In this episode of the Vernon Richard Show, the hosts delve into the nuances of Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment, exploring how testing practices evolve in these environments. They discuss the skills required for testers, the importance of risk management, and the cultural shifts necessary for effective quality assurance. The conversation highlights the need for collaboration within teams and the role of testers as facilitators rather than gatekeepers. The episode concludes with reflections on the importance of understanding quality and risk in software development.
Links to stuff we mentioned during the pod:
Bonus links to further study on the topic:
What's the difference between Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment?- The book Continuous Delivery, seminal work on the topic by Dave Farley & Jez Humble
- Speaking of Dave Farley...
- Speaking of Jez Humble...
- I asked ChatGPT for some resources and it gave me this list (proceed with caution just in case!).
- What skills and behaviours does a Tester need, in order to be successful when they work in a CI/CD context?
- What does testing look like in a team using CI/CD?
04:40 - Compare and contrast
07:00 - What conversation(s) needs to happen before "pressing the button" and who needs to be involved in it?
08:25 - Deployed Vs Released
13:37 - Monitoring and tooling to enable CI/CD practices
17:25 - Where/how do reviews fit into this?
20:38 - Back to Shift Left!
23:51 - Where does the testing happen?
24:36 - The link between chef Gordon Ramsey and software testing
25:45 - What are we
reeeally talking about here?
27:09 - How to reframe things when someone makes the polarising claim "We don't need Testers in CI/CD/DevOps teams"
29:35 - Q: So how
would I test differently if I were a Tester in a CI/CD team? A: Test like Jason Bourne.
32:00 - The value of having a tool belt and using it regularly
33:06 - How to catch a unicorn? How to unbundle testing skills
35:40 - This all loops back to risks & culture
37:03 - Where would it be a bad idea to use Continuous Deployment?
40:45 - Q: So how
would I test differently if I were a Tester in a CI/CD team? A: Test like a Circus Ringmaster.
42:39 - Moar Shift Left: Real Devs build on Main
48:48 - Modern Vs Traditional mindsets
50:30 - Quality enters the chat...
51:00 - The relationship between risk and quality
52:47 - Testing Vs Quality Engineering
Episode 18