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DevOps Test Engineer Question…What is the difference between Static Testing and Dynamic Testing for Continuous Deployment?

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Every organization that delivers products or services will need to shift their ideas for how they plan, build, test and deploy a service that is resilient and for one that truly delivers value for both customers and the internal business.  Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Continuous deployment are all supported by Continuous testing.    Continuous anything will not be assured of success without Continuous Testing.   Continuous testing is the process of executing automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline to obtain immediate feedback on the business risks associated with a software release candidate. Shifting left ensures that the test takes place early, up front in the pipeline of delivery, NOT after the development.  Testing after development is too late because then we do not have the time, money or resources available to re-engineer, re-design or to re-develop appropriately.   When we test after the development of an application the best we can do with negative test results is try to put in band-aid fixes.  This frequently results in technical debt that sometimes never gets paid down.  Security and other non-functional requirements cannot be applied properly after the test.  In comes this idea of “Static Testing” vs. “Dynamic Testing”.  

Static Testing would test all elements having to do with the service that are not software related.  Static testing gives us the opportunity to give some assurance and warranty for security, availability requirements, and also for current and forecasted patterns of business activity and demand for this new or changed service.   This type of assurance does not mandate that you have a DevOps initiative nor does it infer that automation or new tooling must be in place.  Additional tools and automation might evolve later but the key is that static testing is everything that does not require a user interface and should be performed for all things before the development of the application.

Static Testing is different from Dynamic Testing.   Dynamic testing would test all things functional.  Dynamic testing in contrast to Static Testing includes testing the software and also includes things like your user acceptance testing.   When shifting left to ensure that the service is fit for purpose and fit for use be sure to consider when, how and where you will perform integrated Static and Dynamic tests.

I found this answer to this question in a recent webinar titled “ DevOps Test Engineer” delivered by Anne Hungate.

The recording and slides from this webinar and other resources are available here!
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