby to control the cost of quality.

5. Multiple Virtual Testing Environment is Essential:

The volatile growth in the global software market and the rapid advancement in computing technologies have shortened the software development lifecycle. Due to the focus on cost-effectiveness, the focus has now shifted to optimizing the software development lifecycle. In order to overcome the problems of hardware cost and environment set-up, multiple virtual testing environments are essential for testing. A virtual testing environment provides isolated sandboxes for running applications, which presents homogenous environments on heterogeneous hardware.

DevOps is not just a process, but an effort to improve an organization’s overall culture and practices in order to ensure a better customer experience and improved business outcomes. To facilitate continuous delivery, DevOps has become a priority.

The post Accelerate Software Delivery with DevOps Best Practices first appeared on TestingXperts.

In today’s fast-paced digital marketplace, the pressure is scaling on businesses to deliver software rapidly and reliably. This has spotlighted the crucial role of DevOps testing in accelerating software delivery. DevOps, a combination of development and operations, is not only about speed. It’s about optimizing quality, enhancing feedback, and adapting to the dynamic digital era.

DevOps practices have transformed how software is developed and deployed, leading to significant enhancements in delivery speed. According to statistics, the elite DevOps teams achieve a staggering 2604 times faster failure recovery rate. This acceleration is not only about speeding processes. It involves integrating continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), automated testing, and proactive feedback mechanisms. Collectively, these elements contribute to a more efficient and effective development lifecycle, enabling businesses to respond swiftly to market changes and customer needs.

Adopting DevOps has proven beneficial for companies, evidenced by a 68% reduction in deployment failures and 2.8 times increase in the frequency of software deployments. Such statistics highlight the critical impact of effective DevOps testing strategies. Furthermore, 58% of organizations reported that implementing DevOps significantly improved software quality, while automation, a cornerstone of DevOps, is anticipated to eliminate 80% of routine IT tasks by 2025.

Key Principles of DevOps Testing for Faster Delivery

DevOps testing stands out in software development as a trigger for faster delivery. It’s a strategic shift from traditional testing methodologies, focusing on seamless integration and continuous delivery. Let’s look into the key principles that make DevOps testing an indispensable tool for faster and more efficient software delivery.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD):

Central to DevOps, CI/CD involves frequent code integration into a shared repository, followed by automated testing and deployment. This minimizes integration issues, enabling quicker and more reliable software releases. It involves constant monitoring and testing code changes, ensuring that new integrations do not disrupt existing functionalities.

Automated Testing:

Automation in testing is crucial for speeding up development cycles without compromising quality. Automated tests are more consistent and can be run frequently, ensuring that each aspect of the software is thoroughly tested. This results in a robust, error-free product delivered in a shorter timeframe.

Shift-Left Testing:

Shifting testing to earlier stages in the development process ensures early bug detection and resolution. This proactive approach reduces the complexity and cost of fixing issues later, leading to faster overall development without compromising software integrity.

Continuous Feedback and Improvement:

DevOps testing succeeds with continuous feedback. Regular feedback from users and stakeholders is integral for the iterative improvement of the software. This ongoing feedback loop and enhancement ensures that the software evolves in alignment with user needs and market trends.

Collaboration and Communication:

Effective DevOps testing requires close collaboration and communication between developers, testers, and operations teams. Breaking down silos and promoting a culture of open communication ensures that everyone is aligned with the project goals and can work together more efficiently.

Emphasizing Speed without Sacrificing Quality:

A fundamental principle of DevOps testing is the combination of speed and quality. It involves implementing practices that enhance development speed, like automated testing and CI/CD, while maintaining rigorous quality standards. The goal is to deliver software rapidly without compromising its performance, security, or user experience.

Tool Selection for Optimal Speed and Efficiency:

The selection of testing tools in DevOps is pivotal. Tools should be chosen based on their ability to seamlessly integrate into the existing DevOps workflow, automate repetitive tasks, and provide accurate and rapid feedback. For instance, tools like Selenium for automated web testing or Jenkins for continuous integration and delivery offer functionalities that streamline processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance collaboration. The key is to select tools that align with the specific needs of the project and team, ensuring they augment rather than hinder the development process.

How Does Automation in DevOps Speed Up the Delivery Process?

Automation is a key ingredient in the DevOps process in the software development industry, significantly enhancing speed and efficiency. Automation in DevOps isn’t just a tool. It’s a fundamental approach that reshapes the entire software development and operations lifecycle.

Streamlining Repetitive Tasks:

Automation’s most significant impact in DevOps is taking over repetitive, time-consuming manual tasks. From automating code compilations to running standardized unit tests and handling deployments and server configurations, automation dramatically reduces the manual workload. This reduction in manual effort speeds up these tasks significantly and enhances consistency and reliability across the development cycle. By freeing up valuable time for developers, testers, and operations teams, they can focus on more critical aspects of product development, such as feature innovation and problem-solving.

Consistent and Rapid Testing:

Automated testing is another crucial area where speed meets quality. Tools like Selenium, JUnit or NUnit can run a suite of tests automatically whenever a new code is committed. This ensures that any new changes are vetted for issues immediately, significantly reducing the likelihood of bugs making it to the later stages of development. This approach accelerates the testing process and maintains a high-quality standard, as automated tests are less prone to human error and can be more exhaustive than manual testing.

