🔗 Related Reading:
Missed Part 1? Read it here: Generate Marvelous Software Product Quality with Test Automation
🚀 Introduction: Why Quality is a Non-Negotiable in CI/CD-Driven Delivery
In today's cloud-native, microservices-oriented development environment, software is delivered continuously. However, with speed comes the risk of poor quality unless there is a strong automation backbone. Test automation integrated with a robust CI/CD pipeline—like Jenkins—ensures quality at speed.
This blog focuses on how you can achieve consistently high product quality using test automation integrated into Jenkins pipelines for microservices-based applications.
🎯 Who Should Read This?
This guide is tailored for:
Senior QA Engineers managing automation at scale
DevOps Engineers building pipelines for microservices
Software Architects designing quality-first delivery frameworks
Technical Leads aiming to shift-left with test automation
🔍 The Problem
In a microservices ecosystem, individual components evolve at different paces. Without automation, integration becomes chaotic, defects slip into production, and testing becomes a bottleneck. Manual testing cannot keep up with rapid releases.
Key Best Practices for Building Marvelous Software Product Quality Using CI/CD (Jenkins-Based) and Test Automation
✅ Microservice-Specific / Project Module CI/CD Pipelines
Each microservice/ Project Module should have its own Jenkins (or similar) pipeline job for image creation. This modular approach ensures that individual components can be developed, tested, and deployed independently. This means if you're working with Maximo's Inventory or Work Management services, they each get their own build, test, and deployment workflow. This separation ensures individual services can be built, tested, and shipped independently without risking the stability of the whole application.
✅ End-to-End Testing for Every Service/Module
Don't rely on just one kind of test. Your pipeline should run unit tests to catch logic issues, API tests to validate integrations, and UI tests to ensure end-user flows are working. Running these in your Jenkins pipeline helps catch bugs before code merges to the main branch. These tests should be integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to ensure that new code changes do not introduce regressions.
✅ Branch Level Validation
Each branch goes through its own isolated test pipeline—running against the latest versions of other microservices/module. This helps catch compatibility issues early, before anything reaches main or master code. Developers work on individual branches, which are tested in isolation alongside the latest versions of other microservices or module. If all tests pass, the branch can be automatically merged into the main/master branch, ensuring that integration issues are caught early.
✅ No Merge Without Passing Tests
Code should only merge into main if all tests pass. If anything breaks, the team investigates whether it’s a real bug or a test that needs updating. In case of test failures, developers must determine whether the failure is due to a genuine defect or a necessary update to the test suite, addressing the issue before the next test run. This disciplined approach prevents flaky builds and production incidents. Automated merging is contingent upon passing all tests.
✅ One Unified “Green Build”
The ultimate goal is to maintain a stable main branch. That means all microservices or module have passed their tests and are verified to work well together. This is your signal that the product is in good shape for release. The ultimate objective is to achieve a "Green Build," where all microservices or module build pass their respective tests on the main/master branch, indicating a stable and high-quality product release.
This methodology promotes early detection of integration issues, maintains high code quality, and supports rapid development cycles. By enforcing rigorous testing and validation at the microservice or module level, teams can ensure that their software products are robust and reliable.
This approach helps teams:
Catch integration issues early
Maintain code quality across services
Deliver features confidently and quickly
✅ Solution Overview: Jenkins-Driven CI/CD with Multi-Level Test Automation
The ideal solution involves integrating automated tests into each microservice’s CI/CD pipeline. This allows:
Fast feedback on code changes
Safe and confident deployments
Continuous validation of quality
🛠️ End-to-End Flow
Here’s how a test automation strategy is implemented in Jenkins pipelines:
🔄 CI/CD Test Flow (Per Microservice)
Developer pushes code to feature branch
Jenkins triggers pipeline:
Unit tests
Build and static checks
Deploy to ephemeral test environment
Run integration tests, API tests, UI tests
If all pass → auto-merge to main
Main branch triggers a full regression pipeline
“Green Build” indicates production readiness
📐 High-Level Architecture Diagram
+---------------------+
| Developer Commits |
+---------------------+
|
v
+--------------------------+
| Jenkins CI/CD Pipeline |
+--------------------------+
| - Build & Lint |
| - Unit Tests |
| - Docker Image Build |
| - Deploy to Test Env |
| - Run API/UI/Integration |
| - Static Code Scan |
+--------------------------+
|
v
+---------------------+
| Merge & Regression |
+---------------------+
🔍 Detailed Jenkinsfile Example
groovy
pipeline {
agent any
environment {
TEST_ENV = 'qa-env'
}
stages {
stage('Checkout') {
steps { checkout scm }
}
stage('Build & Unit Test') {
steps {
sh 'mvn clean install'
junit '**/target/surefire-reports/*.xml'
}
}
stage('Deploy to Test Env') {
steps {
sh './scripts/deploy-to-env.sh $TEST_ENV'
}
}
stage('Run API & UI Tests') {
steps {
sh './scripts/run-api-tests.sh'
sh './scripts/run-ui-tests.sh'
}
}
stage('Post-Checks') {
steps {
archiveArtifacts artifacts: '**/test-reports/**'
publishHTML(target: [reportDir: 'target/site', reportFiles: 'index.html', reportName: 'HTML Report'])
}
}
}
}
🧪 Real-World Example: IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS)
Let’s consider a scenario within IBM Maximo, where the product is modularized into microservices like:
Work Management Service
Asset Management Service
Inventory Service
Manage Service
Integration Framework Service
For the Work Management Service:
Developers work on feature branches for enhancements (e.g., new job plan workflows).
A Jenkins pipeline is triggered for every branch push:
Unit tests validate new logic (e.g., work order creation rules).
Integration tests ensure the service communicates correctly with Inventory and Asset modules.
API tests simulate consumer systems like ERP integrations.
UI tests validate screens using Selenium or Cypress across browsers.
On successful tests, the branch is auto-merged to the main.
A regression pipeline validates that the updated service works with the latest Maximo build.
This approach ensures that each Maximo service remains reliable, isolated, and integration-safe—critical in enterprise environments with long-term support contracts and regulated maintenance windows.
🧪 Real-World Example: E-Commerce Checkout Service
Let’s assume you're building an e-commerce system. You have microservices for:
Product Catalog
Shopping Cart
Checkout
Payment
For checkout-service:
Jenkinsfile runs on every feature/* push
Unit tests check core logic
API tests validate payment integration
UI tests validate cart flow using Cypress/Selenium/Playwright
Only after all tests pass, the service is merged into main
This ensures modular quality validation, enabling rapid and safe releases.
📊 Value of This Approach
Benefit Impact
Fast Feedback Fix bugs early, reduce cost
Safe Merges Auto-validation ensures stability
Improved Velocity Regressions caught early
High Confidence Every deploy is test-backed
🧠 Final Takeaways
Testing should be a first-class citizen in your CI/CD pipeline.
Jenkins provides a modular, flexible way to implement and enforce quality gates.
Combine unit, integration, API, and UI tests for maximum coverage.
Automate validation at both feature branch and mainline level.
By embedding test automation deeply into CI/CD, you don’t just “do” DevOps—you deliver quality with every commit.
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