By Sharmila Stephen, threatER QE Manager
Balancing speed with quality is crucial in today’s fast-paced software development environment. Our engineering team recognized the need to embrace an automation-first approach to achieve this balance effectively. Together, we led a strategic shift toward automation across the enterprise, building a foundation that empowers our teams to deliver high-quality software at speed.
To share the key strategies and frameworks our team has developed and implemented to foster a quality-centric culture. Guided by our principle of ‘Think big, start small, and move fast,’ we quickly advanced our journey toward test automation, enabling faster, risk-minimized releases across the enterprise.
Establishing an Automation-First, Shift-Left Mindset
Challenge: Our traditional testing processes were often manual, time-consuming, and reactive, making it challenging to maintain speed and quality. We recognized the need for a proactive approach that would bring quality checks into the earliest stages of development.
Solution: We implemented a comprehensive end-to-end automation strategy with a strong shift-left focus, empowering teams to prioritize quality from the start.
- By embedding an “automation-first” mindset across the organization, we fostered a culture of collaboration and shared accountability, enabling our teams to collectively drive quality and efficiency.
Designing and Implementing the Automation Framework
Overview: The foundation of our automation journey was building a robust framework capable of handling large-scale testing needs.
Key Technologies & Tools:
- Developed a test automation framework using Cypress for functional testing and Cypress-Cloud and native reporters for reporting defects.
- Integrated the automation framework with manual test management tools to establish comprehensive end-to-end test coverage metrics.
Achievements:
- Scaled automation coverage for end-to-end tests from 0 to 1,200 scripts in under a year, covering UI, API, and database testing for critical workflows.
- Achieved 100% automated smoke test coverage for critical flows and 85% regression coverage within 8 months.
- Advanced test automation enabled us to execute our regression tests in under 30 minutes, drastically reducing testing time and allowing faster feedback loops.
Defect Management and Reducing Risk
Challenge: Managing the defect lifecycle and reducing defect density was critical to ensure high-quality releases.
Solution: By implementing advanced defect lifecycle management, we reduced defect density by 95% from pre-release to relaunch.
Risk Management:
- Set key quality KPIs, such as defect leakage and turnaround time, ensuring production defects are maintained at 0-1% per release.
- Balanced automation coverage with risk management, ensuring critical workflows advanced with minimal risks.
Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement
Overview: Achieving organizational-wide success with automation required alignment with all stakeholders.
Key Activities:
- We collaborated closely with cross-functional teams to align automation goals with business objectives.
- Defined clear KPIs and ensured ongoing communication to mitigate risks and manage delivery timelines effectively.
Reflections on Impact and Key Takeaways
Reflecting on Success: Our automation efforts were a significant success, delivering faster, higher-quality releases while reducing risks.
Key Takeaways:
- Automation-first culture is essential for driving quality at scale.
- A robust framework, continuous monitoring, and strong collaboration create a sustainable QA strategy.
Future Directions: Continue evolving the automation framework to address new challenges, such as further enhancing security testing and improving AI-driven test optimizations.