We&#8217;re excited to announce the addition of visual test automation capabilities to Testsigma’s low-code platform. With this newest addition, quality teams are empowered to test the accuracy of visual elements with precision and deliver great user experiences at an unmatched scale and speed.



Empowering QA teams and democratizing software testing is at the core of what we do at Testsigma. Over time, we have realized that in QA, many teams hyperfocus on functionality—how the elements interact with the user—and often overlook how the elements render across various browsers and devices. The result &#8211; a poor customer experience and lost revenue.



Adding to it, the complexities of modern web design make it difficult to automate visual verifications with traditional tools and frameworks. They struggle to handle dynamic elements and responsive designs, often leading to false negatives and false positives in testing results. Manually verifying the UI is also error-prone and unscalable, leading to longer test cycles and eating into your release pace and quality.&nbsp;



To address these quality concerns and make visual testing as seamless as testing functionality and APIs, we are introducing low-code automated visual testing in Testsigma. Here are some of the highlights the new feature brings to the table:



<ul><li>Create visual tests effortlessly, without any code: Author automated tests using plain English statements with Testsigma. Or record user actions that are automatically converted into plain English test steps. Add visual validations for the required test steps with a click of a button.</li><li>View and debug visual errors in a user-friendly interface: With clear visualization of the base image, reference image, and highlighted differences, you can easily analyze and rectify any design-related problems to maintain a consistent visual experience.</li><li>Run visual regression tests across 3000+ platforms and browsers: Automate visual testing for mobile and web apps and ensure visual uniformity across 3000+ platforms, devices, and browsers with Testsigma&#8217;s cloud test lab.&nbsp;</li><li>Run functional and visual tests simultaneously: Run functional and visual tests in parallel without any additional effort. Cover both end-to-end scenarios and visual regressions to maximize coverage and save time covering the tests.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>



Automated visual testing is available to all Testsigma users across all plans. To learn more, <a href="https://hubs.ly/Q01VLkkX0">click here</a>.



Don&#8217;t miss our upcoming webinar with Testsigma’s product engineering team on 29 June 2023, where you will get an exclusive walkthrough of the latest visual testing functionality.<gwmw style="display:none;">



<gwmw style="display:none;">



<button class="btn bg-primary cta-btn" style="display: block;
 margin: auto;"><a href="http://hubs.ly/Q01VVdv90" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Register now</a></button><gwmw style="display:none;">

Introducing Automated Visual Testing: Run Visual and Functional Tests Parallelly

We are thrilled to announce the launch of API testing capabilities in Testsigma’s low-code, test automation platform. With this new addition, Testsigma’s customers can now automate APIs along with web, mobile, and desktop applications without the coding expertise that would otherwise be required while using traditional test automation frameworks and solutions.



At Testsigma, everything we build is to democratize software testing. We believe software testing should be a function of curiosity and an empathetic understanding of the user behavior, and not a function of coding knowledge. Plus, we strongly believe that the software testing org should be viewed as the enabler for quality software and amazing customer experience and not a gatekeeper. <gwmw style="display:none;">



Most of our customers have replaced multiple tools and frameworks with Testsigma’s unified platform for their test automation needs. And one feedback we kept receiving was for the need for API testing capabilities. As we began our research over the last few months, we recognized that automated API testing relies on a broken toolchain. After talking to hundreds of QA leaders across the world, the need was clear &#8211; QA leaders needed a solution that would simplify the API testing process and make it more accessible to QA teams.&nbsp;



We built this, as we build everything &#8211; to simplify testing and to make it easier for even non-technical users to create and maintain automated standalone and integrated API tests. Our new interface eliminates the need for multiple tools and scripting knowledge, making it easier than ever to test APIs.



<h2 id="h-a-new-api-testing-experience-without-the-code">A new API testing experience—without the code</h2> 



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</div></figure>



 <ol><li>Simplify API Test Creation: The low-code test editor in Testsigma makes it easy to create API tests without needing any coding expertise. Simply enter the endpoint, choose your API method, add your header content, set your status code, and run the test. </li></ol>



<ol start="2"><li>Test Different API Methods: Testsigma allows you to validate APIs using different REST API methods (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH), providing comprehensive coverage of your APIs.</li></ol>



<ol start="3"><li>Validate API Responses in Real-Time: Create API test assertions without writing any script by specifying the expected response of the API. Testsigma will compare the actual response with the expected response to determine the status of the test.</li></ol>



<ol start="4"><li>Create Data-Driven API Tests: Create data-driven API tests from multiple data sources, such as XLS, CSV, and databases, saving time and effort. Plus, you can save and reuse test parameters as data profiles and test multiple data sets without making script changes manually.&nbsp;</li></ol>



<ol start="5"><li>Seamless CI/CD Integration: Testsigma integrates seamlessly with your development and delivery toolchain, making it easy to test your APIs as part of your deployment pipeline, ensuring that your APIs are always tested.</li></ol>



<ol start="6"><li>Achieve Higher Test Coverage: Integrate API tests along with your Web/Mobile UI tests to validate whether they are working together as expected. Get insights into the coverage and functionality of both GUI and API tests, helping you to identify any issues early in the cycle and fix them quickly.</li></ol> 



To learn more about API testing on Testsigma, please <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/docs/test-cases/create-steps-restapi/restful-api-overview/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the documentation page</a> for API testing with Testsigma. If you’d like a demo, you can do so <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/request-demo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. 



