13 Trends in Software Testing

The World Quality Report for 2019–2020 says that Agile and DevOps are more important than ever. Broader skills are now needed to be lead in QA including Artificial Intelligence capabilities among other skills. The key finding is the QA function must contribute to business growth and business outcomes. Of course, we should detect software defects before go-live. The trends that are now in demand relate ability of organizations to quickly scale up automation, improve management of test environments and ensure there is an approach to increase the skills of the testers in the organization. It is imperative organizations stay ahead of key software testing trends to save money and prevent failures.
These are the thirteen trends that can build a robust QA organization that will thrive in the future.
Quality Engineering skills: Right now, in the current landscape there is a lot of demand for software development engineers in test (SDETs). It is imperative that as an organization we look to develop the skills of the QA engineers in our teams. All QA teams should have skilled testers with knowledge of coding practices and some development expertise. Having training programs to improve in this area would be imperative for the QA organizations well into the next decade.
Agile and DevOps: In the current landscape there is a lot of demand for faster product life cycles, quicker releases and small autonomous teams. Agile is one of the most fast paced methodologies. The main reason a lot of customers are moving towards agile is because of the faster delivery, continuous integration and more frequent deployments. The key is to get the end users feedback earlier and make course corrections as needed. The startup culture of releasing a minimum viable product is also an example of this. Shift left is obviously one of the key concepts which has also helped in overall improvement in quality. The earlier the QA, development and BA teams collaborate the better the chances that the final product would be of high quality. Shift right should also be adopted more frequently going forward. Agile has proliferated with the advent of DevOps. The more continuous integration techniques are employed to ensure good execution the better the quality of results. Testing plays a huge part in ensuring agile is successful.
Artificial Intelligence: This is still a very nascent area as far as QA is concerned. Of course, this will require a thorough analysis and how the testing is to be done. This is a black box which requires a steep learning curve which only a few are willing to do. The main purpose of AI is to ensure the team focuses and does the right things making it smarter. This will also enable newer jobs for folks like data scientists and AI quality experts. This will be a key area of focus for the next decade.
Embrace mobile testing: Mobile devices are here to stay. Today’s focus in mobile testing is managing various devices and operating systems. Any organization that can establish a mobile testing lab, take ownership by managing devices, and automate test coverage on mobile devices will have an edge in the current business landscape.
Automate your tests: Automated testing has been around for a long time and will continue to thrive due to its ability to reduce user error during the testing process. Test automation can also help the customer develop trust in your software product. There is a shift away from licensed software automation tools toward open source tools like Selenium, which gives organizations with expertise in open source tools an edge in the emerging market. It is imperative to do a proof of concept to ensure that the selected tool works successfully in the client environment.
Establish metrics: There are different schools of thought with respect to metrics. Some say software testing is a creative endeavor and that it is not useful to measure creativity. But all stakeholders want to know where their projects stand and establishing metrics to measure progress is critical to the overall success of the project. Metrics can be used to measure both product quality and the testing itself. Without metrics, how do you know when your quality goals have been achieved? Reporting these metrics on a regular basis ensures project quality is always maintained, and the stakeholders are well informed. This is vital to helping the customer make project decisions and appropriate course corrections, which will eventually lead to better business outcomes.
Invest in security testing: Given the publicized security breaches with Target and other big-name companies, security has come to the forefront of testing. Cloud-based testing has recently slowed due to security concerns. This is because public clouds share resources between different organizations, and virtualization creates a lot of vulnerabilities. The best way to overcome this is to ensure adequate controls are in place to secure your environment. Finding expertise in the specialized area of security testing is critical to establishing a well-rounded testing organization.
Provide an independent view of quality: To conform to modern day quality compliance requirements, it is becoming more common for software organizations to have separate development and QA functions, each with its own resources and procedures. Separate organizations can ensure that quality is built in and that there is no engineering bias in test results.
Shift left: IT organizations are now using a larger portion of their budget for QA. To ensure that the budget increase provides value and is effective, the QA team must be involved from the very beginning of the development lifecycle. The earlier defects are detected, the lower the cost of fixing them. Getting testing resources involved as early as the requirements definitions phase reduces any misunderstanding of the work to be performed, undertaken, and completed.
Set up test environments early: QA teams must become better informed at the beginning of a project to clearly identify the environments to be tested. It may be costly, but it is imperative to have separate environments for different testing efforts, like unit testing, system testing, user acceptance testing, performance testing, and automation testing. Without separate environments, a project timeline can be unnecessarily delayed as equipment is being repurposed for testing. This wasted time can also introduce human error where systems are not properly initialized for each round of tests.
Scale testing for the Internet of Things (IoT): IoT has huge market potential that is expected to connect more than a billion devices within the next few years. A robust test strategy is needed because of the complexity of a slew of devices, regulations, and various modes of communication. Another key to enabling IoT testing is to have a reliable and secure network. To succeed in developing for IoT, we need standards and practices in place early in the adoption. Establish clear standards for various devices and sensors, clearly defining the data needs, creating a real-time dashboard showcasing various activities, and, finally, putting in place robust controls to ensure the security of all systems involved.
Adapt tests to innovative technology: Innovative technologies like cloud and mobile testing are on the rise. Currently almost 36 percent of software is hosted in the cloud, but a lot of businesses still don’t have the necessary infrastructure for cloud testing. This might cause businesses to opt for testing as a service (TaaS) options. TaaS is an outsourcing model in which testing activities associated with an organization’s business activities are performed by a service provider rather than by its own testing resources.
Validate big data: Big data is a term that describes enormous quantities of data generated from a business daily. This is an emerging trend worldwide, and a lot of organizations (thanks to social media) have access to data they could only dream about in the past. The main premise is that this data can be analyzed for key insights that eventually lead to better decisions and business moves that help the organization. According to some experts, big data will account for 50 percent of the total software testing budget. The essential point for software testing teams is ensuring the highest order of security when validating a large amount of data.
This is an exciting time to be in the software testing industry. Every testing organization should focus on these thirteen trends. The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.

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