What are the best ways to test your DevOps automation?

1 Unit testing

Unit testing is the process of verifying the functionality and correctness of individual components or modules of your DevOps automation code. For example, you can use unit testing to check if your scripts, functions, or configuration files work as expected, handle errors, and comply with coding standards. Unit testing can help you identify and fix bugs early, improve code quality, and reduce technical debt. You can use various frameworks and tools to automate unit testing, such as pytest, unittest, or Testinfra for Python, or Jest, Mocha, or Chai for JavaScript.

2 Integration testing

Integration testing is the process of validating the interactions and dependencies between different components or modules of your DevOps automation code. For example, you can use integration testing to check if your code can communicate with external services, APIs, databases, or other systems that are part of your cloud infrastructure. Integration testing can help you verify the compatibility and functionality of your code in a realistic environment, detect integration issues, and ensure the reliability and security of your DevOps automation. You can use various frameworks and tools to automate integration testing, such as Postman, SoapUI, or Rest-Assured for API testing, or Selenium, Cypress, or Puppeteer for web testing.

4 Continuous testing

Continuous testing is the practice of integrating testing into every stage of your DevOps automation lifecycle, from development to deployment to operation. Continuous testing enables you to automate and execute tests in a fast and frequent manner, using tools such as Jenkins, Travis CI, or CircleCI for continuous integration, or Ansible, Chef, or Terraform for continuous delivery. Continuous testing can help you accelerate and optimize your DevOps automation, ensure consistent and continuous quality and feedback, and support agile and iterative development.

5 Peer review

Peer review is the process of having your DevOps automation code reviewed by another developer or team member before merging or deploying it. Peer review can help you improve your code quality, readability, and maintainability, as well as identify and resolve errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Peer review can also foster collaboration, learning, and knowledge sharing among your DevOps team, and promote best practices and standards. You can use various tools and platforms to facilitate peer review, such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket for code hosting and version control, or CodeClimate, SonarQube, or Codacy for code analysis and quality.