Don&#8217;t miss our upcoming Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with Testsigma’s product engineering team on 28 April 2023, where you will get an exclusive walkthrough of the latest API testing functionality. <button class="btn bg-primary cta-btn" style="display: block;
 margin: auto;"><a href="https://events.testsigma.com/api-testing-ama-webinar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:#fff">Register now</a></button>

We are changing the way quality teams do API testing—forever.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img alt=""/></figure>



When Tricentis acquired TestProject and continued to offer it as a “free” tool for its customers, it seemed like a good fit, given the cost-effective nature of TestProject. However, after years of being “free,” the recent news announcement on &#8220;TestProject End of Life (EOL) on March 31, 2023,&#8221; has not really come as a surprise to many.



Acquisitions by larger businesses are usually done as part of the growth strategy, and it is therefore not always sustainable to continue keeping up with the free promise. And this really makes one ask the good old question &#8211; is free software free as in free beer, or free as in free speech?



And this is exactly why we decided to open source Testsigma earlier this year. We do have the cloud version that our customers sign up for and pay a subscription for. But if needed, one can always go to our Github project and not just use Testsigma for free, but also own it.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-so-what-s-next">So what&#8217;s next?</h2>



If you are a TestProject user, I would love to invite you to check out Testsigma for your test automation needs. You have multiple options to get started &#8211;&nbsp;



<ul><li>There is the <a href="https://github.com/testsigmahq/testsigma">open source version of Testsigma</a> you can get started right away with</li><li>And as I mentioned above, if you need to achieve the same with less maintenance, you can <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/signup">sign up for the cloud version</a></li></ul>



Either way, rest assured that you are in great company. Here is what one of our customers had to say about migrating to Testsigma.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="text-align:justify; padding:0px 5%;">
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 <metadata> Svg Vector Icons : http://www.onlinewebfonts.com/icon </metadata>
 <g><g transform="translate(0.000000,511.000000) scale(0.100000,-0.100000)"><path d="M2183.4,3586.2c-795.6-73.8-1550.2-626.1-1883.8-1380.7c-191.4-432-243.3-1052.6-125.8-1501C425.4-247,1242.9-960.6,2180.7-1050.8c106.6-8.2,183.2-30.1,183.2-46.5c-2.7-62.9-109.4-265.2-221.5-418.3c-336.3-453.8-940.5-924.1-1755.3-1361.6C135.5-3013.9,75.4-3085,108.2-3210.8c8.2-35.5,41-90.2,73.8-123c51.9-52,76.5-54.7,265.2-41c407.4,32.8,1096.4,207.8,1569.4,399.2c1252.2,511.3,2108,1430,2518.1,2704.1c158.6,489.4,216,866.7,218.7,1427.2c2.7,566-27.3,716.3-229.7,1134.7C4097.3,3176.1,3186.8,3679.2,2183.4,3586.2z"></path><path d="M7326.3,3589c-292.6-32.8-522.2-101.2-792.9-235.1C5385.1,2785.1,4912.1,1388,5480.8,239.7c194.1-393.7,544.1-771,915.9-989.8c287.1-169.5,746.4-308.9,1014.4-308.9c112.1,0,114.8-19.2,21.9-202.3C7189.6-1748,6410.4-2412.4,5592.9-2833.5c-150.4-76.6-292.6-166.8-317.1-199.6c-60.2-90.2-52-205.1,27.3-281.6c79.3-82,188.6-87.5,546.8-24.6c1252.2,216,2288.5,746.4,2955.6,1517.4c492.1,568.7,847.6,1306.9,995.2,2067c123,639.8,131.2,1148.3,27.3,1585.8C9562.8,2946.4,8471.9,3712,7326.3,3589z"></path></g></g>
 </svg>We were looking to migrate out of TestProject because of stability issues and the fact that the tool was placed in maintenance mode &#8211; which meant it just wasn’t just as usable anymore. We are glad we found Testsigma &#8211; Testsigma is faster, way more stable and the QA team is now able to author test cases at a speed never seen before, thanks to Testsigma’s true no-code solution.&nbsp;</blockquote>





<blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="text-align:justify; padding: 0px 5%;">Testsigma is highly recommended if you are looking to replace Testproject.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="width:50px; float:left; margin-right:25px;"><img src="https://website-static.testsigma.com/assets/testproject-alternative/mohan-krishna-profile-pic.png" alt="Testsigma - mohan-krishna-profile-pic"></figure>
Mohan Krishna, 
Director of QA, OvalEdge 
(Migrated from TestProject to Testsigma)
</blockquote>



Testsigma offers many (and many more) of the same features as TestProject. We have built it with an immense focus on user experience and quality. Plus Testsigma is open source &#8211;&nbsp; and we definitely are here to stay!



And for those who would like us to help with your maintenance, there is always the cloud version. <gwmw style="display:none;">



And we are happy to offer 1 year of free testing (local execution) with 1 parallel on the Pro plan for all Testproject users.



We are also working on a migration that will let you import all your TestProject data and continue where you left off, even finer.&nbsp;



With more than 5 million successful test cases created in a span of just 9 months, see for yourself how different Testsigma does the job from this <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/testproject-alternative" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testproject alternatives</a> Guide.

