The focus on automation and “continuous everything,” from integration, deployment, and now all the buzz about continuous testing, makes the daily activities of a tester in DevOps challenging. Testers may be used to controlling quality—or thinking they do—but they need to pivot to assuring their teams focus on quality.

As testers, are we disciplinarians? We shouldn't fall into the trap of controlling quality or becoming quality police. Instead, we should be true facilitators of quality, enabling the product team to own it in their own right at every stage. Isn’t this what teachers do, too, in the learning process? What is our role?

Continuous testing can help you achieve the optimal balance between speed and risk and deliver high-quality products faster. But what exactly does continuous testing entail? Is it just shifting testing left in a DevOps environment? And where does automation fit in? Here's a breakdown of all these testing concepts.