DEV Community: Jignesh Solanki

5 Key Metrics to Measure DevOps Performance

Jignesh Solanki — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 04:15:20 +0000

Believe it or not, Cloud is the future of the IT industry. According to a survey report published by the puppet, in 2021, 90% of enterprises believe in cloud adoption and automation while 65% of medium-sized organizations are reported to be using the public cloud. Despite such a huge percentage of companies taking interest in the cloud, only 20% of them can use the cloud to its full potential. The reason is cloud implementation challenges. According to a survey, the top three reasons for cloud implementation failures are:

lack of understanding of cloud security and compliance (indicated by 56% of respondents)
lack of clearly-identified business objectives for migrating to the cloud (55%)
lack of planning (42%)

Not having the right metrics is also associated with Devop’s failure. DevOps metrics help in visualizing objectives and making them easier to understand. Such metrics are crucial for collecting, analyzing, and measuring cloud performance for better alignment with business goals and KPIs for continuous improvement. In this blog, we are going to discuss a few crucial DevOps metrics.

5 types of DevOps Metrics

1. Deployment Frequency

According to a survey conducted by Atlassian, 75% of organizations consider Deployment Frequency a core metric for effective DevOps practices. As the name suggests, Deployment frequency is associated with the number of deployments over a certain period As we know not all deployments are pushed to production, as such, the deployment frequency metric is used for the evaluation of the technical performance of the deployment pipeline. The metric gives details associated with failed deployments due to deployment errors. Such errors if not rectified in time can affect overall customer satisfaction.

2. Lead Time

The time it takes to implement, test, and deliver the code is known as lead time. The primary goal here is to increase the speed of deployment through automating the process of optimization, integration, or testing processes. This metric is important to figure out how responsive your organization is towards its end-users needs.

3. Mean Time to Recover (MTTR)

Not every deployment is picture-perfect. Sometimes, things go wrong with the production. In such an event, the deployment is sent back to service. MTTR or mean time to recover is the time taken to go back to service after a production failure. The point to be noted here is MTTR doesn’t measure the time it takes to fix a build but the responsiveness of the DevOps team during such an unpleasant situation. A decrease in MTTR increases in overall user experience.

4. Change Failure Rate

Also known as change failure percentage, it is the ratio between successful and unsuccessful changes. Failure comprises any change that results in service degradation, rollback, a fix-forward, a patch, or a hotfix. This metric doesn’t demand complete omission of failure. Failure sometimes leads to new insights and fixes. This specific metric helps DevOps teams to measure and track their progress. The change failure rate should gradually decrease over time as the DevOps team develops their experience and efficiency in handling situations.

5. Customer Ticket Volume

For organizations that hold high values for end-user satisfaction, this is the metric to follow. No matter how hard you try, few bugs and errors often bypass the testing phase. Those are faced by the end-users. The number of tickets raised by the end-users that are marked as problems or bugs is an important indicator of your application’s reliability. Moving ahead, you would want customer ticket volume to be less to have high-end user satisfaction.

Conclusion

DevOps deliver huge benefits to organizations. They contribute towards business value through the continuous delivery of products and services. But they are often considered complex to implement.

Using proper DevOps metrics, one can monitor the performance of DevOps teams and know whether their current DevOps strategy is paying off. In this blog, we discussed 5 of the crucial DevOps metrics that are worth monitoring.

Managing the Costs of JavaScript Frameworks: Is it Really that Bad?

Jignesh Solanki — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 15:54:10 +0000

Have you ever faced a situation where you try to open a website on your browser, but the page keeps loading? Even though you click on the blank screen, there seems to be no interactivity on the page, but you suddenly end up on a completely different page after a few seconds and dont know what exactly happened.

You are right to blame the interactivity and performance of the website because, most probably, the site is heavily dependent on JavaScript frameworks, which must be blocking the performance.

Despite being one of the most favored frameworks used by developers across the software development industry, there are certain costs associated with JS frameworks. It is also a challenge for developers since the cost of using JS is commonly performance, interactivity, and user experience, which is usually a developer’s priority.

The Costs:

JavaScript holds the title for being the widely used programming language by developers globally. Its popular frameworks include Angular, React, Vue, NodeJS, Meteor, Ember, and many more. Being a multiparadigm language, it can support functional, imperative, and event-driven programming styles.

While the pros of using JavaScript frameworks are endless and incomparable, the challenges usually arise when developers make the core functionality of their sites heavily dependent on JS. In an effort to improve performance, they end up being bottlenecks affecting the entire user experience for its users.

The typical costs of using JS frameworks include:

Downloading a file on the network
Executing the JS
Parsing and compiling uncompressed files after download
The cost of memory

When developers hope to utilize a framework, the idea is to give the program a value that extends beyond convenience and adding developer experience value. It must provide the desired user experience to its clients, improve performance, increase accessibility, and provide maximum security. Utilizing and shipping JS frameworks might come across as a good starting point for developers to make their programs performant, but not shipping it thoughtfully can bring in more hurdles than our expectations.

Downloading and Executing JS:

Optimizing JavaScript’s downloading and execution time is one of the foremost tasks that developers must consider while using JS frameworks.

Ideally, in a theoretical world, the downloading time on every device having the same network connectivity must be the same. However, this misconception usually costs companies thousands of dollars in real-time since they underestimate their clients’ or users’ network speed. Furthermore, on a global scale, despite the availability of 3G and 4G internet connectivity, the actual speed of those connections vary, therefore, the download time differs in different regions.

