Software Quality Trends: Predicting the Future

Robb La Velle, VP & Global Practice Leader-Business Assurance Services, Infogain

he software testing space has witnessed significant transformation since 2015. Today, the emphasis is more on mobile apps, which can deliver an impeccable user experience. Last year, we witnessed a remarkable progression in the mobile app testing domain with the most advanced versions of mobile operating systems and technological changes.

Since software testing is transforming rapidly, a lot of remarkable testing trends are coming up in the testing domain. Cloud Computing along with the initiation of Service Oriented Architecture and increase in virtualization has opened a multitude of innovative aspects for industry specialists to consider. Besides this, trends such as mobile application testing, security testing, crowd-sourced testing, context-driven testing, testing in the Agile Development Environment, and increasing open-source testing tools are significantly altering the software testing landscape today. Moreover, emphasis on DevOps has been transforming the software development process from one of periodic releases to one of accelerated continuous deployments. . For this article we have assembled a series of software quality assurance trends that are influencing the market.

Software testing industry is evolving at a rapid pace to adapt to the demands of the digital enterprise.

1. Automation: Quality teams are taking measures to adopt automation to address deployment velocity requirements and the need to ensure the most complete coverage possible. To address this need, every testing area—from compatibility and usability to performance and efficiency is going to require enhanced and improved automation.

2. Comprehensive Security Testing: The increasing adoption of mobile, cloud computing, and IoT platforms in the IT industry has given rise to increased demand for security testing, thus, making it one of the vital priorities for IT leaders. Storing sensitive data such as credit card/debit card details, bank account details, and other confidential data on mobile phones makes them vulnerable to online theft. Thus, testers will continue focussing on renewed security by putting comprehensive security into practice.

3. Mobile Application Testing: With the growing usage of mobile devices and app downloads, the trend of mobile application testing is gaining ground in software testing domain. According to Gartner, almost 300 billion mobile applications will be downloaded next year. Since mobile application testing assists in enhancing end-user experience, the number of enterprises practicing mobile application testing is rising significantly every year. According to industry experts, 92percent of organizations are planning to emphasize on mobile application testing. The only challenge for executing mobile application testing is finding the appropriate tools, strategies, infrastructure along with the right capabilities.

4. Cloud-based Mobile Application Testing: Mobile Device Clouds form an essential aspect of Mobile App Development cycle for several organizations. The World Quality Report states that cloud testing went up from 4 percent in the year 2014 to 24 percent in 2015. The IT industry puts a major emphasis on cloud testing by adhering to a specific methodology for analyzing cloud-based services. According to industry experts, the ever-increasing implementation of cloud solutions will result in the significant adoption of cloud-based testing in 2017. Unlike other complex and costly test environments which are quite troublesome to maintain, cloud infrastructure is flexible and offers an easy solution.

5. Internet of Things (IoT): In the current age of digital information, Internet of Things (IoT) has been experiencing constant growth. It is another major advancement that is gradually transforming how enterprises interact with their employees, associates and consumers. Digital innovation combined with machine-to-machine connectivity in the IoT industry is facilitating the smooth connectivity between multiple systems via various sophisticated platforms.

6. Crowd Sourced Software Testing: This is yet another trend in software testing that is gaining recognition worldwide. Crowd Sourced Software Testing helps enterprises manage their budget for developing sophisticated software. It is particularly helpful in difficult situations when testing teams may not have access to all the resources for testing the software in different circumstances. Crowd sourced software testing is a procedure under which software applications are made available to several end-users so that they can identify the flaws and bugs. Such testing services are generally controlled by organizations ‘as a service’.

7. Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE): This trend has been undergoing a significant boom in the testing domain since the year 2011, and will continue to maintain its steady growth in the coming years. That said, it is imperative for TCoEs to embrace a more dynamic methodology so as to adopt up-and-coming trends such as DevOps, Mobile, Agile and Digital Transformation. TCoEs must constantly propel testing by implementing service virtualization, integration, and life-cycle automation.

8. Context-driven Software Testing: Context-driven testing is another new trend that is emerging slowly but steadily. When it comes to software applications testing, a one-size fits all approach cannot be considered reliable. Diversity and robust integration of devices make it complicated for QA teams to set up a steady testing strategy. The necessity of being adjustable to any context changes has resulted in the popularity of context-based testing. Testers that are capable of acclimatizing to specific contexts thrive whereas the one-size fits all approach becomes irrelevant.

9. Agile and Uninterrupted Delivery: A large number of businesses today are solely dependent on mobile apps. As delivery cycles are getting shorter, conventional models of development are taking a backseat at the moment. Agile Dev cycles, uninterrupted delivery, and continuous deployment play an instrumental role in the success of any mobile app strategy. Thus, testing tools will focus more on integrations with IDE (Integrated Development Environments) and similar tools that will assist in continuous delivery.

The above-mentioned software testing trends predict a bright future for software testing domain. In the coming years the trend will focus more on creating rational business models and tactics to materialize digital transformation projects. It is a known fact that the software testing industry is evolving at a rapid pace to adapt to the demands of the digital enterprise. In order to meet the needs of the market, software quality assurance organizations must adopt a digital mind-set themselves and leverage advanced tools and methods such as service virtualization, predictive analytics and machine learning to remain competitive.

News Originally Posted on: CIO Review