End of life for TestProject – what next for the community?

I’m happy to announce our financing of $4.6M&nbsp; led by Accel and STRIVE, with participation from BoldCap and a host of well known entrepreneurs and operators ?



These include Shanmugam Krishnasamy, co-founder and CTO of Freshworks; Kiran Darisi, co-founder and VP of engineering at Freshworks; Parsuram Vijayasankar, co-founder and principal engineer at Freshworks; Vetri Vellore, CEO of Ally.io; Nitesh Banta, CEO at B12; Ioann Fainsilber, Co-Founder at Pintek, among others.



I’m grateful to the entire Testsigma team, our users, partners as we celebrate this huge milestone! And, I would like to welcome our investors to this exciting journey!



With an increasing focus on automation and DevOps, software delivery is faster than ever before! Automated testing is essential for balancing software quality with the accelerated velocity of release cycles, but because the toolchain that is supposed to enable automated testing has many moving parts, test automation becomes a parallel development project in organizations. Plus they have huge upfront and ongoing resource, tech, and expertise costs.&nbsp;



Today’s test stacks have made test automation more about writing and maintaining scripts than about taking quality software to market as quickly as possible.



What we’re trying to do at <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma</a> is not just simplify test automation to speed up the testing, but also make it a sustainable, scalable process in which the tools and frameworks don’t require ongoing maintenance, freeing up the teams to focus on value delivery instead of building and maintaining scripts and frameworks.



Thousands of developers, QAs, product managers across the world at teams like Sage, HPE, Netgear, HDFC Life, IEEE,&nbsp; SignEasy, American Psychological Association, Mehiläinen, and more use Testsigma to test continuously throughout their software delivery cycles.&nbsp;



Since our beta launch we have run 1.5M+ tests for hundreds of products, and on boarded 1000+ users, we are now we have got all the power to accelerate our growth.



We will use the capital to strengthen the core engineering and product team and to build alongside and for a global community of testers, test automation engineers, and developers.



I would like to take this opportunity to share with you our next steps, what we will be focusing on, our road map, and how we are thinning and shaping this platform.&nbsp;



Our focus areas:



<ol><li>Bringing standardization to a fragmented testing toolchain</li><li>Enabling faster, more scalable test automation</li><li>Improving stability and reliability of automated tests&nbsp;</li><li>Leverage AI to build an autonomous testing platform&nbsp;</li><li>Extend to solve for complex <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/how-make-test-automation-more-inclusive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">test automation</a> requirements</li><li>Enabling everyone in modern teams to test for faster releases</li><li>Grow our community and build Testsigma as an open source project</li></ol>



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#The_current_test_stack_is_broken_needs_a_fresh_approach">1 The current test stack is broken &amp; needs a fresh approach</a></li><li><a href="#Bringing_standardization_to_a_fragmented_testing_toolchain">2 Bringing standardization to a fragmented testing toolchain</a></li><li><a href="#Building_a_unified_testing_ecosystem">3 Building a unified testing ecosystem</a></li><li><a href="#Effortless_extensibility">4 Effortless extensibility</a></li><li><a href="#No-code_testing_thats_not_just_record_and_playback">5 No-code testing that’s not just record and playback</a></li><li><a href="#Why_Open_Source">6 Why Open Source?</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="the-current-test-stack-is-broken-needs-a-fresh-approach">The current test stack is broken &amp; needs a fresh approach</h2>



Our founding team has been part of multiple product teams for various organizations, with each one of us being part of product teams for around 15 years. We have seen test automation problems first hand many times and helped the teams build scalable test automation processes.



In that time we’ve primarily seen two types of test automation approaches implemented, both being imperfect:



1. Custom built frameworks



Most teams prefer building a custom test stack/framework because of the flexibility but there are significant drawbacks:



i. We realized that the modern test stack is fragmented. It has too many moving parts to be easy to set up and scale.



ii. Given there are so many use cases, languages and app types, test automation becomes overwhelmingly complex &amp; time consuming to the point where it becomes its own development project.



2. Scriptless tools powered by AI



Modern tools are simple to begin with but don’t scale for complex setups and constantly evolving applications.



It became clear to us that simple, no-code, AI powered solutions are vendor dependent in terms of flexibility required for scale, whereas custom built solutions require intensive complex dev and integration efforts to both build and maintain over time. As a consequence, <a href="https://www.capgemini.com/in-en/research/world-quality-report-wqr-20-21/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">almost two-thirds of all teams</a> that automate their testing never see a return on their investment.



In a nutshell, the current test stack is complex, time consuming to build, and just doesn’t scale like you would want it to.



We want to change that by standardizing the fragmented test stack and coalescing it into an easy-to-use platform that combines the flexibility of open source test automation tools but with the ease of existing closed source low-code solutions.



<h2 id="bringing-standardization-to-a-fragmented-testing-toolchain">Bringing standardization to a fragmented testing toolchain</h2>



We now know the problem lies with the lack of a common standard in the testing ecosystem. So how do we stop test automation from becoming a complex parallel development project?&nbsp; When we set out to build Testsigma we laid out 3 core principles the platform should achieve:



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>Unify a broken test stack</li><li>Simplify the complete testing cycle, from test planning to design, all the way to development, execution, and analysis</li><li>Make quality a shared responsibility by enabling non-programmers in the team to test</li></ul>



What we’re trying to do is not just simplify test automation but bring sustainable scalability that can help users and teams actually do more testing rather than being caught up with building and maintaining scripts and frameworks.



