Many organizations still overlook the importance of Software Testing, evident from the fact that they tend to invest much lesser in testing compared to other major IT departments. This increases the likelihood of failure, which would then account for a good portion of their IT budgets. Such expenses are avoidable with proper investment in testing. With the right investment and a team aware of the latest testing trends, the testing department can yield good results.
The World Quality Report published a couple of months back gives an insight on some noteworthy software testing and QA trends to be aware of this year. Here are 5 of those trends that deserve your attention, and can possibly benefit testers and QA vendors alike.
1. Test Automation
One of the most popular QA services around, test automation is still the best way to quickly identify defects and test fixes, without delaying deployment. However, many companies are still reluctant to choose test automation over the conventional manual testing.
It can be a bit challenging for vendors as it needs to be specifically tailored to the demands of each client, and fit the business context. This year, test automation will rank higher up overcoming functional testing. Script-less test automation will enable testers to polish their full-cycle automation skills rather than refining their functional testing abilities.
2. Big Data
Brought forth by the digital revolution, big data has been intriguing both large and small corporations. Enterprises are still researching strategies to test large and bulky big data systems, and manage them effectively. Testing big data is a tedious process, and usually end up needing more servers to manage the backup data.
As of now, big data testing requires testers to have great skill to ensure data quality and verify data completeness. This year, however, is expected to introduce new, innovative techniques to facilitate big data testing.
3. Security Testing
This is not an emerging trend, and has been around for a long time. But the security testing aspects need some amount of refinement this year as 2016 introduced many unique software types including innovative AI-driven, and VR ones. This should make it clear that testers and QA providers should be more well-equipped and prepared to handle systematic testing of software regardless of its type, and enhance security testing as well.
An increase in the significance of security testing of IoT products is also expected this year. IoT developments are still vulnerable to cyber-attacks, which calls for security specialists to brush up on their competencies, and expand them. The same can be said for cloud security specialists. 2016 witnessed more companies opting for cloud-based solutions, which means testing specialists will have to closely work with developers to come up with countermeasures for any kind of security vulnerabilities to software.
4. Growth of Agile and DevOps
The World Quality Report 2015-2016 revealed that more software companies adopted agile testing methodologies and DevOps so as to roll out services and products faster. However, adopting these technologies adds to the expense. According to the report, about 40% of the businesses surveyed adopted predictive analytics to balance the additional costs, and to automate test pipelines.
“To retain a competitive edge, QA and Test organizations must move towards test ecosystem automation, predictive analytics and intelligence-led quality assurance and testing, so that they are able to ensure business outcomes.”, says Hans van Waayenburg, Leader of the Testing Global Service Line, Capgemini Group.
The report recommends businesses to invest more in testing environment management and test execution in the form of as-a-service solutions, and go for higher overall levels of engineering in their testing teams. This would be an asset in 2017 as it contributes to boosting innovation and maintaining system integrity.
5. Internet of Things (IoT) Testing
After the introduction of connected devices and systems, the app environment evolved beyond desktops and hand-held devices to about every kind of connected device imaginable including home appliances and wearables. The World Quality Report shows that 85% of the respondents use IoT products for their business operations.
Generally, IoT devices are tested for usability, security, and performance. But to ensure great user experience, the devices need to be tested for interoperability and compatibility. As IoT is expected to gain more dominance in 2017, testers should be prepared to think out of the box so as to make sure the devices serve their purpose flawlessly.
If the growth of Artificial Intelligence is legitimate, then we can expect it to help testers overcome at least some of the IoT testing challenges in 2017, with real-time monitoring and analytics.
Conclusion
The growing significance of quality, security, and customer experience is what we can infer from 2016’s World Quality Report. These factors influence organizations’ growth rate and the scale needed to succeed. This also emphasizes the importance of testers in 2017 for ensuring that new technologies provide the best experience for the end-user. 2017 will certainly bring forth new concepts and techniques in QA and software testing.