Guide to Deployment Testing

Jun 13, 2023

Software deployment testing is more or less similar to opening the curtains to a play. By the time the curtains are raised, the audience sees a refined product that has undergone months of preparation and training. 

Likewise, software needs to undergo heavy deployment testing before it’s released to the public – this is done to ensure that it provides a satisfactory user experience. To remain competitive in today’s dynamic market, companies need to create high-quality software with minimal vulnerabilities and bugs. 

That said, while it’s impossible to completely eliminate bugs, the right combination of deployment testing solutions can significantly reduce them. This post will walk you through everything you need to know about deployment testing, including what it is and what its benefits are.

What Is Deployment Testing?

The creation of software basically involves six steps. You first need to develop the software, ensure it’s integrable, test it, stage it, produce it, and then finally deploy it. 

Deployment, which is the final stage, involves moving software from a controlled environment into production, then finally out into the market. Of course, there are several things that need to happen before the software can be deployed. For instance, it first has to undergo significant deployment testing. 

Subjecting software to deployment testing enables you to identify underlying problems and prevent those problems from sneaking into the production process. This not only saves time but also minimizes the chances of you doing something that can cause harm to your users. Needless to say, rushing software into the market without conducting proper deployment testing can result in more work, higher costs, and unsatisfied customers.

Benefits of Deployment Testing

Deployment is a crucial stage in the creation of software. When you establish a comprehensive deployment testing process, your team can enjoy several benefits, including:

Better Security

Before deploying software, it’s vital to ensure that your code is entirely secure. Security testing is essential for identifying vulnerabilities that threat actors could likely exploit. Deployment testing ensures that your software isn’t susceptible to security threats –and the potential bad outcomes that may result from successful security breaches, such as reputational damage and customer churn.

Seamless Compatibility

Testing for compatibility helps ensure that your software functions well across different operating systems, hardware, networks, devices, and browsers. In short, compatibility tests help you ensure that users can use your products proactively across devices and that they are actually working as was intended.

Superior Functionality

Testing the functionality of your app ensures that it is operating well. After all, you need to make sure that the app is working properly and intuitively by the time it is released to the market. Failure to deliver an app with superior functionality may result in users looking for alternatives.

Sound Performance

Releasing software into the market can be detrimental, especially if it is flawed. Users will avoid using it because of its shortcomings. They can also form a bad perception about your company and avoid using your products in the future. 

For the best results, you need to conduct performance testing through various conditions. For example, suppose you are developing an eCommerce app; you’ll need to assess how it handles a rapid increase in traffic. That way, you will determine whether you should scale up to handle heavy traffic.

Lower Costs

The earlier you detect vulnerabilities and bugs, the earlier you can fix them and the less costly they will be. Deployment testing significantly lowers software development costs because it allows you to eliminate them before they escalate. Because of this, your development team can continue improving the product rather than reworking errors down the road.

Superior User Experience

Of course, it’s important to keep user experience in mind when creating software and applications. Your software and applications need to be intuitive and user-friendly for them to generate repeat sales and positive user reviews. Prioritizing deployment testing helps reduce the likelihood of rolling out an application that doesn’t satisfy users’ needs or one that’s riddled with bugs.

deployment-testing-illustration-concept
Deployment Testing

Deployment Process Steps

Different companies tend to use different workflows and strategies when it comes to deploying software. But generally, there are three basic deployment steps, namely pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment. Let’s have a brief look at these steps:

Pre-deployment Testing

The pre-deployment step involves three processes: 

  • Verifying your test: By verifying the tests, you can catch mistakes with new codes, such as the presence of bugs, and fix them early when they are the cheapest to fix. 
  • Manually verify functionality: By building effective unit tests and performing high-quality manual tests, you can ensure that your software is performing properly. 
  • End-to-end testing: End-to-end testing helps ensure that your team continues to produce high-quality software. 

Pre-deployment testing is usually undertaken in testing environments, whether on-premise or on the cloud.

Deployment Testing 

Upon the completion of the pre-deployment stage, the production manager reviews the software and then approves it for deployment. At this point, the software goes live. Depending on the deployment strategy you employed, you may release the software to a select group of users or your entire user base at once.

Post-deployment Testing

The next testing phase is post-deployment, which is basically the testing of the software after it has been deployed into production. This type of testing can help you with issues that weren’t identified before the software was deployed. 

During this stage, you will re-test your software’s features, collect feedback from the pilot group, and monitor the software to ensure that it’s running optimally. Post-deployment will continue throughout the entire life cycle of the software. It will allow you to launch new features to keep the software secure, fast, and profitable.

Conclusion

Deployment testing is essential for success. It ultimately enables you to launch an intuitive, easy-to-use software and accelerates your workflows to make updates at higher frequencies. What’s more, it speeds up the software development process, giving your software development team a faster and more efficient way to work. Do you want to optimize your software testing? Appsurify’s TestBrain can help your existing practices undertake their testing practice more efficiently and optimize their functionality through automatic risk-based testing with deployment testing.

Reach out to us today to schedule a free demo and remove flaky tests that may distract your team.