The Dark side of Continuous Deployment

A short post!

In the software development world there is a drive towards continuous deployment of software which in the majority of cases in a good thing.  The good side is the reduction in costs, faster feedback from users and quicker release of features and bug fixes.

However my experiences of using software in which there are constant and frequent updates provides me with some concerns.  Have you ever downloaded an app for your device that crashes upon starting or has new updates each and every day?  How does this make you feel?  I for one get very frustrated when I get up in the morning and my phone says x number of apps have been updated.  Or that the same app I have updated 3 times previously in the last week!  Suffice to say this app have been deleted and I no longer use it.

There is a common phrase that appears to have been forgotten in the rush to continuous deployment and using users as testers and that is "First impressions count"  If you come across a piece of software which you have purchased and it is buggy or does not work in the way you expect you may feel cheated.  All software has bugs that is to be expected, my worry is that we are paying for software which has not been sufficiently tested by skilled testers.

There is a major movement to automate 'testing' within continuous deployment practices.  This implies to me that those who promote and suggest this may not have an understanding of what testing is and the value it provides to the quality of software.  This is a big assumption for me to make but I am experiencing more and more examples of software being released to users which is not good enough and with a little bit of testing could have provided a much better user experience.

I am not saying to stop doing continuous deployment but within the development cycle there should be some level of human testing to provide information about how the software is behaving.  This is not meant to say have a dedicated testing phase but ensure that testing activities are added into each and every release. Continuous deployment is a wonderful tool to enable quick and easy releases however it should not be used to release poor or sub-standard software that relies on users to provide details of issues, especially software that a user has purchased.

The key problem to me as someone who works in business is that if you release poorly tested software and it is noticed then the chances are they will not come back and you will lose their customer.  If this happens again and again you may find you do not have a business, social media is powerful in allowing those who experience bad software to make it know very quickly to a huge amount of people.  Can your business take that risk?

RANT over.....

Over to you the reader, what are your thoughts on this?

Further reading:

Testing vs Checking refined - James Bach
Continuous Deployment - Agile Alliance
Why continuous deployment - Eric Ries

Agile is.....

This post is inspired by the Michael Bolton post .. testing is...

I am becoming aware of more and more statements being made about the reduction in the need for dedicated testers in software development which follow the agile manifesto and principles. 

There is a growing call for developers to be both a tester and a developer and vice-versa.  Where the mantra is 'Everyone codes and everyone tests'.  I did a brief discussion on this topic in London for Tony Bruce.  In which we discussed the good and bad implications of this mantra.  Hopefully a new post will come out of that discussion at some point in the future.This post looks at what the agile manifesto and principles say in a testing context.  This is my thoughts on what the manifesto and principles of agile mean to testers and feel free to adapt,change, alter for your own purposes. When you come across people stating that there is no need for specialist testers in agile software development teams you can use some of the following:

• Agile among other things - is a word used to describe a manifesto and a set of principles for helping to develop software

• Agile among other things - is about delivering tested working software, which requires testing thinking skills

• Agile among other things - is about satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable tested software. 

• Agile among other things - is about using testing thinking skills to discover if the software is of value to the customer. 

• Agile among other things - is about empowering people to do good work, which requires people with testing expertise.

• Agile among other things - is about using testing skills to help deliver frequent working software.

• Agile among other things - is about using tools to support skilled testers.

• Agile among other things - is about people with a variety of experiences & skills working together to create products that customers want.

• Agile among other things - is about testing software so that the delivered software works in ways that a reasonable user expects.

• Agile among other things - is about producing working software where as much information about how the software behaves has been uncovered by skilled testers.

• Agile among other things - is about creating quality products using a diverse team with diverse range of skills and expertise.

• Agile among other things - is about working with people from a variety of backgrounds, programmers, testers, business, help desk, support and trusting them to develop working software.

• Agile among other things - is about testers informing others in the team by means of face to face communication what information of value they found during testing

• Agile among other things -  is about using automation tools to check  what you believe to be true is still true, but it does not replace skilled human testing.

• Agile among other things - is about being successful in delivering work tested software

• Agile among other things - is about embracing changes and having the confidence that the testers will uncover information of value regarding the changes made.

First four chapters completed

As some of you may be aware I have been spending some time writing a book (http://www.steveo1967.blogspot.com.es/2013/12/writing-book.html) about psychology and software testing.  It has been a huge learning experience and at times I have questioned myself on if this is something that people really want and more importantly willing to pay for.

I have kept pushing back the publishing date due to a number of reasons.  One of the main reasons has been do I publish early, even though the book is not complete at a discount price.  Since I am using LeanPub and can do this and get feedback on what i have done already.  Would people still be willing to buy a book that is not complete?  Having spoken to a few people there have been some mixed reactions.  Some people like the idea that they can get an unfinished book at a cheap price and then get the updates for free.  Others would rather wait and pay for a completed book.  So this dilemma has been running around my head for awhile now and even though I have about 30% of the book complete I was still reluctant to publish.

So it now comes to the reason for this post.

I have decided to go ahead and publish the first four chapters of the book.

These chapters include the following topics:

• Chapter 1 Software Testing Biases
• Chapter 2 An Emotional Rollercoaster
• Chapter 3 The Fallacy of Intuition
• Chapter 4 Quality Preference or Perception

I have another chapter on learning and training almost complete and once it has gone through the editing process it will be added to the published book.

As more of the book is completed I will be increasing the price by a dollar or two once a new chapter has been added.

Some of the topics (chapters) I plan to add in the future include:

• Heuristics Good and Bad
• Teamwork positive and negative
• Building Passion
• Automation: Machines and Humans
• The Importance of critical thinking
• System Thinking
• Being Creative

Some of these are, at the moment, a dump of my thoughts and ideas, others are nearly completed chapters.

I do hope you enjoy the book and please provide me with feedback and I may give you a mention in the book..

https://leanpub.com/thepsychologyofsoftwaretesting