Enhanced Collaboration and Workflow Efficiency:

Beyond the technical aspects, automation tools are vital in enhancing collaboration within DevOps teams. Tools such as Jenkins or Bamboo provide a centralized platform where all team members can see real-time updates, share feedback, and synchronize their workflows. This level of transparency and collaboration eliminates silos between developers and operations, ensuring that everyone is aligned and can work more efficiently together.

Scalability and Flexibility:

Automation also brings scalability and flexibility to the forefront of DevOps. With the ability to handle various environments and configurations effortlessly, automation tools like Docker and Kubernetes allow teams to scale up services to meet increased demands or deploy updates across multiple servers efficiently. This adaptability is key in today’s fast-paced market, where responsiveness to change and user demands is crucial for success.

Optimizing Test Environments for Rapid Delivery

Optimizing test environments is beneficial and essential in DevOps, emphasizing continuous integration, continuous deployment, and agile responses to change. This optimization directly supports DevOps’s rapid, efficient, and high-quality software delivery approach.

Streamlining Test Data Management for Speed:

In a DevOps context, efficient test data management is crucial to maintaining the momentum of continuous integration and testing. DevOps teams can ensure the data is always current, relevant, and reflective of real-world scenarios by automating test data creation, management, and deployment. This is vital for accurate testing and keeping pace with DevOps’s frequent code changes and updates. Moreover, techniques like data masking protect sensitive information while testing, aligning with the security concerns inherent in the DevOps approach.

Environment Management Techniques for Faster Turnarounds:

DevOps thrives on rapidly developing, testing, and deploying software. Effective environment management, facilitated by tools such as Docker for containerization and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platforms, streamlines this process. These technologies enable teams to quickly set up, replicate, and dismantle test environments, ensuring they are consistently aligned with the latest application requirements. This capacity for rapid and flexible environment management is critical in a DevOps setting, where delays in setting up or configuring environments can significantly interfere with continuous development and deployment flow.

Metrics for Speed and Efficiency in DevOps Testing

In DevOps, where speed and efficiency are essential, metrics are crucial in evaluating and enhancing these aspects. Properly defined metrics provide tangible data that guide decisions and improvements in the DevOps process.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Speed and Efficiency:

Identifying the right KPIs is essential in measuring the effectiveness of DevOps testing. KPIs like deployment frequency, change lead time, change failure rate, and mean time to recover (MTTR) offer insights into the speed and reliability of the development and deployment process. These indicators help pinpoint areas needing improvement, ensuring the DevOps pipeline is as efficient as possible.

Using Metrics to Drive Faster Delivery:

Metrics measure performance and drive improvements in the DevOps process. By continuously monitoring these metrics, teams can make data-driven decisions to streamline their workflows, automate more processes, and reduce bottlenecks. This ongoing process of measuring and refining based on metrics is crucial for achieving faster delivery cycles, ensuring that the DevOps team remains agile and responsive to change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, accelerating delivery through effective DevOps testing strategies is crucial in today’s fast-paced software development environment. Organizations can significantly enhance their development speed and efficiency by implementing principles like CI/CD, automated testing, efficient test environment management, and the strategic use of metrics. These practices streamline the development process and maintain the high quality of the final product. As the software industry evolves, adopting these DevOps testing strategies will be key to staying competitive and responsive to market demands.

How can TestingXperts Help with DevOps Testing?

TestingXperts is one of the leading software QA companies that innovate and tailor solutions to help digital enterprises enter new domains of efficiency and security, with a deep understanding of the complex challenges in DevOps. TestingXperts designs effective testing solutions to align with your unique business objectives. From bespoke testing strategies to advanced accelerators like Tx-DevOps and Tx-DevSecOps, we are committed to enhancing your DevOps processes.

Tx-DevOps and Tx-DevSecOps Accelerators:

Developed by our Test Center of Excellence (TCoE), Tx-DevOps encapsulates comprehensive DevOps consulting, including IaC Consulting and implementation, CI/CD Implementation, and test automation, leveraging cutting-edge tools for streamlined DevOps implementations. Simultaneously, Tx-DevSecOps brings a unique framework for continuous security testing and vulnerability management within the existing DevOps CI/CD pipeline. This integrated approach ensures efficient and secure software deployment, optimizing application security in the fast-paced DevOps environment.

Customized Solutions:

At TestingXperts, we understand that each DevOps project has unique challenges and objectives. Our approach is to develop tailored testing strategies that align perfectly with your DevOps requirements. We thoroughly understand your project’s specifics, ensuring our solutions are effective and align with your project’s unique dynamics.

Expertise in Automation:

Our team at TestingXperts utilizes advanced automation technologies to streamline your DevOps cycles. We focus on implementing automation to enhance both the speed and quality of your software delivery process. This involves automating routine tasks, optimizing testing procedures, and ensuring that every phase of the DevOps cycle benefits from increased efficiency and precision.

Continuous Integration and Delivery:

We specialize in seamlessly integrating testing into your CI/CD pipeline. Our expertise ensures that testing becomes an integral part of the development process, thus enhancing the overall efficiency of your software development lifecycle. We work to ensure that this integration facilitates a smoother, more continuous flow of work, reducing downtime and accelerating the pace of development and deployment.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting:

TestingXperts employs advanced analytics and detailed reporting to provide insights that drive data-driven decisions. Our analytics capabilities help identify trends, pinpoint areas for improvement, and measure the effectiveness of your DevOps practices. This approach enables continuous refinement and optimization of your DevOps processes, ensuring they remain agile and effective.

