In the fast-moving world of modern software development, quality assurance is no longer an afterthought at the end of the pipeline. Shift-left testing is changing the way teams think about software testing. Shift-left testing embeds quality assurance throughout the development lifecycle, continuously testing throughout the process. This helps teams find problems earlier, minimizing the cost of fixing defects. As a result, teams can deliver more resilient, secure software.

What is Shift-Left Testing?
Shift-left testing is an approach that shifts testing activities left in the software development lifecycle (SDLC)—that is, to earlier in the process. The objective is to find bugs and vulnerabilities when they are the cheapest and easiest to fix—well before it reaches production.

In traditional waterfall or even some waterfall-ish agile environments, testing occurred towards the end of the process, right before release, which led to bottlenecks, increased costs, and stress. Shift-left testing allows developers, testers, and even operations teams to work together and engage testing as part of design and development, instead of waiting until after development is over.

Quality assurance, within the context of the fast-paced and rapidly evolving world of software development, is not an afterthought at the end of the pipeline chart anymore. There is a new approach known as shift-left testing, which changes the way teams think about software test activities. Rather than testing at the end of the lifecycle, shift-left testing allows for quality assurance practices to be embedded throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC)....really starting at planning, design, and development and continuously testing up until production release. This is important because teams will discover problems earlier, when the cost for remediation is cheaper, and, as a result, create a more resilient and secure product.

So, what is shift-left testing?
Shift-left testing is a mindset that moves testing focus left in the SDLC, towards earlier phases of the process. The goal of shift-left testing is to discover bugs and vulnerability issues when they can be remediated the cheapest and easiest, ideally before production.

Traditionally in waterfall or waterfall-ish agile environments, test activities occur late in the process, just before it is time to go live, causing bottlenecks, increasing the cost of defects, and adding stress to everyone involved. Shift-left testing enables Development, Test and in some environments, Operations teams, to work together and engage test activities as part of the design and development, rather than after development's end.

Tools Commonly Associated with Shift-Left Testing
Selenium - For browser-based regression tests, Selenium is the most common tool to use.

JUnit/TestNG - These testing frameworks assist with unit testing of Java applications.

SonarQube - Static code analysis tool for checking that coding standards are enforced and errors are caught early.

Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, and CircleCI - These tools are all used to run automated tests in build pipelines.

Skill Building Opportunities
Learning and applying shift-left testing is not just about tools - it is a mindset that requires early feedback and continual improvement. You will get hands-on experience with modern testing tools and methods with the following training programs:

The DevOps Course in pune - There will be some exploration of the automated testing frameworks, and information regarding the need for quality-first development pipelines.

The DevOps Training in Pune - The course will present a number of real-world use cases of shift-left testing, where security testing and performance testing are integrated into the software lifecycle early.

The DevOps Automation program - This will include advanced training on building systems with continuous testing capabilities as part of a fully automated DevOps pipeline. You can learn more about devops automation

Key Insight

In a world focused on speed to market without sacrificing quality for software delivery, shift-left testing is more than just a best practice, it's a required aspect of a SDETs role. When testing is included at the beginning of the software development cycle, teams can deliver quality, secure and scalable applications at an accelerated speed. 

Regardless of your discipline as a developer, tester or operations professional, increasing your value in any DevOps atmosphere is likely to be aided by the principles of shift-left testing. Seek hands-on opportunities through open source software to enhance and prepare for future training in the best available DevOps courses.