With the advancement of technology, there has been a drastic change in the software testing industry. There are several newly upgraded software testing trends and tools that become necessary for software organisations to adopt to prevent failure.
The rise of competition in the market makes it necessary for organisations to get their application faster to the market and with the priority of cost optimization. Looking at this, several organisations have started adopting the best practices to reduce the time to market. Besides this, companies are adopting trends like Machine Learning, IoT, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and many more. Looking at these trends, it now becomes essential for QA professionals to update themselves with these trending technologies.
So what are the software testing trends to look for in 2023?
In this blog, we will cover such trends that will rule the software testing industry in 2023.
and even in the future.
Software Testing Trends to Look for in 2023
Agile and DevOps:
Now, a faster product life cycle, quick release and small independent teams are in high demand. Looking at the trend, companies are adopting Agile and DevOps processes. This process shortens the software development lifecycle and even improves the quality of released products.
Agile is a software development approach that focuses on team collaboration, continual planning and continual learning. The purpose behind why companies adopt agile is because of a quick delivery, continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployments(CD) that fulfil the end user’s demand with higher quality. It allows instant feedback from the end user, and the corrections are made as required.
DevOps is an approach to automate and streamline the entire process involved in the complete software development life cycle. It includes practices, techniques and tools that help to integrate development and operation practices that reduce the life cycle.
The adoption of Agile and DevOps enables the teams to develop and deliver quality software faster. In a few years, the software industry has witnessed several companies adopting this process and expected to be in demand in the coming years.
Selenium Testing:
Organisations adopting Agile and DevOps processes are using several test automation tools to release their product faster. Out of all the automation testing frameworks and tools available in the market, the widely used tool by testers is Selenium.
Selenium is an open-source tool used by the majority of organisations over other automation testing tools. It supports multiple programming languages like Ruby, Java, NodeJS, PHP, and Python, among others. Along with that, it supports multiple operating systems and cross-browser compatibility testing. By offering all these features, it’s gaining popularity within the QA teams, as compared to other automation tools.
It has released its latest version, Selenium 4. Some of the new features are:
1-Improved Documentation
2-Relative Locators for automation scripts.
3-Telemetry and GraphQL.
4-Chrome Debugging Protocol(CDP).
5-Multiple Windows and Tabs Management.
Additionally, it has several benefits like seamless integration, parallel testing, better documentation and cross-browser testing among others.
Internet of Things (IoT) Testing:
With the advancement of technology and the introduction of 5G in the market, the Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining popularity day by day. The Internet of Things comprises digitally connected devices that operate wirelessly and connect to networks to streamline data flow.
According to a report, around 24 billion IoT devices are actively connected to the internet. And it is estimated that, by 2030. this number will reach around 50 Bn.
Nowadays, safety is a major concern for software testers. As IoT is used in sensitive data like your personal information, it needs to be protected before passing on it through the internet channels.
So it would be challenging for an IoT tester in terms of testing IoT devices using appropriate data. With the growth in the IoT industry, now companies are planning to develop testing strategies for these devices. Now QA professionals need to adapt to these advanced technologies and enhance their skills to test these devices in terms of their security, and performance.
Robotic process automation (RPA):
Robotic process automation is the automated task process that is continuous and doesn’t require any manual intervention. It records the actions of the tester for the first time to keep track of the relevant tasks.
Robotic process automation tools have already been used across various industries like banking, finance, health care etc. According to Research and market survey, the revenue earned from RPA will be around 3.4 billion US dollars by 2027.
By using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Robotic process automation executes multiple scenarios using similar actions on the screen.
Several organisations are now involving this process in their software testing. By looking at the numbers in the survey, it can be believed that this software testing trend will continue with increased acceptance.
AI and ML test automation:
Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning test automation is other software testing trend to look out for in 2023. Several companies have involved AI and ML in their software testing.
Artificial intelligence is dramatically spreading its roots in every direction, whether it’s a mobile application or a predictive system. As per a report, AI is expected to reach 190.6 Bn US Dollars by 2025. Whereas ML is expected to reach 8.81 Bn US Dollars by the end of this year.