To know more, contact our DevOps testing experts now.

The post Accelerating Software Delivery with Effective DevOps Testing Process first appeared on TestingXperts.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is an evolution from the agile model and is an enterprise software development approach aimed at enabling collaboration between Development and IT Operations. This is an effective collaboration of people, process and working product that enables continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) of value to end users.

This DevOps methodology ensures development and operations teams to improve collaboration and facilitates better coordination among them. Primarily, a DevOps engineer works with different IT teams such as operations, development and testing functions by automating and streamlining the CI/CD and deployment processes.

With this modern code deployment approach, the development team submits the application to the operations team for implementation; and the operations team monitors the application to provide the relevant feedback. This methodology helps to accelerate the application delivery by minimizing the risks with continuous delivery and delivers effective feedback with faster and quality releases.

Emergence of DevOps Methodology – ‘Better Collaboration Between Teams’

DevOps is popularly considered as a culture more than a methodology in software development. With the traditional waterfall model, it was difficult for the teams to meet the ever-changing demands of the new IT products with connected devices.

Though the software requirements were well-defined at the earliest, this sequential model failed to deploy the applications faster and could not give efficient results as software testing was done at the end of the development. This effectively lead to the evolution of Agile Methodology.

An agile model is an iterative approach to software development and it focuses on customer feedback, collaboration, and rapid releases. This methodology serves best to address the gaps and ensures good communication between the product owner and developer teams. Though there are many benefits with this model, however, development and operation teams still find some challenges that are well addressed in DevOps. This methodology ensures faster code deployment to production with faster releases and also ensures speed of application delivery with faster time-to-market.

Why Should Businesses Adopt DevOps?

Today’s businesses are moving towards DevOps to overcome the challenges of growing competition with ever-increasing user expectations. This methodology helps in breaking down the traditional silos and ensures speed and responsiveness to production with proper customer feedback. The DevOps practice essentially ensures frequent communication and collaboration between teams as they continue to work hand-in-hand.

With this software delivery approach, businesses can easily automate the regular IT operations with the code development process and combine the workflows of both the teams from the initial design phase till production.

Along with this DevOps, businesses are embedding many technologies such as blockchain infrastructure, distributed databases, Big Data analytics, serverless computing, etc. as businesses continue to shift towards digital business. Evidently, DevOps is the solution to run the businesses with rapid innovation, less time to market, and be sure to get quality applications.

Thus, the implementation of DevOps with the best workflow, test automation and effective practices helps businesses to achieve huge benefits. Some of the benefits include to enable better organizational culture, to enhance the software lifecycle predictability, along with saving considerable time and money by leveraging software test automation.

What are the Benefits of DevOps?

DevOps has emerged as a superior method to deliver quality software faster by decreasing the development lifecycle and maintaining business objectives.

Some of the benefits are:

1. Speed:

Assures and delivers the highest business value and faster delivery time with an effective software development process in place.

2. Improved Collaboration:

Enhances the collaboration between QA, Development and Operation teams with more engaged teams and breaks down silos.

3. Cross-Skilling:

Facilitates opportunity for cross-skilling and self-improvement of various teams.

4. Reliability:

Ensures better quality application updates and infrastructure changes which further ensures reliable software delivery at a more rapid pace.

5. Faster Bug Identification:

DevOps processes help identify and resolve the fixes at the earliest with faster identification of defects.

6. Release on Demand:

Assures to compete with present business market and customer needs with continuous releases and continuous deployments.

7. Manage at Scale:

Enables to operate and manage infrastructure and development processes at scale. It becomes far easier to manage and deploy and test through multiple environments for multiple teams.

8. Security:

DevOps model can be adopted without sacrificing security by using automated compliance policies and other configuration management techniques.

What are DevOps Lifecycle Phases?

The lifecycle of DevOps works involves various stages such as continuous development, continuous integration, continuous testing, and continuous deployment.

1. Continuous Development:

This phase focuses on the planning and coding of the application. The vision of the project is decided and then the code is developed for the application. There is no restriction for the code language, thus the code can be in any language. Once the code is developed, it is moved to the next continuous integration phase.

2. Continuous Integration:

In this stage, the developer frequently commits changes to the source code. And, the new code that supports the latest functionalities is continuously integrated with the source code. As the development is continuous, it becomes essential to integrate and update the code continuously. This specific way of continuous integration helps to achieve the changes faster.

3. Continuous Testing:

In this stage, the developed software is constantly tested with the help of Test automation tools to identify defects. This implies running existing regression suites and continuously adding test cases to that in order to cater to the new functionalities being added. It helps in ensuring that there are no functionality breaks while new features are being added.

4. Continuous Deployment:

In this stage, configuration management tools and/or containerization tools are used to deploy to the test or production infrastructure. Configuration management tools help to establish and maintain the app’s functional and performance requirements. Specifically, containerization tools help to manage consistency in development, test, and production environments. With the help of these tools, the code is deployed on the test/production servers in this phase..

5. Continuous Monitoring:

This is the last stage in the DevOps lifecycle, and in this stage, the performance of the software is constantly monitored. The errors related to functionality, low memory, and app performance are effectively monitored with the help of continuous monitoring tools. This may also involve using Infrastructure monitoring tools provided by individual Cloud providers.

