Shift Left and Shift Right Development Methodologies

Introduction

• Presenter: Alex USA Days
• Topic: Shift Left and Shift Right Development Methodologies
• Context: Last video in the development methodologies section
• Next Section: Types of testing, test plans, test creation, and test management

Shift Left Methodology

• Core Idea: Move testing activities earlier in the development process (design & development stages)
• Objectives: Emphasize problem prevention, early bug detection
• Approach:
  • Engage in early test planning during grooming sessions with product owners/managers
  • Developers focus on unit and integration testing during development
  • Lower-level testing (e.g., API and database testing) prioritized
  • Quality is integral to product planning, design, and architecture
• Popular Frameworks:
  • TDD (Test Driven Development): Write tests first, then code
  • BDD (Behavior Driven Development): Describe system behavior in plain English using Gherkin language, then code

Shift Right Methodology

• Core Idea: Focus testing activities closer to production (post-production and maintenance stages)
• Objectives: Controlled production testing, monitoring
• Approach:
  • Canary Releases: Deploy changes to a small subset of users first, monitor, then gradually increase
  • Feature Flags: Toggle new features on/off in production without user impact
  • Monitoring: Keep an eye on production logs for errors, response times, load handling
  • Automated Regression Testing: Run clean end-to-end tests in production

Combined Approach

• Optimal Strategy: Implement elements from both Shift Left and Shift Right
• Benefits:
  • Early bug detection and prevention
  • Ensuring stability and performance in production
• Practical Considerations:
  • Resource availability
  • Testing time frames

Conclusion

• Presenter's Advice: Balance both methodologies to achieve thorough test coverage and stable production
• Next Steps: Transition to discussing various types of testing, test plan creation, and QA best practices

Additional Resources

• Links for detailed reading on TDD, BDD, and other terminologies mentioned in the lecture

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