Latest Software Testing Trends in 2020

The world, courtesy of the IT industry, has seen a large number of technological breakthroughs in the past decade. One might wonder, what next? With numerous technologies emerging every year, the software development industry has experienced exponential growth. It has also undergone drastic changes. These changes have, in turn, brought about many new software testing trends over the years. Software testing is constantly transforming in response to technological advancements. It is adopting more innovative methodologies to deliver higher quality products. As a result of various external and internal factors, we expect that certain testing trends are going to dominate the testing industry. Following are the latest software testing trends to watch out for in 2020:

1. Artificial Intelligence in Testing

The tech world is determined to integrate AI into all aspects of innovative technology. Software testing industry has already begun to use it widely. AI-powered testing can analyse file contents and memory to determine whether the software is working well. It can also generate robust test data and insights because of its human-like reasoning and problem-solving skills. AI makes testing more efficient by performing testing tasks faster. It also eliminates the chances of manual testing errors. According to the World Quality Report 2019-2020, the testing industry is expecting a major shift in 2020 because of these benefits of AI. It also has predicted that new job roles like AI QA strategists and AI test experts will be in high demand in the coming years.

2. DevOps System Will Be the New Norm

Developers focus on delivering software with accurate and efficient functionality. On the other hand, the operators spend a lot of time in evaluating their performance in terms of security and speed. DevOps is an approach that facilitates continuous communication between development and operations engineers. It involves integrating coding, testing and other activities into one cycle. This structure ensures quicker feedback for testing. As a result, implementing corrective measures becomes faster and more efficient. DevOps also enables organizations to fully utilize cloud services. So they can keep the running operations and security efforts separate. The end result is a faster performance in both areas. According to The Accelerate State of DevOps Report, “DevOps is not just a trend, it will eventually be the standard way of software development and operations, offering everyone a better quality of life.” Certainly, it won’t be long before DevOps garners attention from testers all over the world.

3. IoT Testing Will Become All Pervasive

IoT (Internet of Things) is soon going to be the next big thing, as big as the dot com boom. According to Business Insider Intelligence, more than 55 billion devices will be using IoT technology by the end of 2025. IoT essentially involves a network of devices that exchange data amongst one another. This has the potential to revolutionize how the world functions with minimum manual effort. MD of Qualcomm Ventures, Karthee Madasamy stated, “Make no mistake, sensors will drive the next-generation user experiences. We’ve just got started with wearables.” Since IoT involves a massive exchange of information, testing for such software will be particularly more cautious in terms of security. The demand for IoT testing will rise in the near future. On the other hand, programming testing is also likely to apply IoT to make the process more automated and accurate.

4. Test Mechanization Will Minimize Errors

Software companies are rapidly adopting test mechanization. Mechanization is a means of decreasing testing costs and improving final result quality. E2E application disrupter firm ProdPerfect Inc. recently announced that they have raised funds worth $13M to kickstart their automated testing startup. Automated tests enable testers to compare actual outcomes with expected outcomes by using specific instruments and pre-written scripts. Due to mechanization, these tests become quicker and ensure complete accuracy every time they are executed. Testers are taking the best advantages of test mechanization by automating tasks like repetitive tests, and continuous tests that keep running on diverse programming stages. It’s even more beneficial for tests requiring a large number of informational collections. Mechanized testing is all set to dominate even more aspects in future. It will liberate testers from performing monotonous tests. As a result, they will be able to focus more on making new robotized programming tests.

5. Manual and Automated Testing Will Go Hand in Hand

In recent years, testing teams everywhere have been discussing whether manual or automated testing is more beneficial. Automated processes can execute numerous tests continuously at a speed that manual testing can never compete with. Automated processes certainly help in reducing costs and saving time. However, they cannot successfully identify all the possible issues. Manual testing becomes an essential part of the project when it comes to dealing with complex issues like app crashes. The human mind is more capable of coming up with improved user interface testing and replicating user issues. The experts agree that smartly integrating both the testing options will give the maximum results. The key is to combine them in such a way that they enhance their respective strengths and compensate for their respective weaknesses.

6. Operational Efficiency Will Be More Important Than Performance Testing

There is a decline in investment of time and resources in performance testing. The emphasis is shifting towards operational efficiency considering that it’s a holistic metric. The industry is now realizing that a more effective way to measure efficiency is to measure output against the input. Operational efficiency focuses on improving the final products while spending the minimum resources on it. The testers are now implementing advancements in a way that maximizes the results without changing the conditions much. Operational efficiency relies on building appropriate plans followed by smart engineering and smart execution. It guarantees the delivery of advancements on time.

7. Shorter and More Innovative SDLC

The IT market has become more competitive than ever now. Fluctuations are quick and turnaround time is extremely short. Any IT organization who wants to make it big in the current scenario cannot afford to keep its Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) long. This makes constant innovation the need of the hour. To make the cycles shorter, managers are adopting more efficient ways of managing complex operations in all development stages. Fresh methodologies like Agile and DevOps are soon going to become norms. It is common knowledge now that the IT infrastructure is not going to remain a static base on which applications once made can just stay. It’s becoming increasingly volatile. To keep up with these fast changes, shorter and upgraded SDLC will be the primary goal of every organization.

8. Shift Towards Information Centralization

Shorter SDLCs inevitably demand shorter improvement cycles. Many organizations have come to the conclusion that information centralization is the key to achieving shorter improvement cycles.

This has generated the need for coordination testing. Coordination testing gives a medium to exchange information to all the sub-tasks in various development stages. The respective sub-groups then use this information to evaluate the advancements and facilitate quicker delivery. The biggest advantage of information centralization is that it can simplify the administrative tasks tremendously. If the organizations are able to implement it correctly, it can improve security testing and make data management more cost-effective.

9. Greater Demand for Security Testing

With technological advancements, security attacks too have become more innovative. They have grown both in numbers and impact. In this hyper-connected world, consumers greatly depend on various software for a number of transactions everyday. So security testing has become the topmost priority of software enterprises. Most of these transactions involve acquiring sensitive user data. Any breaches in security can greatly damage the reputation of the organization. It can eventually hurt the revenues. In 2018, even a giant like Marriot Hotels fell prey to security threats. The reports stated that hackers had been accessing the reservation data of their guests for over four years. Clearly, every organization, big and small, is always vulnerable to security breaches. Apart from this, software companies are going to rely very heavily on third party services. So the security testing needs to be more holistic in its approach in order to secure the supply chain.

Bottom Line

Top software testing trends in 2020 are clearly going to be more quality-driven while also focusing on efficiency. AI and automation testing is the future, however, manual testing will always remain an essential part of the process. Considering the recent software testing trends, one thing is certain – opportunities in innovation for testers are only going to grow.

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