Related Technologies and Practices

Containerization:

Containerization involves the packaging of application along with its libraries, frameworks, and configuration files together such that it can be run in various environments. Today, Docker is the most popular platform that provides for containerization. Containers are becoming an integral part of standard DevOps architecture. DevOps and Docker image management technologies have made it easy for developers and IT operation teams to share software and collaborate easily which further leads to enhanced productivity.

DevSecOps:

Security is an ever-existing requirement for businesses. DevSecOps is the integration of Security testing within the DevOps framework. Thus with DevSecOps, security will be infused throughout the software development lifecycle thus eliminating vulnerabilities as soon as possible in the software life cycle.

MicroServices:

Microservices are often concomitant technology. With micro-services, it is easier for the DevOps teams to increase the speed and agility as individual teams can focus on single functions. Also, micro-services protect the elements from breakage, isolate the defects, and help in fixing them.

Container Registry:

This technology has also become a crucial need for the DevOps teams while working with microservices and containerized applications. The container registry is the collection of repositories that helps in storing container images. A few of the top container registries are Docker Hub, Azure Container Registry and Google Container Registry.

What are the Tools Used in DevOps?

Some of the commonly used tools in DevOps have been divided into different categories and mentioned in alphabetical order:

1. Artifact Repositories:

These are repositories of binaries, libraries, DLLs, third party components that may be built using internal or external source code repositories. Some of the commonly used tools in this category are JFrog Artifactory, Nexus Repository.

2. Configuration Management Tools:

This category includes the provisioning and configuration of a server or an environment. It involves the practice of provisioning infrastructure, managing and automating the configurations of various software applications. Some of the tools that come under this category are ansible, terraform, Saltstack, Packer.io.

3. Orchestration Tools:

Orchestration involves automating workflow processes to build, test, deliver and deploy software services. These may be tools installed and managed by the software development teams themselves or maybe SaaS (Software as a Service) based tools. Some of the common tools under this category are Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure DevOps etc.

4. Source Code Repository:

This source code repository refers to the place or hub where the developer’s check-in and change code. This repository effectively manages the versions of the code that are checked in by the developer teams. The tools may be central repository based or more often distributed version control systems. Some of the commonly used tools that come under this category are git, Subversion, and TFS.

5. Test Automation Tools:

An important aspect of DevOps is integration with automated testing within the pipeline. Automated testing ensures faster releases and at the same time delivers quality. Some of the popular tools that come under this category are AccelQ, Tricentis Tosca, Selenium.

6. Virtual Infrastructure:

There are many cloud vendors (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) that sell infrastructure or Platform as a Service (PaaS). The cloud vendors make available APIs that allows programmatically creating new virtual machines or other infrastructure components using some configuration management tools already mentioned above. Some of the service providers under this category are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Role of DevOps Engineer

DevOps is gaining steady demand in IT organizations. The combination of ‘development’ and ‘operations’ is proving to be a huge success. DevOps is contributing to swift software development along with improved team collaboration and efficiency.

The DevOps teams with DevOps engineers perform many activities and ensures faster and quality releases along with ensuring the early market of the product.

The role of the DevOps Engineer is as follows:

– The need for having decent soft skills are critical for a DevOps engineer. As a mediator between the development team and operations team, they communicate with the teams and helps solve problems if any through the support of other team members

– DevOps engineers have the good technical know-how on certain key tools that fall under source control version, continuous integration, infrastructure automation, deployment automation and containerization and thus helps DevOps teams in enabling quality releases

– The DevOps engineer helps develop specific security mechanisms that not only monitor the on-going activities but also safeguard the system infrastructure from any potential threats.

– A DevOps engineer helps in handling automation tools. It becomes the responsibility of the DevOps engineer to coordinate with teams at any point right from the requirements gathering stage till the deployment stage. Infrastructure also needs to be automated with the help of the specific DevOps teams

– Apart from automation, a DevOps engineer is responsible for implementing testing techniques. The main reason being automation and testing are interlinked, and hence it becomes essential for the DevOps engineer to handle the automation and testing activities to ensure faster releases and at the same time quality releases.

Conclusion

DevOps has evolved as an extension of agile methodology and enables effective collaboration between developers and IT operation teams and breaks silos that existed in earlier models. DevOps methodology has many benefits such as ensures team collaboration, speed of delivery, reliability, security ensured with effective test automation practices.

DevOps facilitates modern enterprises to maintain consistency, to innovate rapidly, deliver customer-centric software with enhanced time-to-market. TestingXperts can provide DevOps consulting and implementations services so that you can do an effective rollout of this methodology in your organization.

The post DevOps – A Detailed Overview for Businesses first appeared on TestingXperts.

The FinTech industry has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years, revolutionizing how financial services are delivered. With its focus on innovation, efficiency, and customer-centricity, the sector constantly faces evolving challenges. Thus, it makes DevOps and QA automation increasingly critical in this dynamic landscape.

Hence, it is no surprise that 91% of financial institutions have embraced this methodology. At first glance, it may appear that the task is complete. However, according to Gartner’s projections for 2023, approximately 75% of DevOps initiatives, including those in the Fintech sector, are expected to be partially implemented or completed.

Understanding DevOps and QA Automation in FinTech

DevOps is a collaborative approach emphasising integration, automation, and communication between development and operations teams. In the FinTech industry, DevOps play a vital role in addressing challenges and driving innovation.

