1. API Testing and Continuous Integration
Leveraging continuous integration to guarantee API quality
David Parker – Director of Strategic Alliances
Sanketh Shanbhag – India Technical Lead
SmartBear Software, Inc.

2. We’ll be covering: API testing in the software delivery pipeline
Obstacles doing API testing in CI
What’s required
David Parker
Director
SmartBear
Sanketh Shanbhag
India Technical Lead
SmartBear

3. Continuous Integration - Definition
Continuous integration is a DevOps software development practice where developers regularly merge their code changes into a central repository, after which automated builds and tests are run.

4. Advantages of CI Improve software quality
Fast feedback on iterative changes
Find and address bugs quicker
Reduce the time it takes to validate and release new software updates

5. Obstacles to Doing CI for APIs
Unreliable tests
Actionable results
Automation
Availability

6. Unreliable tests Challenge
API’s are often highly interdependent making tests hard to build and maintain
Current State
It is not hard to test a single API function, but stringing functions and tests together requires extensive scripting
Impact
Tests are brittle and need constant refactoring, impacting quality and time to market

7. Actionable Results Challenge
Getting results quickly, distributing those results to the right people and taking appropriate action on them
Current state
API tests take too long and results are often obscure
Impact
API quality suffers while the team has a false sense of confidence as APIs go into production

8. Automation
Challenge
Commitment of full-scale automation required for CI is often lacking
Current state
Status quo works and there is investment required to flesh out a CI harness
Impact
Time to market, quality

9. Availability Challenge
The interdependent nature of APIs means you need to test APIs together.
Current state
Dependent assets are often not available as they too are in development
Impact
Time to market, quality

10. What’s required – Better Test Reliability
Express your API tests in a scriptless manner
String unit tests together with stateful transfer
Use point and click test workflow cdesign
Simplify your environment refactoring

11. What’s required – More Actionable Results
Distribute your tests across the network to speed test execution
Use purpose-built API functional and load testing
Customize reports and distribute in various formats
Automate report distribution

12. What’s required – Full Test Automation
Simplify API test expression
Directly integrate API tests into Jenkins or other CI frameworks
Automate functional testing, load testing and virtualization

13. What’s required – Service Virtualization
Simplify the creation and management of virtual services
Make it affordable
Tight integration into functional and load testing
Ability to easily generate “virts” from a specification framework like Swagger

14. Best Practices
Enhance developer responsibility (and accountability) for API quality
Don’t try to “boil the ocean” implementing API testing on day 1
But ultimately, automate, automate, automate
Pay attention! Take note, and correct, persistent problems

16. SmartBear Technology Stack

17. Thank you! David Parker Director, Strategic Alliances
Thank you!
SanKeth Shanbhag
Presales Engineer