The term microservices was introduced by Peter Rodgers as early as 2005, but it has only gained notoriety in the past couple of years. A substantial number of companies that had previously invested in DevOps have now opted to create their software applications using microservices.
As per recent research by The Courier, the microservices architecture market is projected to hit $8,073 million at a CAGR of +18% between 2020–28, it’s quite safe to say that microservices are the future of app development.
But as it is with every new technology, organizations have been facing many issues trying to implement it. To resolve these issues, an organization requires the assistance of a software testing company that can automate microservices testing. But this is no easy task, any tester who has tried performing test automation can attest to that. Automating microservices testing involves its own set of problems and challenges.
In this article, we will take a look at the top 5 ways to automate microservices testing.
But first, let us understand what microservices are and how they work.
What are Microservices?
Microservices is one of the two basic development styles (the other being monolithic development style). It consists of very small, extremely focused services that come together to make up what is ultimately a complete application or task. One of the biggest advantages of utilizing automation testing services to test microservices is that they (microservices) are independent of one another, making them separately deployable and testable.
But why should you opt for microservices over a monolithic development style? Let’s look at some basic differences to understand the benefits microservices hold over monolithic.
Monolithic VS Microservices
Monolithic designs consist of one large system that has just one code-base. It is challenging to isolate services for independent scaling in monolithic applications as their design gets more and more tangled as the application evolves. As the design consists of variables or services that are completely dependent on each other, it is very troublesome to make any changes to the technology built using monolithic architecture.
Microservices architectures are built keeping the business processes in mind. In microservices applications, each service is independent of the other at the code level, making it is convenient to configure and deploy entirely.
Now that we know the advantages microservices hold over their predecessors. Let’s look at the top 5 ways in which you can automate microservices testing.
Top 5 ways to Automate Microservices Testing
1. Unit Testing
Microservices are themselves build on the notion of splitting the smallest unit of the business process. These services then work in unison, communicating with each other over a network. This functionality makes unit test the go-to test to validate each microservice independently.
Combining microservices with unit testing helps testers to avoid false positives, making tests run faster as well as limiting the scope of testing.
Unit tests provide testers with both motif and speed, making it essential to microservices.
Keeping unit tests as small as possible makes it easier to express product behaviour since the branching complexity of a unit is lower.
Unit testing provides the coverage of each module in the system in isolation.
When you make any changes in the microservice, you can unit test to check the stability of the new components rather than checking the entire app.
2. Shift-Right Testing
We are slowly moving away from the world of complicated systems to a place where we establish links with engaging ones. Microservices allow these complicated systems to be more scalable by breaking them down into small parts.
Microservices-based architecture creates fluid, shifting relationships that can only be understood by testing in production. Testing in production or shift-right testing improves the overall quality of apps created using microservices. Shift-right testing allows testers to understand how their apps will behave and consumed after release, reducing the uncertainty.
While performing end-to-end testing, testers treat the system as a black box, as it validates that the system meets the business goals notwithstanding the architecture in use.
Microservices are independent of one another and can be utilized in many different ways by the user. Having a typical end-to-end automation testing strategy isn’t as effective as it is with monolithic software designs.
A traditional end-to-end testing approach will falter as it is arduous to assess all possible workflows that a user is going to perform in real-time.
Using contemporary techniques such as contract testing will allow you to reduce your overall spending and efforts.
4. Contract Testing
Contract testing is used to verify that contracts between components are honoured by capturing the interactions that are exchanged between each service and storing them. This test gives you credence that the components can work together.
Contract tests can be executed quickly and don’t need to integrate into external systems to run. Contract testing advocates for better internal microservices design as well as build confidence that the systems you integrate with are compatible with your code before you release it.
5. Integration Testing
Integration testing ensures that microservices can collaborate as intended to serve a greater business purpose. It also peters out any bugs that a microservice might have by testing the communication path through a subsystem, thus improving the interaction with its peers.
During an integration test, each request touches several services before it circles back to the user with a response. This test ensures that one of the most essential functionalities of service-to-service testing i.e., tracing is fulfilled.
To Conclude
The prefix “micro” can be misleading at times to people who don’t understand the utility of microservices. Even though it is true that microservices are small in terms of stature, but they certainly can fulfil every business’s needs.
Microservices offer a pluggable design. This design enables you to upgrade your systems expediently while saving costs. This functionality makes it easier for you to scale up and scale down your app according to the demands and needs of the company. Thus, improving the scalability of the application.
Microservices can be tested using many different techniques. All of these techniques help in improving the quality of microservices architecture. Thus, improving the functionality and usability of your software application.