QA automation empowers FinTech companies to streamline their development and testing processes, enabling them to deliver cutting-edge products and services to their customers quickly, accurately, and confidently. The role of QA automation in FinTech goes beyond mere quality control. It serves as a strategic enabler for success in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving industry.

Following are some key points that can help you understand the role of DevOps and QA automation in FinTech:

• DevOps QA promotes the principles of continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment (CI/CD). By breaking down silos and fostering collaboration, DevOps enables faster and more reliable software releases.

• Quality Assurance (QA) is crucial in the FinTech industry to ensure that software solutions meet the highest reliability, security, and compliance standards. QA helps mitigate risks, improves customer experience, and enhances brand reputation.

• Implementing DevOps in the FinTech industry brings numerous advantages, including accelerated time to market, improved software quality, enhanced collaboration, and better customer satisfaction.

• Manual processes are prone to human errors, inefficient, and time-consuming, so QA automation is necessary to cope with the growing complexities of FinTech applications.

• Many tools and technologies support the DevOps ecosystem, enabling seamless integration, automated testing, and efficient deployment. For example, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Ansible.

• QA automation enables FinTech organisations to achieve faster and more reliable testing, reduced time-to-market, enhanced test coverage, improved scalability, and increased efficiency. Automation tools like Selenium, Appium, and JMeter offer robust testing capabilities.

Integrating DevOps and QA Automation into FinTech

Integrating DevOps and QA automation in the FinTech industry brings significant benefits. It streamlines the software development lifecycle, enables continuous testing and feedback, and facilitates rapid and reliable software delivery. Integrating DevOps and QA automation enhances efficiency and helps FinTech organizations stay competitive in a fast-paced market. Following are some key benefits that DevOps and QA automation could bring to the FinTech industry:

Integration of DevOps and QA Automation:

DevOps and QA automation complement each other by automating the testing process and integrating it seamlessly into the software development lifecycle. This integration allows continuous testing, rapid feedback, and quick bug resolution.

Streamlining Software Development Lifecycle:

DevOps practices and QA automation simplify the software development lifecycle, reducing bottlenecks, eliminating manual handovers, and improving overall efficiency. This leads to faster delivery of high-quality software solutions.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery in FinTech:

CI/CD practices enabled by DevOps and QA automation promote constant integration of code changes, automated testing, and continuous delivery of software, allowing FinTech organisations to deliver features and updates rapidly and reliably.

Addressing Challenges in the FinTech Industry

The FinTech industry faces many challenges that demand constant attention and adaptation. One of the major hurdles is the rapid pace of innovation and competition, which drives the need for continuous improvement and cutting-edge solutions. Balancing the delivery of high-quality software while maintaining a competitive edge is a challenging feat. Following are some of the challenges faced by the FinTech industry:

Rapid Innovation and Competition:

The FinTech industry operates in a highly competitive environment driven by the need for constant innovation. This demand for speed and agility challenges delivering high-quality software solutions while maintaining a competitive edge.

Regulatory Compliance Requirements:

Stringent regulatory frameworks govern the FinTech industry to ensure data security, privacy, and transparency. Compliance with these regulations is crucial, adding complexity to software development processes and testing.

Security and Data Privacy Concerns:

The FinTech sector deals with sensitive financial data, prioritising security and data privacy. Robust testing measures are necessary to identify vulnerabilities and safeguard against potential breaches.

Fast-paced Development Cycles:

FinTech organisations often operate on short development cycles to meet market demands and stay ahead of the competition. This accelerated pace necessitates efficient testing methodologies to ensure quick and reliable releases.

Best Practices for Implementing DevOps and QA Automation

Implementing DevOps and QA automation in the FinTech industry requires a strategic approach and adherence to best practices. By following these guidelines, organizations can maximize the benefits of this integration and ensure a seamless and efficient software development and testing process:

Collaborative Culture and Cross-Functional Teams:

Encourage a culture of collaboration, communication, and knowledge-sharing between development, operations, and QA teams. Cross-functional teams facilitate a smooth flow of information and foster a DevOps mindset.

Test Automation Frameworks and Tools:

Adopting robust test automation frameworks and tools is essential for efficient and effective QA automation. Choose frameworks that align with the unique requirements of the FinTech industry and leverage tools that provide comprehensive testing capabilities.

Performance Testing and Monitoring:

Implement performance testing to ensure software solutions can handle the expected load and perform optimally under various scenarios. Monitor applications in production to identify performance issues and proactively address them.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Best Practices:

Leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices to automate the provisioning, configuration, and management of infrastructure resources. IaC enables consistency, scalability, and traceability of infrastructure changes.

DevSecOps Best Practices:

Integrating security practices into DevOps, known as DevSecOps, is gaining momentum in FinTech. With the increasing focus on data security and privacy, embedding security measures throughout the software development lifecycle becomes crucial. DevSecOps promotes continuous security testing, vulnerability scanning, and automated compliance checks to ensure robust protection against cyber threats.

Cloud-native Technologies:

As FinTech companies embrace the cloud, cloud-native technologies are becoming essential. Containers, microservices, and serverless architectures enable greater scalability, flexibility, and agility in software development and deployment. QA automation can seamlessly integrate with cloud-native technologies, facilitating faster testing cycles and more efficient resource utilization.

