Testing and reliability

"Our developers consistently say they can accept a process that takes thirty minutes, provided it always takes exactly thirty minutes. This predictability allows them to plan their work efficiently before and after the process, rather than anxiously waiting and wondering if something will complete successfully or fail."

Source: Head of Engineering, Financial Software Solutions

The Testing and Reliability section explores how engineering organizations build robust systems that developers can trust while maintaining productivity and innovation.

For engineering leaders, the quality of testing and reliability processes directly impacts both developer satisfaction and business outcomes. When developers trust their tests, monitoring systems, and deployment pipelines, they can focus on innovation rather than firefighting.

This section examines five critical aspects of testing and reliability that shape the developer experience. Each component plays a distinct but interconnected role in creating systems that developers can confidently build upon.

In this section

Test Quality

Effective tests serve as the first line of defense against issues reaching production. When tests reliably catch bugs early in the development process, developers gain confidence to make changes and innovate freely.

Our research shows that high-quality tests fundamentally change how teams operate—reducing stress during deployments, increasing code modification confidence, and allowing more time for feature development rather than bug fixing.

Test Efficiency

While test quality focuses on effectiveness, test efficiency addresses the speed and reliability of your test infrastructure. Fast, dependable tests that are free from flakiness preserve developer flow state and minimize frustration.

Engineering leaders consistently identify test efficiency as one of the top roadblocks to productivity when it's lacking.

Organizations that optimize test efficiency see significant improvements in developer satisfaction and delivery speed.

Compliance

Compliance processes validate that code meets required standards, including security requirements, industry regulations, and organizational policies. When these checks are smooth, fast, and reliable, they protect without impeding progress.

Modern compliance approaches embed these checks directly into development workflows, providing immediate feedback rather than creating last-minute roadblocks before deployment.

CI/CD Tools

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD) tools automate the process of integrating code changes and delivering applications to production environments. Fast and reliable CI/CD systems create predictable, low-stress deployment processes.

As one engineering leader observed after experiencing pipeline issues:

"We experienced a massive backlog of builds in our system. That incident made me truly understand the critical importance of maintaining a stable and reliable CI/CD pipeline. Both developers and technical leaders were extremely frustrated—we received numerous angry emails about it. That experience really drove home just how essential reliable build infrastructure is to team satisfaction. We received numerous angry emails about it. That experience really drove home just how essential reliable build infrastructure is to team satisfaction."

Head of Engineering, Financial Solutions Platforms

Monitoring

Effective monitoring provides real-time visibility into application health, performance, and behavior. When developers trust monitoring systems to detect issues quickly, they gain peace of mind and can focus on their core work.

Organizations with robust monitoring create a virtuous cycle: developers confidently ship changes, knowing problems will be detected immediately, leading to faster innovation and improved system reliability.

Measuring testing and reliability

The Network Perspective DevEx Survey evaluates five dimensions of testing and reliability through specific statements:

1. Test Quality: "Our tests catch the vast majority of issues before production."
2. Test Efficiency: "Our automated test suite is fast, reliable, and free of flaky tests."
3. Compliance: "Validating code with static and vulnerability check tools is smooth, fast, and reliable."
4. CI/CD: "Our CI/CD tools are fast and reliable."
5. Monitoring: "I trust our monitoring and alerting to report problems quickly."

These metrics provide a holistic view of your testing and reliability ecosystem, helping you identify strengths to build upon and areas that need improvement.

Building a culture of quality and reliability

Creating excellent testing and reliability systems is as much about culture as it is about technology. The most successful organizations:

1. Make quality everyone's responsibility, not just dedicated QA teams
2. Invest in developer education around testing best practices
3. Celebrate improvements to testing and reliability infrastructure
4. Set clear standards while providing the right tools to meet them
5. Measure and share metrics on quality and reliability

By fostering this culture alongside technical improvements, engineering leaders can create an environment where quality and reliability enable rather than constrain developer productivity.

Getting started

If you're looking to improve your organization's testing and reliability, start by understanding your current state. Use the Network Perspective DevEx Survey to identify your most significant pain points, then focus on targeted improvements in those areas.

Remember that improvements in testing and reliability compound over time—as tests become more reliable, developers trust them more, leading to better testing practices and further quality improvements.

For detailed guidance on each aspect of testing and reliability, explore the dedicated chapters linked above.