Top 7 Software Testing Trends
Overview:
Over the past decade, there has been a considerable revolution in the field of software testing with new trends coming into IT services. Testing methodologies have witnessed a massive transformation in software design, development, testing, and delivery. The need to build quality software has put software testing to the next level now. To keep up with the changing software testing landscape, you need to be more relevant than ever with emerging trends.
Here are some new software trends to look out for in 2021 and beyond that help you to re-strategize your project development.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning in Testing
The usage of artificial intelligence is expected to grow in every facet of innovative technology. Almost 90% of respondents claim AI is the most significant area of growth in their organization. By 2025 the global investment in AI is anticipated to reach $200 billion. This is due to the ever-evolving utilization of data in software applications and that need ever-increasing test coverage.
Software testing can leverage machine learning and AI to improve automation strategies and keep up with the latest releases. Artificial intelligence tools help QA teams to design tests from scratch with little to no human intervention. Besides, AI also provides an opportunity to build a traceability matrix by analyzing keywords to optimize test coverage.
Another pillar on which automation rests is machine learning. Predicting user behaviour is still a task for human intelligence; through ML-enabled predictive analytics, you can amplify human intelligence by identifying unexplored areas in apps. These insights can help to predict user behaviour patterns based on historical data.
Although machine learning is an exciting opportunity in testing for now, in the future, we can expect ML to gain traction in solving potentially problematic areas covered with tests.
Having a sound knowledge of machine learning can help you to become an expert in solving unidentified areas of testing through predictive analytics in the near future.
- Automation in Agile
With the growing risk and complexity of software development, teams are on the hook to keep quality high. This has resulted in QA teams becoming orchestrators of quality.
Today, continuous delivery wouldn’t be possible without automation testing. Automation test is the only way to achieve high test coverage within sprints and provides rapid feedback for agile teams.
According to a Gitlab survey, test automation is gaining massive popularity, and 12% of organizations fully automated testing efforts. MarketsAndMarkets.com states the global market size of test automation is expected to reach USD 28.8 billion by 2024.
Test automation makes QA more productive and support teams in early bugs detection, performing repetitive tasks, continuous feedback, and test coverage. Organizations can save a vast amount of time and money by integrating test automation in their QA processes.
- Increasing demand for IoT and Big Data Testing
The Internet of Things is one of the fastest-growing concepts today. Soon it will adopt the 5G standard. IoT releases many new devices in the market, and combinations to test between devices, protocols, platforms, and operating systems are innumerable.
The software testing market will increase the demand for security, performance, compatibility, data integrity, and usability testing.
Only a few organizations implement IoT testing strategies, but this trend is expected to grow in the coming years.
The rise of IoT applications has paved the way for more diverse data volume generation, which created the need for Big Data testing.
Big Data testing positively impacts an organization’s ability to make data-driven decisions, validate information, and improve market strategizing.
Another essential need for Big Data testing is data is the king for building effective marketing strategies. The rise of data across enterprises makes processes complicated every year, and the necessity for Big Data testing won’t be going anywhere in 2021.
- Substitution for Performance Testing
Achieving high performance was a considerable task earlier while developing the software. You need to work on various components like security, usability, business value, and simple configuration.
The number of platforms on which application is made available describes the captured market size and user experience. User experience plays a crucial role during changing market requirements, frequent releases, and shorter development cycles. In response to this tendency, developers started prioritizing a user-focused approach at every stage of SDLC to prevent performance issues at the very beginning of the product’s lifecycle.
Consequently, performance testing objectives have transformed into analysing the system’s inadequate performance and understanding where it’s rooted in the software development process.
Performance engineering is developed as a substitution for performance testing to build critical performance metrics from the very first design.
- Security Matters
With the technology, the industry is moving at a breakneck speed, and the amount of data keeps on growing and making security a top priority for companies. According to ‘Better Security and Business Outcomes with Security Performance Management’ study by BitSight, over 82 percent of stakeholders agreed that customers perceive security is increasingly important in making decisions for their organizations.
In 2021, security practices will come more into play, and here are a few reasons why:
Security testing provides you with a complete understanding of your organization’s weak spots before hackers do and help to identify areas susceptible to cyber threats.
Cybersecurity testing assures that if any downtime occurs, it’s not as costly and harmful as if you were unprepared.
Regular penetration testing helps to build the organization’s trust with clients, third-parties, and partners.
- QAOps
Nowadays, the role of tester or QA is not just limited to Testing. They are involved in every aspect of SDLC. QAOps is a practice of bringing developers, operations, and testers together. Test activities, along with CI/CD pipelines and testers working in parallel with the development team, are the two critical holders of QAOps. More and more companies are inclining towards DevOps, and this puts QAOps on the rise in 2021.
- Key Testing Tools
Testing tools play a vital role in the software development process. Ability to view and edit the source code of the software is vital for the quality assurance team. Customizing can help the teams to work more efficiently, and this creates a smooth learning curve for new testers and also caters to the needs of the project with more precision.
For this, one trend is the use of open-source tools for software testing. This will make software testing more innovative and experimental. Every tester in 2021 should include the following tools – Selenium, Robotium, and Jmeter.
Final Thought:
These are our compiled list of predictions on the most popular software testing trends in 2021. No matter how digital transformation will turn out, having profound knowledge of Quality Assurance will help you to manage testing processes easily with changing trends. Update yourself regularly with the changing software testing trends to stay ahead in the ever-changing industry.
