QAOps is the next progression of DevOps and looks at embedding quality at the core of the delivery process. In variance to the DevOps approach where the development team takes center stage, the QAOps approach pins QA at the core of the delivery value chain.

With quality being considered the prime differentiator for a software product to be accepted in the market, stakeholders (management, developers, testers, and operations) have their task cut out. They not only have to ensure the quality of the product at the time of delivery but also keep it updated even while the product is being used by the end-users.

This means pursuing a cycle of continuous improvement and delivery where everyone in the ecosystem needs to be accountable for maintaining the quality of the product. This is where DevOps kicks in with its focus on reducing the time between developing a software product and the business realizing its benefits.

This calls for increased collaboration and communication between teams, namely, development (those who develop and test the product) and IT operations (those who operate the product).

In such a scheme of things, Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are the vital pillars. Thus, with DevOps, business enterprises aimed at the rapid and consistent delivery of high-quality products.

These products, in turn, are expected to offer higher customer satisfaction, thereby guaranteeing the success of the product in the market. And given the popularity of DevOps, a few variants have emerged, with QAOps being one of them. In a QAOps framework, QA (Quality Assurance) is integrated into the CI/CD pipeline instead of existing as a silo-based process divorced from development and operations.

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