On the other hand, it’s not just the networking speed but also the devices people are using. Let’s accept the fact that not all mobile users have high-end divides with high processing CPU and GPU. Mid-range devices and low-end devices are spread across the digital market, and there is a stark difference in the time it takes to execute JS on different devices.

Source: https://v8.dev/blog/cost-of-javascript-2019

While you might want to test your site’s download and execution speed on a high-end mobile device like iPhone with a 4G connectivity, it would not always wield fruitful results. The task is to research about the users and start with optimizing the download and JS execution speed as the lowest end of the devices. If not always the lowest end, it’s ideal to optimize performance on mid-range devices that the majority of users might be using.

Overcoming the Challenges

JavaScript has always been a developers-friendly language. Overcoming the performance-related challenges would most come across as a learning experience instead of it being a huge coding challenge for the development team.

1. Improving Download Time

Keeping smaller JS bundles for download makes it easy for all range of devices to download the scripts, irrespective of their CPU and GPU. It improves the download speed, lowers CPU costs, and takes up less memory. In case the bundle exceeds 50 - 100 kb, it can be split into smaller ones.

2. Improving Execution Time

Long tasks can take up most of the execution time and block other critical tasks from being executed. Avoiding it can free up the time it takes to process the main thread, therefore improving the execution time.

3. Avoiding Inline Scripts

Long inline scripts take time to the memory of the main thread during the parsing and compilation process. Therefore, the best rule is to avoid inlining more than 1kb of the script because that is when code caching starts for external scripts.

Wrapping Up

Javascript frameworks can bring innumerable benefits to the website or application, but their large bundle size and execution time can kill user experience and interactivity for users. The task for developers is to ensure that the performance tax is cut off to a minimum for both mobile and desktop browsers. Once the execution, compilation, and parsing time are reduced through a standard performance budget, clients and users would automatically see a marginal improvement in interactivity.

The Best Website Examples Developed with React.JS

Jignesh Solanki — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 04:29:16 +0000

In the survey published in August 2021 by Stack Overflow, it is stated that React.js surpassed jQuery as the most commonly used web framework. Furthermore, it is stated that over 40% of professional developers showed interest in continuing to work with React.js over the next year and have extensively used the framework over the past year.

Introduced in 2011 by Meta (formerly Facebook), React.js has gained massive popularity among developers and B2B companies over the years. Trends. Builtwith declares React as a mega technology as it reports over 10,000,000 websites on the internet using it, in which they estimate 194,640,899 websites based on the 13,328,535 results they know are in the top 1 million sites.

The developers evidently show their love for the open-source frontend Javascript framework in the Github stars and forks. The technology has received 180k Github stars, 36.5k forks, and over 1500+ contributors.

The reason why this cool framework is in demand is its many benefits. The most apparent one is its ease of creating interactive user interfaces and its best rendering performances. Plus, the advantage of composable architecture as it allows you to work on individual components instead of the whole web application.

What makes this framework favorable is its virtual DOM and server-side rendering SEO. It helps React significantly reduce the load time, makes the application much faster, and gives better search ranking compared to websites built with client-side rendering.

So here's the list of some popular websites built with React and have been delivering great user experiences. These websites are an inspiration for anybody to create unique user interactions in their web applications. Meanwhile, for a precise idea of the cost to hire remote React developers to develop web apps with React.js this blog has got you covered.

1. Facebook:

With over 2.2 billion user bases, Facebook is the leading social media platform that uses the React.js library. Moreover, the mobile application of Facebook is also built with React Native framework, which has the native platform capabilities along with the React framework. Thanks to its component-based architecture, it makes it effortless for Facebook to load comments, notifications, and reactions without having users reload the page.

2. Netflix

An American subscription streaming service and production company use React to render the server side of its web pages. Netflix rolled out a new web playback user interface for all users after a series of AB testing and optimized its performance to a great extent. It also implemented a visual playback design and launched optimized video player controls. What's more, Netflix reduced Time-to-Interactive by 30% by prefetching HTML, CSS, and Javascript (React) for future navigations. Thus, Netflix places itself as one of the most popular and accessible websites that use React.js.

3. Reddit

An online community platform used by millions of users for submitting links, creating content, and having discussions. It has been using React.js since 2014. They used it on Reddit's Gifts page initially, and afterwards, they used it for the mobile website as React was faster and easier to work with. What's more, they have also started to replace some elements of their front page with React.

4. Airbnb

An online marketplace for lodging and homestays for vacation rentals and tourism activities, Airbnb has been using React.js for its web frontend. It also launched an open-source component testing library built with React.js. They use this library(Enzyme) to simulate scenarios and test React components.

5. Atlassian

A famous collaboration software company that builds useful software development products such as JIRA, Bitbucket, and Confluence has used React.js for many purposes.

“If software is eating the world, then JavaScript is eating software, and React is eating JavaScript.”- Travis Smith, Developer Evangelist, Atlassian

Further, he mentions in their Atlassian Developer blog, "At Atlassian, we use React internally and externally." They also have employed React for creating a new router for Jira Cloud's modern frontend experience.

6. Uber

Uber's software engineers have used the frontend library since they made the Uber website. They have created many open source libraries using React, among which the map rendering tools is the most impressive one. In addition, they used React and JavaScript (ES5 and ES6) to build data products as the core tools. What's more, Uber introduced their new design system — base web, a React component library for creating a device-agnostic foundation for easily building web applications.