AI and ML help businesses in decision-making using real-time data. It increases the quality of testing by finding out the bugs quickly. It can speed up test creation, reduce test maintenance, and generate tests automatically. This is one of the reasons why maximum companies in the US are shifting toward automation testing.
Big Data Testing:
Several companies across all types of industries are dealing with big data and dealing with different volumes of data to create marketing strategies that need constant and effective testing. To avoid failures, such data needs to be tested end-to-end with proper attention.
Big data testing deals with various types of data with a huge volume to validate data, and improve decisions and proper marketing strategies. For big data testing, we need to have a proper testing strategy rather than following testing techniques. As the quality of data in this testing is crucial whether the data is structured or unstructured. Along with the quality of data functional testing and performance testing of applications are important modules of big data testing.
Big data testing will be a key software testing trend that will have a positive impact on various industries in 2023 and beyond.
Shift-left testing:
Shift-left testing is an approach to finding and preventing bugs early in the software delivery process.
In the traditional software development life cycle, requirements are kept on the left side of the plan while the delivery and testing requirements are on the right. As a result, these practices can’t handle changing expectations and requirements and bring negative outcomes like increased costs, increased time to market and unexpected errors.
The shift-left strategy helps software development teams cooperate more effectively so that all initial ideas are feasible and properly implemented. It enables organisations to reduce cost and time to the market and delivers the best outcome. This approach enables the software testing team to work in collaboration with the development and production teams.
Automation testing:
The list of software testing trends will look incomplete without mentioning Automation testing.
Automation testing is a software testing process to find bugs using an automation tool. By using automation tools, the test scripts are executed and the results are automatically generated. Some of the popular tools to execute automation testing are Selenium, WebDriver, etc.
Test automation plays a crucial role in software organisations, such as in agile practices, CI/CD implementation, and DevOps. This ensures quality software release, a faster release cycle, and greater coverage of testing. It reduces the need for manual intervention and saves significant time on repetitive tasks.
The automation of tests has become essential as more and more businesses adopt Agile and DevOps practices to satisfy the demand for Quality at Speed. It provides continuous feedback loops, ensures test coverage, and helps teams perform repetitive tasks more efficiently.
Blockchain testing:
There has been widespread adoption of blockchain technology by several organisations. Looking at its popularity, it becomes necessary to adapt existing test strategies for this technology.
Blockchain testing helps in enabling smart records and ensures fraud security Data in the blockchain are stored in blocks. If the block is changed, the subsequent blocks become invalid. It provides confidence in transactions between two unknown parties. Encryption of this kind is fairly secure.
Risks associated with this technology may include data security concerns which can be overcome by adopting an effective blockchain testing strategy.QA professionals with proper knowledge of blockchain technologies will get more opportunities in this testing trend.
Codeless automation:
As we know that the software industry is rapidly growing, and now organisations want to maximise their output with minimum time. This enables the QA professionals to adopt no-code automation testing.
Codeless automation testing refers to the execution of automated tests without scripts. It is difficult and time-consuming for software testers to write automated scripts as they need to write code in every conceivable programming language, which could take a very long time.
Automated codeless testing reduces the amount of time spent on repetitive tests without coding efforts. There are several cordless tools available that allow quick test cases. A few examples are Katalon Studio, Leap Work, TestCraft, CloudQA, etc.
Increasingly, companies are adopting this technology as it is easier to learn, easier to review, and highly effective.
Final Thoughts:
Top are some of the software testing trends that you should look for in the current year. It’s not like the trends for these tools will go away next year. Instead, possibilities are there for these tools to get upgraded. It’s necessary for organisations to quickly adopt these technologies, looking at the competition in the market.
As we all know the software testing market is growing dramatically. With technological advancements, the QA market is expected to expand more in the coming future. It even becomes quite necessary for QA professionals to update themself with the new trends.
Being a software development company, Gloify even deals with software testing services. If your organisation needs our expert help then kindly reach us and if you are a QA professional then visit our career page. We do have vacancies for a QA engineer.