<h2 id="building-a-unified-testing-ecosystem">Building a unified testing ecosystem</h2>



To really solve for the broken test stack, we had to make sure our platform doesn’t limit users to specific use cases, programming languages, application types etc.&nbsp;



We decided to bring everything under one roof and built Testsigma as an open-source, low code platform that mimics what the modern Test automation workflow looks like.



Our platform works out-of-the-box. You don’t have to ‘set it up’ one framework, library, and tool at a time. You can simply install it and directly start automating tests for web apps, mobile apps, and APIs. This enables teams to shift focus towards scaling testing rather than maintaining the automation framework to support it.



From test development to reporting, users can perform integrated end-to-end testing that&#8217;s supplemented by powerful TestOps, built-in test data management and one-click integrations with delivery pipelines, for web apps, Android and iOS apps, and APIs, etc.



Read more about Testsigma <a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.



<h2 id="effortless-extensibility">Effortless extensibility</h2>



We have seen that after teams automate a number of ‘standard’ tests, they struggle to scale because test scenarios increase in number and complexity while release cycles shortened. It&#8217;s no secret that test automation requirements are unique to every organization and constantly change&nbsp; based on the product &amp; what stage it is at. Test automation requirements can start out small and then grow rapidly.



We wanted to make scalability and extensibility something that was accessible and easy.



Testsigma&#8217;s platform approach will enable everyone to easily add custom actions, data generators, reports, integrations etc. form a community powered marketplace and build all these as needed using a simple Testsigma SDK.&nbsp;



Also, we are an open source platform, you can dig deep and extend the core platform as you need.



<h2 id="no-code-testing-that-s-not-just-record-and-playback">No-code testing that’s not just record and playback</h2>



In cross-functional development teams, <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/test-automation-by-smes-qa-analysts-for-continuous-delivery-and-devops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">everyone including Devs, QAs, PMs are responsible</a> for the quality of releases. To balance quality with release velocity, we see teams adopting <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/how-continuous-testing-supercharges-your-automation-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shift-left continuous testing</a>. 



We built Testsigma as a platform that everyone in the team could use to plan, develop, execute, and analyze tests, but the traditional ‘record-and-playback’ approach to to test development left a lot of room for flakiness and browser compatibility issues to creep in.



To create tests in Testsigma all you need to know is simple English. You can either write tests step by step, or generate them by recording real-time user scenarios and interactions that are auto-converted into editable tests.&nbsp;



<h2 id="why-open-source">Why Open Source?</h2>



Our objective is to collaboratively build a future-ready test automation platform, an ‘operating system for software quality’ alongside its most important stakeholders – the user, that decisively bridges the gap between development and testing.



In our journey so far, we’ve noticed that there is a misalignment across quality, teams and tools. There isn&#8217;t a tool in the market that involves every quality stakeholder, technical or not, in the building and integration of a test automation framework within the SDLC. We think that by open sourcing our platform, we can bring SDETs, Test Engineers, and Test Automation architects on the same page as QAs, PMs, and SMEs.



Check out <a href="https://github.com/testsigmahq/testsigma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma GitHub repo</a>!



We open sourced Testsigma to achieve a few goals:



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>With access to our source code, teams can dig into, customize and extend Testsigma as needed</li><li>Makes it easy to integrate existing open-source technology stacks. This flexibility is often missing in closed-source testing tools</li><li>Open-source is low risk because it doesn’t involve security constraints 3rd party cloud-based tools are restricted by</li><li>We are aware of the immense complexity in test automation, and that every challenge cannot be solved by one team. Open source is a powerful enabler where the entire dev &amp; testing community can collaborate towards the singular goal of simplifying test automation for everyone</li></ul>



We will of course continue to invest time and resources into improving both the open source and cloud version of our product but it’s the contribution of the community that will make Testsigma the universal standard in test automation.



Thank you! ?

Testsigma raises $4.6M from Accel and STRIVE to simplify test automation for everyone

Testsigma raises $4.6M from Accel and STRIVE to simplify test automation

The world is witnessing challenging times(COVID-19), and we sincerely hope that you, your loved ones, and your colleagues are taking precautionary measures and are staying safe. It is also encouraging to see the world’s resilience as it comes together to fight this rising threat.



We wanted to assure you that in the light of the current circumstances, we are taking all possible steps to ensure the safety of our employees as well as maintain uninterrupted services for our customers.