Conclusion:

In the above list, we've discussed some of the most popular websites built with React.js. However, there are thousands of other web apps with unique and stunning user interfaces. What's your idea of creating a web application with React? Also, comment on your thoughts on React's popularity among developers and web-based software development companies.

3 Challenges of Regression Testing & Solutions For Your Projects

Jignesh Solanki — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 03:37:13 +0000

The software development cycle comprises of several phases. One of the essential phases is testing. But failing to have proper testing practices in place can impact your business operations.

For example, on 16th February 2020, a software glitch disrupted more than 100 flights to and from the Heathrow airport in London. According to a tech report, software failures have led to financial losses amounting to more than $1.7 trillion for several businesses across different industry domains. So, there is no denying that you need a reliable testing plan for your software to last longer within the market.

That being said, Regression testing is a method that enables developers to verify changes made in the new version of a software. It is used to ensure that the changes made do not impact the existing functionality. It is an approach where tests are re-executed on the latest versions against the earlier iterations.

Pros and cons of regression testing

When it comes to software testing, regression testing has proven to be very useful in ensuring performance consistency across different software versions. Though it sounds like a beneficial test, there are several disadvantages to regression testing as well. Let’s take a look at both sides of the coin!

Pros

Ensures any change in the code does not hinder the software functionality
Resolves recurring problems that a software may encounter
Identifies unforeseen risks and mitigating vulnerabilities
Reduces maintenance cost by reducing or eradicating downtime

Cons

Requires automated testing cases to avoid longer processing times
Massive amount of re-testing scenarios may be necessary
Need to build customized test cases as per required scenarios

Understanding the pros and cons is one thing, but the execution of regression tests and the challenges that come along with it is another.

Challenges of Regression Testing

1. Cost & time factor

The business aspect of the challenge in regression testing involves investment in resources and efforts. Furthermore, conducting the same tests, again and again, may be expensive. It is also time-consuming, and your resources are consumed for a specific period, which may impact the entire testing budget.

Solution:

The best solution to this problem is to automate regression testing. With the automation of specific repetitive test cases, you can save valuable time and resources. Here, prioritizing tests based on functional requirements is also essential. It will improve the productivity of test cycles. An efficient test cycle will help you optimize the total investment costs and resources used.

2. The value problem

Regression testing ensures that no bugs go unnoticed. Yet, several businesses think otherwise about the value this testing approach can offer. Some of the questions you may find yourself asking are:

Why do we need to test the same features again?
Why not develop new features instead of spending on regression testing?
What is the priority level for regression testing, among other activities in my software development lifecycle?

Such questions demand justification from the testing teams as well as the core features that take priority in your software. Moreover, if regression testing is not planned well, it may lead to the project being shelved as well.

Solution:

Educate the development and the testing team on why regression testing is essential for early discovery of bugs. For this, you need to share different scenarios of software failures with the team to emphasize on why early discovery is a smart decision.

For example, you can develop a scenario-based cost analysis that showcases how each bug failure can increase expenses regarding the development lifecycle. This would also help the entire project team to understand why regression testing is essential and its respective RoI.

3. Lack of clarity

Regression testing needs a clear definition of goals and metrics, and if not defined correctly, it can lead to increased costs. The major challenge is to create a comprehensive document of pre-defined metrics.

Solution:

Before creating a comprehensive document for different regression testing metrics, you must understand the impact each metric may have. Here are some to keep in mind:

Code percentage helps to determine the rate of code changes and their impact on the software.
Cyclomatic complexity allows you to determine the multifaceted nature of software, especially for white box testing. It helps to assess highly risky bugs.
Test Pass percentage helps to understand the average number of tests passed during the testing process.

Conclusion

Regression testing is not the only type of test that you may need to undertake. You need to answer different questions like why regression testing takes priority and what resources does it require? Such questions may pose a challenge for the testing team. However, you can overcome such challenges by implementing the right regression testing strategy.

5 Types of Application You Can Build from Node.js Backend Framework

Jignesh Solanki — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:43:59 +0000

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 engine. Due to its fast, lightweight, scalable, and flexible nature, Node.js has made a mark among the developer community in the last few years or so. According to Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, Node.js is the sixth most popular technology among developers, with a vote share of 33.91%.

Tech giants like Amazon, Netflix, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and PayPal use Node.js. The primary reason is that Node.js supports data-heavy computation and I/O heavy workload characteristics. Besides all of these benefits, it is asynchronous to handle multiple requests simultaneously with the utmost ease.

Now, if such tech giants are using Node.js for their daily work, then there’s every chance that you can build a variety of web applications with the help of this extraordinary backend framework. This blog will introduce the various types of applications that one can create using Node.js and its integral role in developing those apps. So, why wait for anything to happen? Let’s get things started right now.!

Types of apps you can build with Node.js

1. Real-time messaging apps

Nowadays, when communication has become a vital component of any business, chat or messenger applications are in massive demand. This application takes basis on the top of Instant Messaging (IM) or Internet Relay Chat (IRC) technologies. Due to the asynchronous nature of the Node.js framework, you can build real-time messaging apps with it. The event-driven API allows developers to manage real-time communication and push notifications. They can also establish and handle all the WebSockets, essential in real-time communication.

2. IoT-based apps

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the trending technologies utilized today to share data among various devices over the internet. Any IoT network comprises hundreds of such devices, and therefore, managing so many requests and data streams is the biggest challenge. That’s where the role of Node.js comes into the picture. The ability to process multiple requests simultaneously and manage all the events properly through the network makes the Node.js backend framework an excellent choice for building IoT-based applications in the modern era.

