Shift Left Testing Approach: What It Is and Why It’s Essential in QA

Have you ever thought of finding a bug in your software before it becomes a problem that costs too much to fix? That is what Shift Left Testing means—testing is done at the beginning of the development process. In the traditional approach, testing happens at the end of the development phase; defects found reduce development efficiency and lead to delays, high costs, and the risk of frustrated users. But what if you could deal with these things before they catch your attention, or at least before they become big problems?

Shift Left Testing is all about moving testing further left, as far up the development process as possible. Tight schedules are another favorable factor in testing early and often so that the development process is smoother and of higher quality. Wondering how this approach works and why it’s causing such a massive shift in development practices? Now, let’s look at how Shift Left Testing makes efficiency, quality, and collaboration the focus of software development.

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What is Shift Left Testing?

Shift-left testing is a method of beginning software testing very early. Running tests earlier allows issues to be discovered and solved simultaneously, allowing for better-quality software with lower costs.

Testing was usually done at the end, or we can say on the right-hand side of the development pipeline. Shift Left Testing is when the test is moved to the ‘left’, that is, as early as possible in the development process. The idea behind this approach is to attempt and obtain the bugs as quickly as conceivable, making the programming more advantageous and freeing up time that was spent for fixing considerably even bigger issues in the future.

This means the more tests that developers run on their code, the sooner it's added to version control. These essential tests to your report help Shift Left Testing succeed and contribute to building better products.

Why do we need to Shift Left Testing?

We need Shift Left Testing to catch and fix bugs early in the development process, which has several key benefits:

• Early Bug Detection: If we test early, we find a bug early and thus fix it before it becomes an issue.
• Cost Savings: Typically, fixing bugs early is more cost-effective than later.
• Better Quality: The final product is higher quality and a company has a better chance of testing throughout the process.
• Increased Collaboration: It helps the developer, tester, and stakeholders to know each other better and work together to communicate better.

Types of Shift Left Testing

Different types of testing can benefit from the Shift Left approach. Here’s a look at some key types:

Unit Testing

Testing a specific module in a larger application is represented as a unit test. The test does not involve another external process and any communication with such a process is simulated or mocked. Shift-left testing consists of unit testing and TDD as the first development phase.

Integration Testing

Integration testing ensures that various components of the application work together. As developments take place, different units are integrated and tested on integration to ensure that they meet normally without errors. With Shift Left Integration Testing, you begin to catch compatibility issues early.

API Testing and Contract Testing

If a service’s external endpoints work as expected, then the service is tested using the API tests. API testing is similar to integration tests in that both are used to help ensure that different pieces work together, and in a service-oriented architecture (SOA), or even microservices, the API test has a valuable role in helping to ensure that individual service functions do.

UI Testing

UI testing makes sure that everything users see and interact with, such as buttons, forms, and navigation, all work properly and are visually expected. UI testing ensures both how things look and whether things are easy to use or not.

Automation Test

Automated testing uses software tools to run repetitive tests, saving lots of time and eliminating human errors. Test automation early in the development process helps you be able to test often without slowing progress down.

What Changes Will Happen After You Shift to Left?

Shifting to the left brings significant changes in the development process:

• Reduced Waiting Times: This means that testing continues during development, reducing idle time and increasing efficiency.
• Increased Customer Involvement: Customers will also take part in test case creation as well as in the final specification creation to ensure that the final product meets their needs very accurately.
• Increased Test Coverage: During development, you execute more tests, unit, and integration tests; test coverage gets wider and reliability is higher.
• Proactive Quality Management: Every decision made across development prioritizes quality—we're proactive, not reactive, to any potential issue.
• Focus on Test Maintenance: When the number of tests increases, organizations are very keen to set proper test strategies in place to work with fragile tests and to mitigate failed tests.

Advantages of Shift Left Testing

Here are the most often turning points that are connected with shifting left:

1. Early Bug Detection: This helps to minimize big issues further down the line, which in turn leaves us with less stress and faster development.
2. Improved Software Quality: One of the benefits is that through conducting these tests on an ongoing basis, quality is constantly high because only a few defects get through to manufacturing.
3. Reduced Costs: It's more expensive to fix bugs later in the development process than ever earlier, by that much more of the fix.
4. Faster Time-to-Market: Shift Left Testing lets you start testing when you develop to deliver faster and avoid delays.
5. Enhanced Collaboration: It brings developers, QA, and other stakeholders on board right from the get-go, beginning with a team approach to quality and end goals.
6. Proactive Quality Assurance: Proactively managing quality and controlling for issues before they occur is better than either pushing problems into the products or continuously reacting to problems.
7. Increased User Satisfaction: These two areas are the better user experience and high customer satisfaction, which are the reasons why you need to develop higher quality, more reliable software faster.

How to Implement Shift Left Testing Approach?

Shifting left testing may look like a massive undertaking, but with these simple steps, it can be done. Here are some approaches to implement:

1. Involve QA from the Beginning

QA testers should be involved in the stages of designing and defining requirements. This way, they will have enough ability to clarify the goals and objectives of the project while designing test cases. This way, all issues that arise as you move toward the development phase are dealt with so that they do not arise in the first place.

2. Use Test-Driven Development

TDD (Test-Driven Development) is one of those frameworks that challenges developers to write tests before they get to the part of writing the code. TDD ensures that by testing before writing, the code is correct and also ensures that certain bugs do not get out of control in the future.

3. Implement Continuous Testing

The CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline can be used by incorporating the results of automated evaluation. This way every code change will be tested, and the result of the error will also be resolved in less time.

4. Collaboration Between Developers and Testers

Develop a culture that means developers and testing teams work collaboratively. Constant communication and feedback can lead to good code quality and more effective testing professionally motivated.

5. Focus on Unit and Integration Testing

Unit tests are for testing specific components of the code, while integration tests ensure that each part functions effectively both independently and in conjunction with others. This comprehensive approach helps maintain efficient software functionality and quality, as detailed in various resources on the subject.

Difference Between Shift Left vs Shift Right Testing

Shift Left and Shift Right testing are both important, but each emphasizes something different between shift left and shift right when it comes to the software development life.

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Conclusion

The Shift Left testing approach is one of the best practices that enables testing right from the beginning of the development process. This reduces costs, prevents the rush to implement solutions near production time, and releases a more reliable product. Although incorporating this approach requires some changes in the early stages, shift left testing combined with shift right provides a cohesive testing strategy that improves the strength of software quality delivery.

The software tested and developed by Alphabin includes Shift Left testing at various stages due to our pure experience in software testing. By incorporating AI, we improve bug discovery, increase the use of repetitive tests, and prevent potential problems, leading to reliable applications in a reduced cost and period of time. As a leading software testing company in USA, we offer a wide range of advanced testing services, including automation, performance, and security testing. Contact us today to learn how we can help optimize your testing process and drive business success.