At <a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Testsigma</a>, we’ve taken the following measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our two greatest priorities &#8211; our employees and our customers:



<ol start="1" class="list-number pl-5"><li>The entire team is working from home without any disruption since last few weeks, and we foresee this continuing until the situation improves.</li><li>All non-essential travel has been put on hold and a special task force has been set up to monitor and address any operational issues.</li><li> Systems have been tested, Testsigma platform will run without interruptions and you will continue to get the same quality of 24&#215;7 support from Testsigma. Our support team will continue to be available 24X7. You can reach us at <a href="mailto:support@testsigma.com">support@testsigma.com</a> or via chat for instant responses.</li><li>During this time, our support teams are available and can be reached through email, website, online sessions, and chat. Our product support team has activated their Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to abide by Service Level Agreements that meet the ongoing customer needs.&nbsp;</li><li>We have built redundancy into our engineering and customer support teams, so even though thankfully, none of our employees have fallen sick due to the virus, we’re confident that our processes and redundancies will ensure business as usual from our side to you.</li><li>If you&#8217;re facing bandwidth constraints due to COVID-19, our automation experts are happy to jump in and help you with anything (training, automating your tests, setting up your test automation plans) that you may need. We&#8217;re happy to do it free of cost because we know you may not have planned a budget for this unexpected event.</li></ol>



If you&#8217;re looking for our advice on how to ensure continuous Testing during COVID-19, here&#8217;s my thought on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Optimize your Testing efforts for continuous delivery during COVID-19 pandemic (opens in a new tab)" href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/optimize-your-testing-efforts-for-continuous-delivery/" target="_blank">optimizing your testing efforts for continuous delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> outlining ideas to get you to proactively think about ways you can optimize your delivery times with limited resources. 



We are in this together. We will continue to monitor the global situation and offer continued support to our employees, customers, and partners as needed. 



In this hour of crisis, I hope that this assurance helps you worry a little less and focus more on the people you care about most.



As always, we thank you for your business, and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that your business can continue to operate with minimal disruption. Most importantly, we hope that you and your family are safe and remain healthy. 



-KR Naidu Founder &amp; CEO | Testsigma

Note from Testsigma CEO

In these tough times(COVID-19), the well-being of customers and employees is the most important for every organization.



During this unexpected crisis, there are teams working from home while there are few workplaces that have a reduced workforce. It is a given that the thoughts, efficiency, and availability of your team will not be the same as you may expect otherwise.



In these conditions, it is vital that the robustness of your software is not compromised.&nbsp;



Considering the disturbance that everyone in the world is going through, there will be a few tasks that you may not be able to do as planned, while there will be some important tasks still that will have to be done.



For optimum results, optimization of your team’s efforts will be key.



The development teams will have to focus on the optimization of delivery cycles to achieve business continuity on the basis of the availability and efficiency of the workforce.



A well-implemented continuous delivery process will be the solution here.



Below are some points which are important for all the teams including Dev &amp; QA for optimum and continued operations:



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#People_Process_Business">1 People, Process, Business</a></li><li><a href="#1_People">2 1. People</a></li><li><a href="#2_Process">3 2. Process</a></li><li><a href="#3_Business">4 3. Business</a></li><li><a href="#Below_are_some_points_which_I_feel_are_important_for_Dev_QA">5 Below are some points which I feel are important for Dev &amp; QA :</a></li></ul></div>
<h3>People, Process, Business</h3> 



<div class="wp-container-67a48dac31a2e wp-block-group">
<h3 id="1-people">1. People</h3>
</div>



<div class="wp-container-67a48dac31d89 wp-block-group pl-15">
Focus on your team. Understand their strengths and patterns of working. When we are challenged by many odds, it would be hard to expect 100% from everyone. Some of them might not be used to working remotely. Give them time and better to over-communicate to fill the gap. 



There are some innovative ways to connect your teams remotely like online games, virtual tea-breaks and sharing photos and playlists. Do not hesitate to make use of them. Communication becomes a key challenge in these times. Schedule regular catch-ups with your team and don’t just focus on work-related talk.&nbsp;



This is the time to identify your champions who can deliver in any circumstances. If you are a small team or a start-up these are the people who can take your company to the next level. Encourage your champions and assign them the key areas to focus on. Give your teams the usual freedom and accountability to achieve the goals for the week.
</div>



<h3 id="2-process">2. Process</h3>



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There might be a definite change in the productivity of your teams. Due to this almost every company has to change its priorities. Make sure you educate everyone about the change of priorities and make them align with the new plan. It might need some process changes as well. Your updates might need to be more frequent. 



There should be clear in and out times and appropriate status updates in the communication platforms. It will help everyone know when to expect others and when someone would be offline. 
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<h3 id="3-business">3. Business</h3>



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Don&#8217;t prioritize everything. The situation is very much uncertain. Just focus on what is required for business continuity, and wait for the things to get better. &nbsp;Start preparing for the emergency fund in case it might be needed in the near future. Stay focused on your current customers and work on your leads to get your next customers. Reduce unnecessary expenses and aggressively optimize the current process.&nbsp;



Many companies are going to see a steep fall in terms of numbers, very soon all these companies will stand a chance to grow much faster than the fall that we are going to see now. What is important is how you prepare yourself and the teams for that growth. Plan for the worst and get ready for the best!
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<h3 class="pt-15" id="below-are-some-points-which-i-feel-are-important-for-dev-qa">Below are some points which I feel are important for Dev &amp; QA :</h3>



1. Customer issues and requirements should become your mainstream development: It should be the case even otherwise if you don&#8217;t follow this already it&#8217;s time you change your strategy. Bring your core team here. Make sure you <a href="https://hiverhq.com/customer-support-guide" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">support all your customers</a> without fail. Don&#8217;t let this branch run by a secondary team.



2. Not the right time for big releases: If you have already planned a big release, it is good to hold until you get clarity. Simple things like stable network connectivity are also a problem to push your updates, there are many more odds that you need to think of.