3. Social media apps

Social media is the buzzword in today’s day and age. So many social media applications have made their mark in the industry. Also, every day you see a lot of new social media apps coming to the fore. So, to build top-notch social media apps, you will require a robust backend infrastructure and load balancing mechanism. That’s where Node.js comes into play as it allows you to create scalable, strong, and high performant applications. Furthermore, you can make your product stand out from the competitors with this technology, as LinkedIn and Twitter did.

4. Single page applications

Single-page applications are a new-age approach in the web application development horizon where you try to fit in the application on a single page. The primary purpose of a single-page application is to provide a user-experiencer similar to that of a desktop application. All the scripts get loaded on one page, so managing the request immediately is the key to success. That’s where Node.js can be your best bet as it allows developers to handle asynchronous AJAX calls and manage heavy workload computations related to I/O with pinpoint accuracy.

5. Streaming applications

Earlier people used to read a lot of books and like text-format material. With so many audio and video streaming applications like NetFlix and Amazon Prime Video in play, that's not the case anymore. Streaming applications require downloading some part of the video or audio while the user is playing them. Node.js has a Stream API feature, making it possible for developers to build high-end streaming applications. Also, it has got readable and writable streams for managing the download part. That’s why you should build streaming applications with Node.js.

So far, you have understood the types of applications you can develop with Node.js. However, you need to hire remote Node.js developers to make it a reality. For that purpose, knowing the cost of hiring Node.js developers is paramount. Based on that, decide on developers and build a world-class web application for your business.

Wrapping up things

There are a variety of applications that one can build by using Node.js. Here, we have enlisted and discussed five of those applications and Node.js' role in making them. We hope this application will help you to know the use cases of Node.js appropriately.

Benefits of React Native for Mobile Application Development

Jignesh Solanki — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 06:40:58 +0000

Mobile apps have transformed the business horizon in the last few years. Earlier, people only used to give importance to websites or web applications for their online presence. However, with digitalization in the 21st century, mobile apps have become the prominent source for users to find your services or offerings. There are 6.3 billion smartphone users in the world as of 2021, and it will become 7.5 billion by 2026. So, you can clearly understand its potential and business reach.

Over the years, Android and iOS have dominated the mobile application development market. However, with so many small-scale businesses and startups making their presence felt, they’re looking for a budget-friendly mobile app that can run on both these platforms. That’s where the concept of cross-platform app development came into the picture. As a result, react Native is a cross-platform mobile app development framework that has dominated the market.

React Native has been one of the most utilized cross-platform frameworks among the software developer community in the last three years. So, the question is, why has it gained popularity in a short period? The answer is the benefits it brings to the table. In this blog, we will explore some of the critical advantages of React Native for mobile application development. So, let’s start the show right now!

Benefits of React Native for mobile application development

1. Reduction in time to market

One of the critical benefits of React Native is that it reduces the time to market compared to other mobile application development platforms by accelerating the development process. It is because there are so many readymade components available for React Native. You also have to work on one codebase instead of two separate codebases in the case of Android and iOS. Thus, the effort and time required to create an app are less than traditional mobile apps.

2. Increase in flexibility

React Native has a user interface that makes it easier for different developers to collaborate and work on the same project from where someone else has left. Furthermore, it dramatically increases flexibility and allows you to update and upgrade the mobile application with utmost ease. Again, this is advantageous for the software testers who have to create different test case scenarios. Overall, React Native will help you save a lot of time, effort, and money.

3. Excellent community support

React Native is an open-source framework backed by Facebook, and that’s why you will find many developers using and contributing to this community. As a developer, you can provide your suggestion and update the documentation without access. The framework was built by a community of developers, and therefore, any newbie will find a solution to all their burning questions related to React Native app development. That’s why there is a higher adoption rate.

4. Based on JavaScript

React Native takes its basis on the top of JavaScript and JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. As per a survey, it is used by more than 64% of developers across the globe. So, you will find many developers working on React Native who have a basic understanding of JavaScript. Moreover, new developers looking for a cross-platform mobile framework will tilt towards React Native as most know JavaScript.

5. Hot reloading

One of the most important goals of React Native is to provide a best-in-class user experience. For that purpose, the feature of hot reloading comes into the picture. The idea behind hot reloading is to keep the app alive while also adding a new version of the file that you have edited on the fly. This will allow you to upload the existing state. Besides that, it also allows you to keep your application running while adding new versions of the edited file with utmost ease.

6. Saves time and money

If you’re building native applications for your business, you need to develop two separate Android and iOS. That’s not the case with React Native. Here, you need to write only one codebase, and it will work on both Android and iOS. So, React Native helps you save a lot of time and money. Furthermore, the cost to hire remote React Native developers is comparatively less than the combined cost of hiring Android and iOS developers worldwide.

Summing up things

React Native is one of the most popular cross-platform app development frameworks due to its benefits to the mobile application development horizon. Here, we have tried to explore some of those critical benefits in detail so that you can know the reasons for the higher demand for React Native in today’s application development world.

5 Reasons Why Unit Testing Shouldn’t be Overlooked

Jignesh Solanki — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:41:39 +0000

The primary purpose of adopting an effective testing strategy for a software development project is to ensure that the end product is delivered error-free and provides a consistent user experience at all times.

Unit testing plays an important role in this area as it thoroughly tests software programs to make functionality as per customer expectations.

What is unit testing?

As a software testing method, unit testing divides the source code into smaller and individual units. The code is then tested to determine if it is fit for use. In case there are defects detected by the unit tests, they can be quickly located and repaired.