Continuous Testing and Monitoring:

Continuous testing and monitoring are integral to DevOps and QA automation. With the rise of CI/CD pipelines, automated tests can be triggered at various stages, providing instant feedback on code changes and ensuring software stability and reliability. Real-time monitoring of production systems helps identify performance bottlenecks and proactively address issues.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Testing:

AI and ML transform how software is tested in the FinTech sector. By leveraging these technologies, QA automation can intelligently generate test cases, analyze vast amounts of data, and identify patterns and anomalies, leading to more accurate and efficient testing processes.

Conclusion

The FinTech industry thrives on innovation, speed, and reliability. Now the question is, DevOps or QA, which is better? DevOps and QA automation are indispensable in meeting these demands. By integrating DevOps principles and implementing QA automation, FinTech organisations can streamline their software development processes, deliver high-quality solutions faster, and gain a competitive edge. Embracing these practices will drive efficiency, improve collaboration, and ensure the industry’s continued success.

Key Takeaways and Recommendations for FinTech Organizations:

• Adopt DevOps and QA automation to drive innovation, efficiency, and reliability.

• Establish a collaborative culture and foster cross-functional teams.

• Invest in robust test automation frameworks and tools tailored to the FinTech industry.

• Prioritise performance testing and monitoring to ensure optimal application performance.

• Implement IaC and DevSecOps best practices for infrastructure and security.

• Stay abreast of emerging technologies and adapt to industry trends.

• Foster a continuous learning and skill development culture for DevOps and QA professionals.

How Can TestingXperts Help with DevOps and QA Automation in FinTech?

At TestingXperts, we specialize in providing comprehensive DevOps testing and QA automation solutions tailored to the unique needs of the FinTech industry. Our expert teams leverage cutting-edge tools, frameworks, and methodologies to streamline software development processes, enhance testing efficiency, and ensure the delivery of high-quality FinTech automation solutions. With our deep industry expertise and focus on customer satisfaction, we are committed to supporting FinTech organizations in achieving their innovation, reliability, and customer-centricity goals. Following are some of the reasons that justify why to partner with TestingXpert.

Expertise in FinTech Domain:

TestingXperts has extensive experience working in the FinTech industry, understanding its unique challenges and regulatory requirements. Our team of domain experts brings a deep understanding of financial systems, ensuring accurate and comprehensive testing of your critical applications.

Cutting-Edge Automation Frameworks:

We leverage the latest tools and technologies to design and implement QA automation frameworks tailored to the needs of FinTech organisations. Our AI and machine learning expertise enables us to build intelligent test automation solutions that enhance efficiency and accuracy in your testing processes.

Integrated DevOps and QA Automation Approach:

We emphasis integrating DevOps practices and QA automation to streamline your software development lifecycle. Our experts will help you implement a seamless workflow, enabling continuous testing, rapid feedback, and efficient bug resolution. This approach ensures faster delivery of high-quality software solutions while maintaining a competitive edge.

Compliance and Security Focus:

We recognise the critical importance of data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance in the FinTech industry. Our experts are well-versed in the stringent standards and frameworks governing the sector. We ensure your applications meet compliance requirements, protecting sensitive financial data and mitigating risks.

End-to-End Testing Services:

We offer a comprehensive suite of testing services covering functional, performance, security, and compatibility testing, among others. Our skilled team follows industry best practices and employs various testing techniques to identify defects early in the development cycle, saving time and resources.

Contact TestingXperts today to learn how we can assist your organization in implementing DevOps and QA automation for the FinTech industry.

The post Implementing DevOps and QA Automation in FinTech Industry first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. Understanding DevSecOps Pipeline
2. Role of DevSecOps in Optimizing Business Security
3. DevSecOps Implementation Challenges
4. Top 5 DevSecOps Best Practices
5. Summary
6. How can Tx help with DevSecOps Implementation?

The quality software delivery trends have changed significantly in the past few years. Businesses are investing in modern software engineering technologies to create new features, release faster, and deliver value to their end-users quickly. However, the manually driven security processes have failed to keep up with new software delivery trends. As businesses depend on software solutions, the need to swiftly deploy updates should balance with the need to secure sensitive data and systems. Only then would businesses be allowed to fight against growing cybersecurity threats. This is where DevSecOps comes into play, which helps maintain robust business security.

The global DevSecOps market, valued at $3.73 billion in 2021, is projected to reach $41.66 billion by 2030. The surge is due to increased cybercrime activities, which cost trillions of dollars worldwide. Such figures highlight the growing need to ensure security with DevSecOps implementation. It substantially benefits businesses by automating security within the development cycle and improving the speed and safety of software deployments. 96% of IT leaders believe they could benefit from automating security and compliance operations, which are core principles of DevSecOps. Moreover, the increase in the usage of AI/ML, cloud computing, and other automation technologies is making DevSecOps more crucial than ever.

Understanding DevSecOps Pipeline

The DevSecOps or DevOps with Security pipeline integrates in every phase of software development. It ensures security protocols are embedded from the outset and not tacked on at the end. It also helps streamline workflows, reduce security vulnerabilities, and enhance software quality and security. Let’s take a look at DevSecOps pipeline stages:

Software Composition Analysis:

SCA scans open-source code used within the repositories to spot vulnerabilities. Organizations can detect open-source licenses that conflict with their software licensing policies. As many software contains open-source elements, SCA is a critical business process. In the DevSecOps pipeline, SCA runs the post-coding and implementation stage in the SDLC.