3. Frequent minor updates are always better: If you are a SaaS business, it is recommended to release frequently with minor changes, so that the impact would be very few when things go wrong. During this time where communication, availability, and accessibility is difficult, it’s not the right time for major updates.&nbsp; 



4. Make sure your regression suites are lean and relevant: Your turn around time needs to be better than before. Create suites with affected test cases so that you can get things done quickly with fewer resources. If you have large test suites and take a long time for execution, parallel execution is one option. But, if you want to save more time, filter the high priority test cases and create another test suite that can be executed when time is running low.



5. Are your pipelines(DevOps) not automated yet? If not, it’s time to think about it: If you are a DevOps hub and all your pipelines are automated, you stand a better chance to release updates more often and continuously. If you don&#8217;t have your DevOps set up yet, it&#8217;s time for you and your team to understand the need and get started with it. Not just for now, It is going to add huge value to your company in the long term.



6. If you follow DevOps/Continuous Delivery practices, are your pipelines 100% automated? If that is the case you are all set to deliver continuously with fewer resources even at the difficult times, like what we are seeing now. If not, identify the gaps and try to automate your pipelines 100%. Perhaps you may not have approvals to try commercial tools. In that case, there are lots of free tools. You could also start with free versions of commercial tools and see how it works for you. Also, make sure that these tools scale to the next level when you as a team and the company go to the next level.



7. Don&#8217;t have test automation yet then this is the right time to start. Pick free tools to begin with: If you have worked on test automation, it would have been easy for you to continue your regular delivery cycles confidently.&nbsp; If not, in these times when resources are limited, it is all the more important to ensure quality because, in case of a failure, it may be a difficult task to fix with limited resources.



8. Start automating your regression suites: If you don&#8217;t have test automation yet, start implementing now. If your delivery cycles are not as usual or planned, your team might have time to start this activity.&nbsp;



9. Involve others in test automation if your tools support: If your SMEs &amp; QAs have free time during this time, it’s better to involve them in test automation. So that your delivery cycles would be faster later when things get back to normal. During this time, change of work also will help them focus more and they will give their best. If you are just starting with test automation, choose a test automation tool that allows other stakeholders including developers, managers, and clients to start test case creation with a low learning curve such that your automation tasks are completed even if the testing team is low in number.



10. Integrate your automated tests with your continuous integration pipeline: For end-to-end automation and continuous delivery, it is essential to integrate your testing with the CI/CD pipeline and having a tool that integrates with needed tools readily is the need of the hour.



11. Time to check your automation efficiency: If you have not measured your test automation ROI yet, take a look at it. Check how much it can save for you, with the investment that you have already made. When the team sizes are shrinking, can your test automation complement their errors? If not, understand why and where are the gaps and take necessary action if they are small. Again, don&#8217;t look at the changing processes during this time.



12. Take steps to reduce the number of feedback cycles and time for each of them: Since a lot of remote communication is involved now, try avoiding back and forth for your feedback. Also, try to reduce the number of feedback cycles, because there will be a significant communication delay for each cycle during this time.



We know that we can pull through, we just have to be careful, optimistic and focus on being efficient every step of the way.



If you need any help, we will always be available via the usual channels. Praying for the health and well-being of all! 



K R Naidu, CEO, Testsigma

Optimize Your Testing Efforts for Continuous Delivery

Test automation goes beyond regression testing new features. <a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/in-sprint-test-automation-agile-devops-speed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In-sprint test automation</a> aims in developing a faster and reliable test automation in parallel to development.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><ul><li><a href="#Challenges_in_implementing_In-Sprint_Test_Automation_to_perform_Regression_Testing">0.1 Challenges in implementing In-Sprint Test Automation to perform Regression Testing</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Finding_the_right_tooltest_automation_framework">1 Finding the right tool/test automation framework</a></li><li><a href="#Lack_of_time_to_automate_in_short_sprints">2 Lack of time to automate in short sprints</a></li><li><a href="#Lack_of_a_unified_continuous_testing_platform">3 Lack of a unified continuous testing platform</a></li><li><a href="#Flexibility_to_enhance_the_toolframework">4 Flexibility to enhance the tool/framework</a></li><li><a href="#Demanding_technical_expertise">5 Demanding technical expertise</a></li><li><a href="#Availability_of_the_right_set_of_tools">6 Availability of the right set of tools</a></li><li><a href="#Teams_approach_within_the_sprint">7 Teams’ approach within the sprint </a><ul><li><a href="#Here_is_how_Testsigma_addresses_all_the_above_challenges">7.1 Here is how Testsigma addresses all the above challenges:</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h3 id="challenges-in-implementing-in-sprint-test-automation-to-perform-regression-testing">Challenges in implementing In-Sprint Test Automation to perform Regression Testing</h3>



The Agile and DevOps approach allows no time between code complete and release. In-sprint test automation ensures maximum coverage within short release cycles. However, there are a few challenges in implementing In-sprint test automation.



For an in-depth study about regression testing and its aspects, check out the <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/regression-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="regression testing (opens in a new tab)">regression testing</a> guide.



<h2 id="finding-the-right-tool-test-automation-framework">Finding the right tool/test automation framework</h2>



The tool/ test automation framework should allow for writing automated tests even without access to the application UI so as to start the automation process with no time to waste and help create tests right from the design phase.



