Can you explain the idea of 'Shift Left' in the context of software development and testing?

The idea of 'Shift Left' in development and testing means moving testing and quality control phases to earlier stages of the software development lifecycle. Instead of testing the product only after the coding is completed, testing begins at the design and coding stages.

This allows:

• Early detection and correction of defects, which reduces the cost of fixing errors.
• Improved product quality through continuous verification.
• Closer collaboration between developers and testers.

Example: implementing automated unit tests that run with each commit helps to detect errors immediately after writing the code.