Canary testing is the process of releasing or testing new features and functionalities with a selected group of end-users before rolling it out to all users.
One of the goals of canary testing is to monitor and compare users’ experiences on the former version to the ones on the new version. Additionally, canary testing helps reveal problems and reduce risks due to the new functionalities.
With canary testing, you can easily introduce new changes without affecting the overall user experience of most of your users.
For example, if you roll out a new feature, you can monitor how users adapt to it and note their challenges with the new features. That way, validating what works and needs improvement is easy before the features are available to all users.
When to use canary testing
Canary testing can be useful when –
- Rolling out new features
- Deploying updates or patches
- Scaling infrastructure
- Testing new configurations
- Testing new hardware or software
Factors to consider when doing canary testing
Here are some factors to consider when doing canary testing:
- Selection of canary group: Choosing the right canary group is crucial for the success of canary testing. It should represent a diverse set of users or servers, including those that are expected to be more vulnerable to the changes.
- Size of the canary group: The size of the canary group should be small enough to minimize the impact of any potential issues but large enough to provide meaningful feedback on the changes.
- Rollout strategy: The rollout strategy should be well-defined and communicated to all stakeholders involved in the testing process. This includes the rollout frequency, each stage’s duration, and the criteria for moving to the next stage.
- Monitoring and logging: Comprehensive monitoring and logging capabilities are essential for detecting any issues that may arise during the canary testing. This includes tracking performance metrics, error rates, and user feedback.
- Rollback plan: It’s important to have a well-defined rollback plan in case any issues are detected during the canary testing. This includes the ability to quickly revert to the previous version of the software and the necessary communication channels to inform all stakeholders.
- Automation: Automation can help streamline the canary testing process, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that the rollout and monitoring are carried out consistently.
- Risk assessment: A thorough risk assessment should be conducted before the canary testing to identify potential risks and ensure appropriate measures are in place to mitigate them.
- Time: Time is an important factor to consider when doing canary testing, and you need to give a time constraint on how long the new features would be tested before they are either rolled out to all users or rolled back.
Benefits of using Canary Testing?
- Early detection of issues: Canary testing allows developers to detect issues before deploying the changes to the production environment.
- Reduced risk: Using canary testing significantly reduces the risk of deploying new changes to the entire production environment.
- Improved quality: Canary testing allows developers to improve the quality of their software by identifying and fixing issues before they are released to the broader audience.
- Better customer satisfaction: Canary testing helps to ensure that the new changes do not adversely affect the customer experience.
- Faster deployment: Canary testing allows developers to deploy changes faster as the process is streamlined and automated. This enables organizations to respond to market demands and deliver new features more quickly.