Static Application Security Testing:

After building the code and running SCA, businesses need to run SAST to scan the entire code base to identify defects, including OWASP’s Top Ten vulnerabilities. After SAST scanning, businesses can publish results and prevent the DevOps pipeline from continuing if security standards aren’t fulfilled.

Container Scanning:

This stage involves scanning container images to detect vulnerabilities. Software teams that use container orchestration platforms can run customer applications to verify whether containers are safe. This stage allows businesses to find bugs in the dependent libraries and base images and pinpoints changes in licensing. Container scanning is done after creating new container images and uploading them to a repository. If a vulnerability is detected in the image, the build will fail, and the image will not get uploaded to the repository.

Dynamic Application Security Testing:

After deploying the application to a test environment, DAST crawls the running app and attacks it like a rogue user. It allows businesses to detect issues like TLS and XSS certificate verification problems.

Interactive Application Security Testing:

IAST enables businesses to identify and manage security vulnerabilities discovered during runtime or dynamic testing. In this stage, businesses deploy sensors while the app runs to analyze interactions during manual and automated testing. It can detect encrypted data, file systems, and database access issues.

Role of DevSecOps in Optimizing Business Security

According to industry experts, not having DevSecOps may cause teams to overlook security protocols when it is urgent to deploy applications. It would also result in the deployment of potential vulnerabilities. DevSecOps integration ensures that security becomes a fundamental aspect of software development and operational processes. Businesses can instill the mindset that every organization member prioritizes security from the start, promoting a proactive approach, which is a core of DevSecOps culture. The following are some of the factors that define its role in ensuring business security:

Proactive Security Measures:

DevSecOps integrates security as a continuous, integral part of the SDLC. Incorporating security in the initial stages allows businesses to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities early on and prevent them from becoming a major hindrance. This proactive approach prevents security breaches before they occur.

Automation-enabled Development:

DevSecOps teams are professionals in syncing security testing with automated test suites, which help optimize operational efficiency. Businesses can leverage CI/CD pipelines to improve the automation of development and security processes and achieve higher effectiveness.

Quicker Response Time:

Security monitoring and testing are implemented throughout the DevSecOps pipeline to detect potential security incidents and address them quickly. This reduces the impact of security breaches and maintains business continuity.

Continuous Integration and Delivery:

The CI/CD process is the core of the DevSecOps pipeline. It facilitates the frequent integration of code changes into a shared repository. Every integration is further verified by an automated build and tests to detect errors. This ensures the software is developed, tested, and released quickly and has robust security integrity.

Monitoring and Compliance:

Continuous monitoring is another aspect of the DevSecOps pipeline. Monitoring tools continuously scan anomalies and security threats in the production environment. They ensure compliance with security standards and regulations by providing visibility into the application’s security posture.

Facilitating Collaboration:

To ensure business security with DevSecOps, businesses must ensure cooperation among teams with communication at its core. It helps resolve problems by sharing accountability among teams to achieve security goals.

Scalability in Security Operations:

As businesses grow, their security requirements also change. DevSecOps facilitates a scalable security framework to support businesses adapt to changing requirements without affecting the development process. Businesses can ensure rapid innovation while maintaining strict security standards.

DevSecOps Implementation Challenges

Implementing the DevSecOps methodology requires a change in cultural and organizational mindset, which can be a major challenge. Similarly, many other challenges are associated with implementing DevSecOps within the software development lifecycle. These challenges vary from cultural resistance to technical difficulties, affecting the integration process and DevSecOps’ effectiveness. The following are some common challenges associated with DevSecOps implementation:

Lack of Skillset:

DevSecOps requires a blend of development, security, and operational skills, which not every team member can initially fulfill. The shortage of DevSecOps professionals can hinder its effectiveness during implementation. This makes training and hiring new talent necessary, which adds to the complexity and cost of DevSecOps implementation.

Tools and Process Integration:

Integrating security tools and processes with the CI/CD pipeline is a technical challenge. It requires selecting tools and configuring them to work seamlessly with existing development and deployment processes. In addition, one must ensure that it does not cause disruption or system slowdown. This whole ordeal requires significant expertise and effort.

Balancing Speed with Security:

DevSecOp aims to integrate security without affecting delivery speed. Finding the right balance can be difficult. Adding security protocols and checks can slow down the development process, as it takes time to maintain speed and security and optimize the workflow.

Top 5 DevSecOps Best Practices

Implementing DevSecOps can enhance an organization’s security structure by integrating security practices in development and deployment processes. Following are the top 5 DevSecOps best practices that businesses should know about:

Setup DevOps Security Model:

The primary step in integrating the DevSecOps model is to incorporate cybersecurity measures, IAM (identity and access management), configuration, code review, and governance protocols within DevOps security tools. Implementing security in various DevOps security best practices pipelines makes it easy for businesses to release secure products. It also reduces the possibility of glitches, bugs, and recalls after product release within the DevSecOps process.

Security Process Automation:

To keep up with rapid development cycles without affecting security, businesses should automate tasks like vulnerability scans, security testing, and compliance checks. Automation will allow businesses to maintain high-security standards, enabling real-time threat detection and response without compromising development speed.