As we know, the UI undergoes many changes up until the last minute so it is always recommended to automate the API tests and perform unit tests first so that the bugs can be identified early on in the cycle.



Hence the tools must support different types of tests including unit and API tests along with UI automation.



<h2 id="lack-of-time-to-automate-in-short-sprints">Lack of time to automate in short sprints</h2>



In modern development practices like Agile and DevOps, the build is handed to the test team right after development(not at the same time in most cases)to find issues in the new feature and to fix them. All of this in one sprint cycle which may be a week or two long.



But as we all know, automation testing demands a significant amount of time not just the automation engineer&#8217;s but the developer’s and QA’s. During short development cycles, it is difficult to spare dedicated time for automation.



<h2 id="lack-of-a-unified-continuous-testing-platform">Lack of a unified continuous testing platform</h2>



Today, all modern businesses use not just web interface but Web, Mobile Web, Native Apps and APIs.



Every new feature needs to be tested in all these different application types to ensure a smooth user experience.



Hence, to automate different application types to avoid managing multiple tools to automate different application types, it is best to have a&nbsp;<a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/why-unified-automated-testing-software-for-continuous-testing-in-agile-and-devops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unified automated testing framework</a>.



<h2 id="flexibility-to-enhance-the-tool-framework">Flexibility to enhance the tool/framework</h2>



The modern business is very dynamic and the requirements change very often. There may be a new design and approach for the product at any time.



The tool/framework must be flexible enough to enhance and optimize new automation requirements at any time.



The tool and framework should not demand you to start from scratch to address the new requirements.



<h2 id="demanding-technical-expertise">Demanding technical expertise</h2>



Automation done with legacy tools demand high technical skills from all the stakeholders. Most of the times teams may not have all the skill sets to automate testing. Most tools demand a steep learning curve and a deep technical understanding.



This makes it difficult for the teams to automate testing within a sprint. In order to implement automation testing within short cycles, writing automated tests should be made as simple as possible.



Automation Testing should be easy enough for Functional Testers who are new to the concept or the underlying complexity.



<h2 id="availability-of-the-right-set-of-tools">Availability of the right set of tools</h2>



As the cycles are very short, the timely availability of different tools in the test automation ecosystem is very critical for in-sprint test automation.



Teams spend a lot of time setting up test environments to execute tests. Instead, dynamically scalable pre-configured environments will save a lot of time to focus on the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://website.testsigma.com/test-development" target="_blank">test development</a> process.



Continuous integration will automatically update the changes in the test environments.&nbsp;With this, the feedback will be automatic and quick.



An ecosystem with the right set of tools (with important elements like test environments, continuous integration environment, automated build, servers etc.) is a must for In-sprint test automation.



<h2 id="teams-approach-within-the-sprint">Teams’ approach within the sprint </h2>



Often teams execute sprints in mini-waterfalls which is not the right approach and things cannot be done in parallel.&nbsp;This needs to change. It is a must to follow Agile and start automation right from the design phase



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<h3 id="here-is-how-testsigma-addresses-all-the-above-challenges">Here is how <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/regression-testing/automated-regression-testing-tool" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma</a> addresses all the above challenges:</h3>



<ol><li>Testsigma’s simple English based test script development approach doesn&#8217;t depend on the application availability. You can start writing automated tests right from the design phase. It also supports both UI and API testing.</li><li>Testsigma’s<a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/natural-language-processing-nlp-based-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)"> natural language based</a> approach requires very less time to automate your testing and automating your tests within the sprint now becomes a reality. Testsigma doesn’t demand programming skills to write automated tests but uses simple English to automate your tests. Writing automated tests is as simple as writing manual tests.</li><li>Testsigma is a unified <a href="https://website.testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> continuous testing</a> platform to automate all your applications including Web, Mobile, Native apps and APIs. You don&#8217;t need to manage multiple tools to automate different types of applications.</li><li>Testsigma is simple and flexible and can be customized according to your testing requirements.&nbsp;</li><li>Testsigma is a complete ecosystem with all the essential components and integrations required for continuous testing.</li></ol>

