Introduction:
We all know that Industry is moving towards traditional performance testing to devops performance testing. Next big question for all the organizations specially for delivery managers is resource migration. How the existing resources will be same productive as earlier. In this blog article, I will share my thoughts on how the resources can easily migrate from traditional performance testing to devops performance testing.
Traditional Performance Testing to Devops Performance Testing- lot of differences:
Once industry started using agile methodologies, traditional performance testing upgraded to adapt agile performance testing. Agile performance testing enables continuous performance testing but mostly towards shift-left. Next, devops methodologies came to the market. It is based on top of agile methodologies. In devops performance testing, we do comprehensive continuous performance testing. Comprehensive continuous performance testing combines both shift-left & shift-right.
In devops, performance testing is not conducted at the end of software development life cycle (preproduction stage) like traditional performance testing. Even full-blown performance testing is not executed like traditional performance testing. Devops performance testing is not like traditional performance testing- it is modularized, component driven continuous performance testing with proactive performance monitoring in production environment.
In devops, performance testing is part of automated continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) process. Devops performance testing objective is to conduct component level low volume performance testing and execute many components performance testing in parallel.
Overall, there are multiple differences between traditional and devops performance testing.
Traditional to Devops Performance Testing- many challenges:
Traditional & devops performance testing has lot of differences and works in totally different way. There are several challenges for organizations and its delivery managers to ensure this transition. DevOps is a new culture with methodologies and processes. As name suggested it covers developers, testers / performance testers and operation teams. The aim is to make everybody work collaboratively without any silos.
Main Challenges- Resource Migration:
Out of many challenges, one of the main devops challenge is resource migration. I think, this is the biggest challenge for the organization. It is not only about the resource knowledge migration or making them ready for this new devops methodologies or processes. However, it also includes overall resource mindset change, act against resource’s resistance to change, make sure they understand many associated tools with devops, automation thoughts. Though, organization needs to focus on its resources, processes, tools and technologies. However, I think resource migration focus is most important.
By saying resource migration, I am trying to say existing resources need to be upgraded properly to support devops performance testing smoothly and effectively. Yes, alternatively we can always hire experienced devops engineers as a solution. But that will add more cost to the organizations. Also, it
takes time to on-board a new resource. For me, the best option is to use the existing resources and make them ready for devops performance testing.
Resource Migration- Traditional to Devops Performance Testing:
To transform existing resources to devops performance testing resources with same pace of delivery, first & foremost thing is to provide proper training. These trainings need to be systematic, well planned and will be customized as per the organizational requirement. Training will be with real time experiences, show casing, demo, screenshots etc. After proper training, hands-on sessions are necessary too. Hands-on sessions are mandatory to understand the overall methodologies.
Resources must spend time to learn these new things. They need to be self-motivated and self-learner. They need to understand that in this ever-changing IT world they need to be updated themselves all the time. If they are from traditional performance testing field, they already have the foundation and have experiences. If not, then they need to know the traditional performance testing concepts too. We should not forget that even in devops performance testing main aim is to measure the overall system performance in term of speed, scalability, stability. Yes, they need to learn lot of new things, concepts, processes, methodologies and off course many tools. Initially it will be little tough and challenging but not in long run. They need to act against resistance to change. The moment, they see themselves as devops performance tester/engineer, it will be easy for them. They need to know the operational (application performance monitoring) and development aspects (CI/CD pipeline) in addition with performance tester/testing role.
As devops is aiming towards automation, we need to make our resources comprehend that they must take the leverage of automation as much as possible. For any repeatable manual activities in performance testing like performance test data preparation, execution and result analysis, monitoring etc. Off course, to be successful in devops methodologies, overall resource attitude needs to be changed.
In devops, communication and transparency are the key to success. Same applies for resources too. We need to constantly communicate among resources, have faith on them, always ensure transparency and provide continuous support. I think these are the ways, we can ensure smooth resource migration for devops performance testing.
Conclusion:
Constant focus, training, communication, support, transparency, faith on the existing resources can assist easy resource migration from traditional to devops performance testing.