Conduct Regular Training:

Promote security culture within the organization by conducting training sessions and facilitating security awareness among all team members. Businesses must educate developers and operations teams about the latest security trends and threats to prevent security breaches and enhance project security.

Regular Security Audits:

Conduct regular audits of security measures and practices to ensure effectiveness and compliance with the latest security trends and technologies. Businesses can implement regular updates to security tools, libraries, and practices to protect against new and evolving cyber threats.

Implement Segmentation Strategy:

Another way to ensure the success of DevSecOps implementation is by avoiding hackers and attackers through segmentation. It is also known as the divide-and-conquer strategy. In this practice, businesses must limit access to app resource servers and address issues via continuous workflow. The network is divided into various segments, making it difficult for hackers to access data illegally. This DevSecOps technique enables businesses to prevent cyber threats and keep the error rate negligible.

Summary

DevSecOps integrates security within the SDLC and enhances the safety and security of software deployments. Due to the rise in frequency and complexity of cyber threats, this methodology has become crucial in software development. By embedding it into the early stages of development and automating security tasks, DevSecOps allows businesses to maintain robust security standards. Regular audits, a strong culture of security awareness, and continuous training sessions are vital for successful implementation. Businesses should partner with professional DevSecOps experts like Tx to ensure security keeps pace with their rapid development cycles.

How can Tx help with DevSecOps Implementation?

Tx offers exhaustive security analysis supported by comprehensive dashboards and reports. Our expertise in security testing for web apps, mobile apps, web services, and software products makes us the software QA and digital engineering industry leader.

• Our security experts understand that DevOps is a mindset and cultural change that includes collaborating operations and development teams into a seamless, agile process.

• We utilize our in-house accelerators, Tx-DevOps and Tx-DevSecOps, developed by the Tx Test Center of Excellence (TCoE), for digital businesses to reap benefits concerning code security.

• We aim to optimize your apps’ security within the existing DevOps CI/CD pipeline and ensure secure code deployment.

• Our accelerator, Tx-DevSecOps, automates the DAST process to determine runtime security issues before test deployment, enabling robust and continuous security testing within the DevOps CI/CD pipeline.

To know more, contact our QA experts now.

The post How to Optimize Business Security with DevSecOps? first appeared on TestingXperts.

With the explosion of high-profile hacks, ransomware, and data breaches, it’s common to feel insecure about your organization’s information security these days. As your infrastructure grows and diversifies, you have to protect your organization and its reputation like never before. In this blog, we will display how your organization can follow DevOps testing approach to boost security.

1. Latest Security Hacks and breaches
2. TestingXperts’ Security Testing Approach: ‘Tx-Secure’ (TestingXperts’ Security Testing Framework)
3. DevOps practices that can help in improving security

Latest Security Hacks and breaches

You don’t have to go far to see the cost of data breaches. In fact, 2017 has been one of the worst years to experience two big ransomware in a row. ‘WannaCry’ and ‘Petya’ are the two most prominent ransomware attacks that shook the entire world.

– WannaCry swept Asia and Europe rapidly, locking up critical systems such as the UK’s National Health Service, a huge telecom company in Spain, and other such businesses and institutions around the world, all in the fastest time. If reports are to be believed, the motive of WannaCry ransomware was not to make money but to produce a random disruption across the globe. This massive cyber-attack has hit at least 150 countries and infected 300,000 machines. The victims included universities, hospitals, manufacturers and government agencies in countries like China, Britain, Germany, Russia, and Spain.

– Petya, another recent cyber-attack hit companies across the USA and Europe. Petya was publicized to be more deadly than the ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack. With Petya, the victims were unable to unlock their computers in spite of paying the ransom. Petya attack impacted various services, and industries and Ukraine had turned out to be the epicenter of this attack. The Petya attack impacted companies across all sectors such as pharmaceuticals, shipping, hospitals, law firms and much more.

TestingXperts’ Security Testing Approach: ‘Tx-Secure’ (TestingXperts’ Security Testing Framework)

After all these incidents, it is evident that such attacks will not stop but only grow.  Companies and individuals today are under extreme pressure to build software/applications that are thoroughly tested for their security and are, at the same time, competent enough to alert users against any possible cyber-attack. TestingXperts’ homegrown security testing framework ‘Tx-Secure’ has built test accelerators and knowledge repository, using multiple open source and commercial tools, latest industry standards (OWASP, etc.) and proprietary testing methodologies. TestingXperts’ team of security experts recognize the importance of DevOps and takes it as a mindset and not a mere methodology.

DevOps reduces the gap between development and operations to speed up software delivery process and increase business agility and time-to-market. With its origins in the agile practices, DevOps promotes collaboration between teams and diminishes the gap development and operations teams and processes. DevOps as a concept understands the need for better security and ensures security precautions are built early in the cycle. Most of the practices that originate with DevOps, such as automation, collaboration, fast feedback loops, improved visibility, and more, are rich grounds for integrating security as an integrated component of DevOps processes.

DevOps practices that can help in improving security

Given below is a list of the top five DevOps practices that can improve the overall security when integrated directly into your end-to-end continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline:

– Collaboration
– Configuration and patch management
– Continuous monitoring
– Security test automation
– Identity management

On the Security front, TestingXperts is helping its customers determine the extent of availability and reliability of the application. TestingXperts, a frontrunner in adopting DevOps testing practices and agile methodologies, can help you automate your tests, maintain the security of your application, and achieve timely delivery schedules.

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