DevOps.com

  • Latest
    • Articles
    • Features
    • Most Read
    • News
    • News Releases
  • Topics
    • AI
    • Continuous Delivery
    • Continuous Testing
    • Cloud
    • Culture
    • DataOps
    • DevSecOps
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • Leadership Suite
    • DevOps Practice
    • ROELBOB
    • DevOps Toolbox
    • IT as Code
  • Videos/Podcasts
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
    • DevOps Unbound
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Library
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • On-Demand Events
  • Sponsored Content
  • Related Sites
    • Techstrong Group
    • Container Journal
    • Security Boulevard
    • Techstrong Research
    • DevOps Chat
    • DevOps Dozen
    • DevOps TV
    • Techstrong TV
    • Techstrong.tv Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv Video Podcast
    • Techstrong.tv - Twitch
  • Media Kit
  • About
  • Sponsor
  • AI
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Continuous Testing
  • DataOps
  • DevSecOps
  • DevOps Onramp
  • Platform Engineering
  • Low-Code/No-Code
  • IT as Code
  • More
    • Application Performance Management/Monitoring
    • Culture
    • Enterprise DevOps
    • ROELBOB
Hot Topics
  • Cisco Bets on OpenTelemetry to Advance Observability
  • 5 Technologies Powering Cloud Optimization
  • Platform Engineering: Creating a Paved Path to Reduce Developer Toil
  • Where Does Observability Stand Today, and Where is it Going Next?
  • Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities

Home » Features » DevOps Golden Rule: Writing More Code for Test Than For Production

DevOps Golden Rule: Writing More Code for Test Than For Production

By: Ericka Chickowski on March 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

Continuous improvement can help completely turnaround a staid IT organization into an innovation machine. But without effective test automation, that transformation is a non-starter. So says Gary Gruver, who has led DevOps journeys both at HP and Macy’s and now works as a consultant guiding other organizations through his firm, Practical Large Scale Agile.

Recent Posts By Ericka Chickowski
  • 5 Ways DevSecOps Can Manage Software Supply Chains
  • 4 Traits of High-Performance Digital Leaders
  • Are Self-Service Machine Learning Models the Future of AI Integration?
More from Ericka Chickowski
Related Posts
  • DevOps Golden Rule: Writing More Code for Test Than For Production
  • 7 Great Thoughts on Real-world DevOps Transformations
  • Electric Cloud Launches Extended DevOps Training and Certification Program In Partnership with DevOps Institute
    Related Categories
  • Features
    Related Topics
  • gary gruver
  • ibm
  • InterConnect
Show more
Show less

Last month at IBM InterConnect, Gruver gave audience tons of great big-picture advice on leading DevOps from the top of the food chain. But perhaps one of the best takeaways when drilling down into the details was his emphasis on test-driven development.

TechStrong Con 2023Sponsorships Available

“It needs to be reliable, it needs to be stable, it needs to be maintainable. i would say test automation is something that’s the most important if you’re going to transform your  organization,” Gruver said. “And it’s one of the things that’s most often done wrong. If you do it right it’s extremely valuable, if you do it wrong it’s going to be a maintenance nightmare.”

He provided real world lessons he learned from his stints at Macy’s and HP, explaining, for example, a situation at HP where unstable tests and unstable codes on trunk had kept the team from checking in code for four days. With a $2 billion business “breathing down my neck,” Gruver admitted he was getting antsy at that point and found out that the instability prompted them to add even more tests to the process.

“So we weren’t getting any better because no code was making it in to get fixed and what we really needed is a process that lets the good code in and keeps the bad code out,” explaining that his team eventually settled on gated commits. “That’s where if the code doesn’t pass the system tests it needs to for red build, then it doesn’t make it into SCM and doesn’t make it on to the trunk.”

Meanwhile, when he got to Macy’s he was told there were 1,000 automated tests ready for use. But when he started marrying those tests with the burgeoning continuous delivery team, they found not a single one worked reliably enough to depend upon. He recommended to the audience to take a look at the architecture philosophy’s put forth in Jeff Morgan’s Cucumber and Cheese, which helped in his work at Macy’s, where by the end of his stint the IT department was running over 5,000 automated tests several times a day, versus 1,300 every 10 days.

He explained that he’s a firm believer that quality assurance should be brought together with the architects to make sure the automation framework is sustainable for the long haul.

“Get your lead architect on the development side to engage with your lead on the quality assurance side and think about how to architect your framework for your test automation where its maintainable,” he said. “If not, you’re going to die under the weight of test automation.”

If done right, an organization will very well likely write more code for test than for running its product.

“And that’s not a bad thing,” he says. “You’ll find when you write good test automation it forces you to write better code.”

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: gary gruver, ibm, InterConnect

« DevOps Connect: SecDevOps, how to register if you already registered for RSA Conference
Service virtualization – The hows and the whys. »

Techstrong TV – Live

Click full-screen to enable volume control
Watch latest episodes and shows

Upcoming Webinars

Automating Day 2 Operations: Best Practices and Outcomes
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 - 3:00 pm EST
Shipping Applications Faster With Kubernetes: Myth or Reality?
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 - 1:00 pm EST
Why Current Approaches To "Shift-Left" Are A DevOps Antipattern
Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 1:00 pm EST

Sponsored Content

The Google Cloud DevOps Awards: Apply Now!

January 10, 2023 | Brenna Washington

Codenotary Extends Dynamic SBOM Reach to Serverless Computing Platforms

December 9, 2022 | Mike Vizard

Why a Low-Code Platform Should Have Pro-Code Capabilities

March 24, 2021 | Andrew Manby

AWS Well-Architected Framework Elevates Agility

December 17, 2020 | JT Giri

Practical Approaches to Long-Term Cloud-Native Security

December 5, 2019 | Chris Tozzi

Latest from DevOps.com

Cisco Bets on OpenTelemetry to Advance Observability
February 7, 2023 | Mike Vizard
5 Technologies Powering Cloud Optimization
February 7, 2023 | Gilad David Maayan
Platform Engineering: Creating a Paved Path to Reduce Developer Toil
February 7, 2023 | Daniel Bryant
Where Does Observability Stand Today, and Where is it Going Next?
February 6, 2023 | Tomer Levy
Five Great DevOps Job Opportunities
February 6, 2023 | Mike Vizard

TSTV Podcast

On-Demand Webinars

DevOps.com Webinar ReplaysDevOps.com Webinar Replays

GET THE TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Most Read on DevOps.com

OpenAI Hires 1,000 Low Wage Coders to Retrain Copilot | Netflix Blocks Password Sharing
February 2, 2023 | Richi Jennings
Automation Challenges Holding DevOps Back
February 1, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Cisco AppDynamics Survey Surfaces DevSecOps Challenges
January 31, 2023 | Mike Vizard
Three Trends That Will Transform DevOps in 2023
February 2, 2023 | Dan Belcher
Red Hat Brings Ansible Automation to Google Cloud
February 2, 2023 | Mike Vizard
  • Home
  • About DevOps.com
  • Meet our Authors
  • Write for DevOps.com
  • Media Kit
  • Sponsor Info
  • Copyright
  • TOS
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Techstrong Group, Inc.

© 2023 ·Techstrong Group, Inc.All rights reserved.