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Dedicated TeamThe world of software testing is currently experiencing a sea change that demands every software tester and Quality Assurance (QA) engineer to keep up with the latest trends. While there has been a lot of hype in terms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, there are definitely many real developments and applications that are transforming the industry.
Just about a decade ago, software testers were hired based on their knowledge of available testing tools. That’s not the norm anymore. Today, software companies are increasingly looking for software engineers with specialized testing skills.
So what can we expect to see in 2018? Let’s take a look.
1. DevOps and Agile Will Converge
DevOps is all about seamless collaboration across departments. When this ideology is transferred to QA, test automation developers will move into agile teams (if they haven’t done that already). It will also spell the end of centralized Test Centers of Excellence.
Test automation will now be conducted at every stage to verify requirements, develop automation frameworks (to support DevOps), and configure toolsets for integration and delivery.
These emerging trends suggest a shift towards quality engineering to achieve greater speeds of delivery and QA. In this scenario, testing will also become more iterative, progressive, and integrated from the beginning of the development cycle.
2. Software Testers Will Embrace Open Source Tools
The true impact of open source tools will be felt in 2018. This is because a whole bunch of companies are now using them to achieve enhanced performance in terms of test automation with DevOps and Agile.
The increased dependence on open source tools will drive innovation and expansion of new tools. It will also attract greater involvement from open source support communities.
This phenomenon will help reduce development expenses and accelerate the product’s time to market. As Selenium continues to lead this space, software testers will also need to adopt advanced programming skills to build libraries and automation frameworks to run their tests.
3. The Rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Security Testing
IoT technologies have already entered our homes, vehicles, and workplaces. As the adoption of IoT continues to grow, there will be an increasing demand to not only conduct extensive tests on its effectiveness and functionality but also security.
The threat to IoT devices will be network-related and involve the user authentication process which will demand static and dynamic testing. As a result, we will see a rise in IoT QA testing teams to respond to potential vulnerabilities right from the start.
4. Big Data Testing Will Be the New Norm
As every enterprise across industries attempts to leverage big data analytics to gain a competitive advantage, there will a huge demand for big data testing to help develop strong strategies.
Big data QA teams will require advanced analytical tools and frameworks to engage in this activity. As data sets continue to grow, big data testers will also need to up their game and improve their testing processes to bring it up to a superior level.
5. Mobile Application Test Automation
At present, the use of test automation in software development projects is pretty low, when it comes to mobile test automation, it’s almost nonexistent. This can be attributed to the fact that we still lack proper tools and methodology to successful conduct automated testing on mobile applications.
As we race towards a mobile-first world, the need for extensive mobile test automation will be paramount. The good news is that we’re now seeing the emergence of mobile testing platforms and tools like the following:
These technologies have the potential to make mobile application test automation not only possible but also more capable and affordable.
As almost every business on the planet goes through a period of digital transformation, you can also expect to see a growing demand for extensive digital strategies to optimize functional testing across all channels.
This phenomenon will also increase the demand for QA engineers that a lot of people expected to be replaced by AI. Even as you read this post, manual testing still dominates the QA and testing space as software testing is still a highly challenging and complex endeavor.
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However, the future will demand a combination of both manual and automated testing to keep up with shortening delivery cycles.
Are you looking for a software development and QA team to work on your project? Get in touch with us now!
