In the world of testing and devops, it’s easy to take on a Dickensian view: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” Technology has changed the practices of developing and testing tools irrevocably. There’s a wealth of tools, both commercial and open source, which companies can use to automate rote processes and speed up release cycles. The number and sophistication of these tools and platforms continually expands as the technology landscape shifts to incorporate developments like artificial intelligence and the internet of things.
In response to this environment of hyperautomation, companies tend to have two different approaches.