Unit tests repair bugs since the early stages of development and avoid any unwarranted delays in product delivery. These tests are either manual or automated. In the manual approach to unit testing, developers follow a step-by-step instructional process to perform efficient testing. On the other hand, automated unit testing requires the developers to first write a section of the code to enable testing a specific function. A report published by Globe Newswire in 2021 states that expansion in the market for electric vehicles has also increased demand for unit testing methods.

Here are 5 reasons to prove why unit testing must be an essential part of any software development process-

1. Increases agility and teamwork

As new features get added to any software, developers make frequent changes to the original code and design. When these changes are made in the previously tested code, it can be risky to push them directly into production. However, with unit testing, as every batch gets tested individually, code refactoring is entirely safe and effective and makes the entire coding process more agile.
Furthermore, as all the team members can easily view each other's code and logic, there is more cohesiveness and understanding among developers working on the same projects. The documentation provided by unit tests also helps onboard new developers in a team.

2. Improves code quality and debugging

According to a NIST report, the cost of bug detection at the production stage is 30x more compared to 5x at the coding stage. In addition, unit tests help developers find every defect in the code before it is sent for integration testing. Thus, it significantly improves code readability and testability. Unit testing best practices encourage developers to run unit tests parallely with the development process to ensure code maintainability throughout the development process.

Unit testing proves to be a significant advantage to simplifying the debugging process. In case a test fails, debugging the recent changes helps maintain clean code. In addition, it saves developers' time, and efforts spent dealing with unexpected bugs discovered at the production stage.

3. Enables easy documentation

Unit tests help developers understand the functionality of a specific unit's interface (API) and the intent behind the code. As a result, developers can fix the issues with software behavior and compare it with the original design even without proper documentation.

4. Reduces costs and resources

When the code undergoes frequent changes, it can lead to the discovery of bugs at later stages of the development stages. However, organizations can save resources and manual hours spent on bug fixes by integrating unit tests since the early stages.

5. Facilitates code reusability

Unit testing environments isolate individual modules of software with independent concerns. Every such module gets tested in a contained environment. As a result, the code is clean, maintainable, and accurate, thereby increasing the code's reliability and reusability.

Unit testing naturally has its significance, and avoiding it can lead to an overall impact on software performance and create a negative impression on the potential customers. Therefore, to ensure optimum performance of your software product, implementing a robust testing strategy with unit testing at its center is a need of the hour!

The Ultimate Guide to Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

Jignesh Solanki — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 12:13:45 +0000

There is always a lot of talk about the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in the IT industry. The reason behind that is it provides you with the roadmap through which you can develop world-class software. However, the focus only remains on the development phase.

People never talk about the integral role testing plays in enhancing the quality of your software or product. Testing is as or more important than the development phase. If it’s not given its due importance, you will end up compromising the quality of your software or the product.

While Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) helps you develop software according to the requirements, Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) validates them. This blog will discuss STLC, its need, and the major phases of STLC are. So, let’s start the show.!

What is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?

The Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) is a sequence of tasks designed to perform specific actions during the testing phase. It ensures that you meet the software quality guidelines as desired. Verification and Validation are two of the most important aspects of any STLC.

Now, you must have a basic understanding of STLC and its role in software development. However, what needs to be understood is the sequence of tasks and what role each one plays in the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC). So, let’s analyze that in our upcoming section.

Different Phases of Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

1. Requirements Gathering

Requirements Gathering is one of the most critical phases of STLC as it gives you the chance to fix all your errors free of cost. During this phase, you can identify whether there’s a need for automation testing or manual testing is good enough for your project. You can also make labor cost calculations based on the data gathered during this phase. Furthermore, this is the phase where you decide the Entry and Exit criteria for the software development project.

2. Test Planning

Once you gather all the requirements, the next step is to create a test plan involving all the testing phases, timing, participants, and responsibilities.

With the help of this data, you would know three things:

The role of each participant in the testing
The tools required for testing
The necessary test environment

Planning well is half the battle won, and so, you must plan your testing phase with clarity and precision.

3. Test Case Development

After creating a detailed test plan, the next thing you need to do is focus on creating test cases. Whether through a manual testing approach or by using test automation tools available in the market, generate test cases for all critical functionalities of your software or product. Moreover, you should remember to separate the test cases for manual testing and automation testing.

4. Test Environment Setup

Based on the Test Plan made in the second phase, you should set up a test environment. The configuration involves setting up operating systems, virtual machines, testing tools such as Selenium, Katalon Studio, and database deployment. You can also take the assistance of a DevOps expert in this phase if required, as it could impact the continuous delivery mechanism.

5. Test Execution

Successful execution of test cases depends on (i) test documentation and (ii) test environment. All the test cases get recorded in a Test Management System. Here, the Negative records are the errors or bugs in your software, and the testing team passes them onto the development team. The development team works on them and again sends them back for re-testing.

6. Test Cycle Enclosure

Test Cycle Enclosure is the last phase of STLC, where you generate test reports for the clients. It comprises time spent executing test cases, a ratio of positive and negative test cases, and the total number of errors found in the project. Here, the testing department sums up its works and analyzes the reports in detail to estimate the quality of the software or the product. Again, communication is the key during this phase as it could also uncover software testing costs.

Summing Up Things

Software testing is not as easy as it sounds. It’s only a single task through which you can verify and validate the software. You should adequately execute a sequence of functions to achieve thoroughness and accuracy in the testing process. Here, we have provided you with an ultimate guide on Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) and its various phases, which would prove helpful for you.