In Sprint Test Automation Challenges for Regression Testing

In-Sprint Test Automation Challenges for Regression Testing

Continuous Delivery envisages the release of reliable software in fast-paced short cycles automatically and frequently. 
These short continuous release cycles ensure a faster time to market and reduced business risk associated with every release.
Continuous feedback is important in a DevOps environment for continuous improvement, to identify and fix defects early in the development cycle. Continuous actionable feedback through <a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-at-the-speed-of-agile-and-devops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Continuous Testing</a> helps to release software products faster into production with lesser defects.
Continuous feedback in the delivery pipeline from Functional Experts, stakeholders, QA Analysts, Testers ensures a speedy release of quality software with less or no errors.
A good deployment pipeline has feedback loops at all stages of the development lifecycle. Feedback is required not only on the quality of your code, but on the quality of your requirements, and the quality of your processes for delivering software. At each stage of the pipeline, verifications need to be run, not just acceptance tests.
Development teams need adequate information regarding a failure. Feedback should automatically include all the necessary information and actions to fix the issues and proceed in the pipeline quickly, for instance, specify which test failed, how it failed, and provide adequate steps for action with the supporting information.
<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#From_Passed_or_Failed_results_to_Actionable_feedback">1 From Passed or Failed results to Actionable feedback</a></li><li><a href="#Feedback_from_the_team_through_Team_Collaboration">2 Feedback from the team through Team Collaboration</a></li><li><a href="#Testsigma_Approach">3 Testsigma’ Approach</a></li><li><a href="#Chat_with_our_test_experts_and_learn_more_about_Testsigma">4 Chat with our test experts and learn more about Testsigma!</a></li></ul></div>
<h2>From Passed or Failed results to Actionable feedback</h2>
While delivery speed is the key, ensuring the right user experience is critical. Hence, businesses need to continuously test in real user scenarios to seamlessly release software.
Along with the speed of delivery, the reliability and immediate feedback from cross-functional teams play an important role in continuous testing to help improve the quality of software.
In the Continuous Delivery process, every software change is a release candidate that continuously undergoes Testing before deployment. 
In such short cycles, there wouldn’t be much time to scrutinize the test automation results, instead, it would be time saving and easier to quickly identify if the continuous testing platform could give a Yes or No automatically to decide if the release candidate is safe to proceed further in the delivery pipeline.
Additionally, if instead of simple Passed/Failed results of test automation, a platform that can analyze the business risk associated with test failures and be able to say Yes or No to allow your &#8220;release candidate&#8221; to move forward in the delivery pipeline automatically with actionable results will help analyze, debug and fix the cryptic failures.
The actionable feedback will not just help you to understand the build status, but also provide suggestions to take release decisions automatically. This feedback should include all the necessary information to fix the issues and proceed further in the pipeline instantly.
This approach will save both time and effort required to debug and analyze the test results to proceed.
With short release cycles, it is very difficult to analyze the cryptic results of all the failed tests and the affected areas.
Along with the feedback from the failed tests it is also required to identify potential failures upfront but automatically fix them and suggest those areas that might as well be affected.
Before we flag &#8216;Yes&#8217; or &#8216;No&#8217; to a release candidate, the platform should perform all necessary checks automatically to ensure the quality of the release(Exploratory testing would be a plus). 
Along with validating the functional requirements, we need to asses the system requirements, achieve maximum coverage and assess the performance automatically to ensure an uninterrupted existing user experience while adding new features.
An Agile organization that follows Continuous Delivery and a continuous feedback approach Continuous Delivery and continuous feedback with the help of an end to end automation process can ensure the release of quality software faster with less or no business risks.
As the roles are redefined in Agile and DevOps, cross-functional teams and just anyone can take part in Continuous testing. Hence, the results/feedback must be understandable for everyone including non-developers.
<h2>Feedback from the team through Team Collaboration</h2>
In addition to actionable results, team collaboration is also important in DevOps.
Cross-functional teams across different geographical locations need a common platform to communicate the ambiguities in the automated testing process.
Team communication is important for teams to function effectively and produce quality products. Feedback is fundamental not only to CI/CD but throughout the application development lifecycle.  Feedback should be fast, and actionable and delivered in a way that lets teams respond rapidly. 
If the feedback is actionable and understandable to everyone, anybody can take the necessary steps to proceed further in the delivery pipeline. 
Traceability throughout the lifecycle is required for rapid response. Tailor your feedback process to fit your team. If an existing solution doesn’t fit or becomes outdated, You may need to create a new one that works. 
The main goal of continuous delivery is to make feedback loops shorter to ensure the reliability of software and analyze the business risk associated with it before the software reaches the competitive market. 
The continuous actionable feedback along the<a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/enhancing-robustness-ci-cd-pipeline-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Continuous Delivery pipeline</a> ensures the reliability of the software being released. A well-designed delivery pipeline that integrates the team, process and tools offer no scope for failure.
<h2>Testsigma’ Approach</h2>
Testsigma’s non-cryptic easy to understand feedback of all test runs help teams take effective actions immediately.
<a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://website.testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma’s</a> inbuilt automatic feedback mechanisms in the form of instant notifications and automatic suggestions from AI on executions help make effective decisions on the go. The AI indicates areas of failure and those that might as well be affected due to change.
Shift Left is imperative to Agile development and delivery needs. You need to identify if your <a class="brand-color" style="box-shadow: unset;" href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/test-automation-tool-ready-for-shift-left/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">test automation tool is shift-left ready</a>.
<a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/how-does-testsigma-support-the-shift-left-approach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Testsigma is a strong advocate of Shift Left</a> testing. Testsigma allows testing at an early stage even before the application is fully available also as a part of every stage in the development lifecycle checking modifications as soon as they are introduced.
Integrations with collaboration tools like Slack lets you monitor execution updates, track and share the progress of tests automatically.
It is also easy to make changes to the automated tests since the test scripts are written in<a href="https://website.testsigma.com/blog/natural-language-processing-nlp-based-test-automation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> simple natural language</a> statements. Even complex test scenarios can be automated easily with the help of detailed feedback from within Testsigma and the collaborating team.
Testsigma gathers continuous actionable feedback and helps development teams prioritize these actions. Clear documentation and points on improvement are important in the application development cycle to achieve Continuous Testing.
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Chat with our test experts and learn more about Testsigma!</h2>

Importance of Actionable Feedback in Test Automation for Continuous Delivery

Actionable Feedback in Test Automation for Continuous Delivery

Continuous Testing at the Speed of Agile and DevOps

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