5 Best Frameworks to Use for Your Web App Development

Jignesh Solanki — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 11:23:01 +0000

In today’s day and age, when everyone wants quick output and production in the web application development industry, frameworks have become a new trend in the market. It allows you to develop interactive web applications within a matter of minutes.

There won’t be any developer in today’s IT world who hasn’t had firsthand experience working with front-end and back-end frameworks. Frameworks have empowered developers and given them a new lease of life. It also allows developers to follow rapid development principles.

Nowadays, there are so many frameworks available at your disposal for web app development that it becomes difficult to choose the best one out of them. To address this concern, we have decided to write this blog. Here, we will provide you with five of the best frameworks for web app development. So, let’s start the show, right here, right now.!

5 Best Frameworks for Web App Development

1. React

React is one of the most popular web application development frameworks utilized by many developers across the globe. It is a javascript library that assists you in developing high-end user interfaces. Developed and maintained by Facebook, React was the first one to adopt the component-based architecture. Furthermore, the framework has a virtual DOM mechanism which makes it easier for developers to manipulate it with the help of JSX syntax as well.

Key Features

Reusable and declarative components
Unidirectional data flow
Virtual DOM
Small learning curve
Easy to create dynamic web apps

Famous Companies Using It

Netflix
New York Times
Dropbox

2. jQuery

jQuery is a fast, small, and feature-rich javascript-based web application development framework that simplifies the HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation. In addition, the framework provides you with plenty of in-built plugins that make the developer’s job easy. Moreover, it simplifies complex tasks such as event handling, CSS animations, and AJAX calls. Lastly, jQuery is a free and open-source framework so that developers can use it without fees.

Key Features

DOM manipulation and element selection
HTML events methods
Plenty of plugins for usage
CSS animation and AJAX support
Seamless integration with javascript

Famous Companies Using It

Morgan Stanley
Uline
FireEye

3. Express.js

Express.js is one of the most popular web development frameworks based on Node.js that assist you in developing dynamic web applications and APIs. It is a lightweight and fast server-side framework gaining popularity among the developer community due to its robust features and minimalist approach. When it comes to enterprise app development or API, Express.js has become the no.1 choice for web app development companies across the globe.

Key Features

Middleware support
High-class caching mechanism
Templating engine availability
Minimalistic approach
Highly flexible and scalable

Famous Companies Using It

Twitter
Slack
Accenture

4. Angular

If you’ve been associated with the web app development industry for a long time, you must have heard about Angular. Developed by Google, it is one of the most acceptable web app frameworks for UI and UX development. The framework also assists developers in building feature-rich, interactive, and dynamic user interfaces for modernized web applications. Moreover, if you want to create a Single Page Application (SPA), Angular is the best choice.

Key Features

Code reusability
Two-way data binding
Support for open-source libraries
Plenty of tooling support
Cross-platform compatibility

Famous Companies Using It

Gmail
Forbes
PayPal

5. Vue.js

Vue.js was introduced in 2014 as one of the core alternatives to the Angular and React framework. Whether it's building dynamic web applications with rich interfaces or crafting high-end Single Page Applications, Vue.js is one of the first web app frameworks that comes to every developer's mind. Due to this kind of dynamic feature, Vue.js has gained popularity among the development community. Many companies also use it for responsive web design.

Key Features

Virtual DOM rendering
Two-way data binding
Easy to learn, use, and understand
Solid tooling ecosystem
Concise documentation

Famous Companies Using It

Nintendo
Adobe
Gitlab

Wrapping Up Things

Choosing the proper framework for web application development is essential in today’s day and age as you need to provide high-quality products within a limited timeframe. Otherwise, you won’t be able to stay competitive in the fierce IT market. Taking this into consideration, here we have explored the top 5 frameworks for web application development. We hope it will help you when you plan for your next web development project.

5 Vital Aspects of Choosing The Best Cloud Platform For Your Business

Jignesh Solanki — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 03:54:55 +0000

Choosing the right cloud platform can be frustrating, especially when many options are available in the market. This is due to the surge in cloud adoptions. As more organizations are adopting the cloud, new platforms are emerging, providing more options to them.

According to “The State of Cloud Adoption in 2021”, 83% of respondents indicated that cloud-based developments and deployment are their top IT priority. So, there is no denying that ignoring cloud adoptions is not an option, with most competitors switching to it. Fortunately, several options are available in the market, like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others.

But, how do you select a suitable cloud platform?

It is a difficult question to answer as every business has different requirements for cloud adoption. For example, while some companies develop entire applications in the cloud environment, others use a hybrid approach.

So, which cloud platform caters to your needs will depend on what are business-specific requirements. Here, we will discuss five vital aspects of choosing the right option for your business.

1. Knowing the Options

Every purchasing decision has three steps; first is the realization of the problem, then consideration of different options, and finally, choosing one. Now we already have seen why organizations are looking for cloud platform options, and it’s essential to discuss all of them.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)- AWS was the first market leader in cloud computing platforms offering Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) way back in 2008. However, AWS provides more than just cloud computing services with integrations of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms.

Even for computing needs, it offers services like Amazon EC2 and serverless platforms like AWS Lambda. In addition, AWS also enables communication services through Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service), Amazon Chime, and others.

It offers services across 78 availability zones, 25 geographical regions and comes with 46 compliance certificates.

Microsoft Azure- It is one of the fastest-growing cloud platforms despite launching quite later than giants like AWS and Google Cloud Platforms. Not only does Azure offer cloud-based database services but tons of other computing and infrastructure services for enhanced business intelligence.

It provides cloud platform services for AI, Machine Learning, High Compute Platform (HCP), Containers, DevOps, Microsoft Azure Stack, Migrations, Developer Tools, etc. It offers services across 140 availability zones, 54 geographical regions and comes with 90 compliance certificates.

Google Cloud Platform- Google has been a market leader, especially in the public cloud space, integrating its services into the Android Operating System. However, its cloud platform services are not limited to just public cloud services; several other features are offered such as,
Data Analytics
API Management
Hybrid & Multi-cloud Service
Security and Identity
Serverless Computing
Google Maps Platform

It offers services across 61 availability zones and 21 geographical regions. Now that you know which cloud platforms to choose, let’s understand when to select the most suitable platform for your business.

2. Timing of Cloud Adoption

When it comes to cloud adoption, timing is everything. Every business is different, and its organizational structure is unique. So, it is essential to have gradual adoption to accommodate proper training and acclimatization for employees to the new cloud-based platform.

Take an example of Spotify, where the task of cloud migration was divided into 50-70 services a week. This approach allowed their engineers, stakeholders, and development teams to adjust according to the progress of migrations.

The entire migration process took about a year, but the cloud migration lesson that Spotify’s case provides is patience; they prepared for two years before the migration. Once your organization is ready for cloud adoptions, you will have to choose a cloud platform like certifications, availability zones, etc.

3. Reliable Certifications

One of the most important aspects of choosing a cloud provider is its certification and compliance with industry standards. For example, if you want to operate in European countries, you must comply with the specific data regulations set by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Similarly, there are several regional and international compliances for businesses to follow, and your cloud service provider must comply with all of them. You will also need to check on their security protocols and systems to ensure that the data is safe while using such services.

4. Security Measures

Cybersecurity issues are rising as the number of connected devices is increasing. For example, according to Cisco’s data, DDOS attacks or distributed denial-of-service attacks will grow up to 15.4 million by 2023.

So, you need a reliable security system installed to prevent such attacks. If you are looking to choose a cloud platform, check for pre-built security systems or tools that help protect your data. Another important aspect is data recovery tools or systems which will help recover any data lost during the migrations.

5. Data Recovery

Data recovery is essential as there can be instances of data loss during the migration of workloads. According to {Datto](https://www.datto.com/au/resources/the-cost-of-downtime), the average cost due to downtime is $11,600 per minute, which can be massive for any organization.

So, you need to ensure that there are no downtimes due to the loss of data. For this, you need to choose a cloud platform that comes with pre-built data recovery tools.

Conclusion

Cloud platforms are many, which is good news because you get so many options to choose from. However, selecting a suitable platform can be challenging as they come with great features and services.

The best way to choose a cloud platform is to analyze your business needs and compare their services based on different aspects like security, compliance, certifications, availability, and more. This will help you select the best cloud platform for your business.

The Importance of Waterfall Methodology In The Software Development Life Cycle

Jignesh Solanki — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 11:52:17 +0000

Let’s imagine a development team has received a new application project they need to make from scratch. But the problem is, there is no documentation, planning, or laid out responsibilities of the team members. So they have started with what they seem to do the best, and the project appears to be going nowhere.

This is what happens when there is no defined methodology or model for the software development life cycle.

Every SDLC demands a model/methodology to give a sense of direction to the development process. These models define the structure, phases the development process would go through, its testing requirements, and lay down the responsibilities of the team members.

Amongst the popular development models and software testing methodologies, the waterfall model is one of the oldest methods for developing and testing an application. Let us know more about its design, the phases of development, model application, advantages, and disadvantages.

Waterfall Methodology: Definition

The first concept of the linear top-down methodology in software development was introduced in the late 1900s. The same concept was later labeled the “waterfall methodology,” and the term was coined by an American computer scientist, Winston Royce.

Also known as the linear sequential life cycle model, the waterfall methodology is considered one of the first, yet rigid form development and testing methodology. It follows a vertical sequential path, where the next phase of the development only begins once the previous phase is complete. Owing to its sequential nature, there can be no going back and forth once a phase is complete, making it an expensive model for applications that would often require modifications.

Phases of Waterfall Methodology

There are five predefined phases within the waterfall methodology: Requirements, Design, Implementation, Verification, and Maintenance.

Let us look at each phase in detail:

Requirements The first step of the waterfall methodology is to list out the requirements of the application. This phase emphasizes on defining the business objectives, planning out the course of action, documentation, and deciding on a testing strategy.
Design The second phase of the waterfall methodology studies the application’s requirements and makes a suitable design for its implementation. The system design specifies the hardware and software specifications, application architecture, features to add to the application, and interface design.
Implementation Once the documentation and design specifications are laid out, it is time to take action with implementation. The developers code every design-specific requirements and ensure that it meets the client’s business expectations.
Verification or Testing The verification, also considered the testing phase, is one of the most crucial phases in the development model. It ensures the application’s security, performance, responsiveness, availability, and if it can engage its users.
Maintainance Once the application is verified, tested, and deployed, it is up to the developers to ensure that they maintain the application’s performance to enhance its user experience.

When To Use Waterfall Methodology?

Every application has specific and definitive requirements that have to be fulfilled during the software development life cycle. Thus, while the waterfall methodology is one of the first and easy transitioning models, only a few particular conditions can make it an appropriate model for use.

Here are some instances when the waterfall methodology can be used:

Application requirements are defined, documented, and fixed.
Technological requirements are set and not dynamic.
There are fewer chances of iterations or modifications in the future.
Resources and expertise are available for developing the application.
The project is short and straightforward, compared to a complex application.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Irrespective of its effectiveness, every SDLC model has its advantages and disadvantages for an application.

Here are some of the advantages of the waterfall methodology:

It is a step-by-step laid-out strategy for developing and testing an application.
The methodology is best suited to plan and manage short project requirements.
The planning and documentation at an early stage of the development process make it inexpensive.
With no scope for iterations within the development phases, the model provides faster delivery, improving an application’s time-to-market.

Here are some of the disadvantages of the waterfall methodology:

The sequential phases within the model make iterations difficult and expensive.
The model is unsuited to accommodate unplanned changes in the application.
The testing and verification process is pushed down later in the development model.

Is the Waterfall Model Worth Using?

The waterfall model has always been the backbone of simple to modern application development processes. Despite its rigidity and other limitations, the model has always been a preferred choice of methodology for creating applications. Furthermore, some modern methodologies have evolved from it, including the agile model, iterative development model, and the V-model.

In case you are thinking about the waterfall model being worth a shot, then it definitely is, given that all the necessary requirements are met.

Want to know more about other software development and software testing methodologies?

Visit our site and learn more about the intricacies of a software development life cycle.

Rehosting Strategy for Cloud Migration: Top Use Cases and Drivers

Jignesh Solanki — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 11:47:59 +0000

Cloud migrations are a mixed bag- rewarding and challenging! Cloud migration is evident as you have to pay per use with the flexibility of on-demand scaling and more time to innovate.

Cloud computing has seen a boom due to the recent pandemic. A Flexera report suggests that 62% of enterprises have seen a little more than the planned increase in cloud usage. Similarly, 52% of small businesses also saw more cloud usage than they had intended.

As cloud adoption increases, these organizations need to have reliable strategies to cope with the sudden migration of workloads. One such cloud migration strategy is Rehosting or the lift and shift, where workloads, data, and applications are migrated without any changes.

It is a strategy where you don’t need to make changes in the code structure or architecture and thus make the entire process simple. So, if you are looking for a cloud migration strategy that does not include any changes or modifications to your existing architecture, rehosting can be the best choice.

Here, we will discuss the rehost strategy, use cases, and drivers that determine usage of the forklift approach. But, first, let’s understand cloud migration!

What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is more than just shifting your infrastructure to cloud services. It will affect different aspects of your business, processes, and technology. For example, you are moving from a small apartment to an entire villa! You may have more space but will have to plan it to optimize the usage.

Similarly, cloud migrations offer higher resources and flexibility of paying per usage, but you need to plan them. Take an example of Spotify’s cloud adoption journey. Music streaming giant required an infrastructure that can handle 100+ Petabytes of data with a 20,000 daily data pipeline running to connect millions of customers to the platform.

Google Cloud Platform was the solution Spotify needed and to which they migrated 1200+ services through rehosting (lift and shift) strategy. In addition, cloud migration helped Spotify have secure and flexible storage with higher cost-efficiency than on-premise data centers they used earlier.

Likewise, organizations that struggle with the restrictive capabilities of legacy infrastructure can leverage rehost strategy to achieve flexibility, scalability and save on operating costs. But, first, let’s discuss the forklift approach and understand the drivers behind choosing it.

Rehost Strategy

Rehost is a cloud migration strategy that moves data, applications or other IT assets from on-premise infrastructure or even one cloud service to another without code-level changes. The cloud migration strategy allows organizations to migrate their infrastructure to cloud services faster without disrupting the performance.

Automation of rehost strategy can benefit your organization due to reduced time on repetitive tasks like configuration and assessments. CloudEndure Migration and AWS VM Import/Export are tools you can use to automate rehost strategy.

Rehosting Use Cases

Lift and shift is a simple strategy in terms of execution and yet has specific use cases like,

Evacuation of data center or termination of the service provider
Migration of a large chunk of applications in a short time
The skillset of in-house staff aligning with a strategy like rehost rather than re-platform or refactoring.
If you have commercial-off-the-shelf applications to migrate
No need to make changes in the codebase for migrations of applications
Maintenance of legacy black box systems for your organization that can be migrated directly to cloud services.

Now, let’s understand some of the drivers that determine the usage of rehost strategy.

Drivers for Rehosting

Rehost strategy is an immediate solution and, at the same time, fundamental in its execution. So, you can’t rely on such a strategy for complex integrations or high-end cloud deployments.
The results are excellent.

However, if you can leverage the rehosting approach simultaneously with other cloud migration strategies like retain or retire. Furthermore, the hybrid approach can simplify changes by moving some IT assets and reconfiguring others to achieve operational excellence.

Benefits of Rehosting Strategy

Reduces the need to develop new codes as the migration process does not require any code structure and infrastructure changes.
No disruption in the business capabilities during the migration process due to unchanged core architecture
No changes are needed in the security policy and compliance properties as the core services remain the same.
It offers rapid migrations and reduces downtime of the systems making it an efficient cloud migration strategy.

Conclusion

The complexity of multiple cloud migration strategies is not everyone’s cup of tea, and many organizations don’t want complex cloud adoptions. For such companies, lift and shift strategy is a no-nonsense approach that does not have to deal with the complexity of refactoring systems. So, choosing rehost seems evident because they don’t have to untangle the nuances of various migration strategies.