10 emerging trends in Software Testing: Predictions for the next decade

The last decade has seen an overwhelming evolution of the software testing industry, giving way to greener pastures. This rapid scale of development is keeping not just the testers, but also the developers on tenterhooks, making constant upskilling a necessity. Even businesses now need to be more aware of what is best in terms of performance and security.

The last decade saw a wider acceptance of testing as an early activity in the software development lifecycle. This was predominantly due to the adoption of Agile and DevOps methodologies by organizations across the globe. The goal was to get their apps faster to the market. We also saw an increase in the use of virtualization and service-oriented architecture along with cloud computing. This drove many testing tool vendors vying for the market space in the testing arena.

Based on our observations of the leading industry analyst research reports and experience from working with leading Fortune 500 enterprises, we have listed the top 10 emerging trends/predictions that will define how the landscape of software testing will evolve over the next decade.

1. The Future belongs to Open-Source Tools: More and more businesses will adopt open-source tools for proper implementation of Agile, DevOps, and Test Automation within their organizations. The involvement and activeness of support communities for the open-source tools will continue to increase.
2. Quality@speed is the main mantra: Organizations want the full package of speed plus quality. They want to deliver the best products in the fastest possible time for providing better user experiences. The expectations for speed are only going to increase (and the quality better) with the latest technologies and tools at the disposal of software development and testing teams.
3. Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs) will continue to be in huge demand: SDETs have been existing among us for a couple of decades. However, their initial role was very different from the typical testing roles. Now, almost all testers will need to wear an SDET hat to be successful in the field of Test Automation.
4. Agile and DevOps will rule the roost, TcoEs will evolve: In the last few years, organizations have been moving away from Test Centers of Excellence. This shift ‘away’ will now convert in to a shift ‘toward’ TcoEs. Agility combined with centralized and well-governed testing will help organizations achieve greater quality.
5. Digital Transformation will continue to slay: Digital has already become inevitable. Those organizations that do not digitalize, will die. This essentiality for digital transformation will require a huge shift of focus towards digital testing. Robust strategies for digital assurance will be required for focusing on optimizing functional testing across channels.
6. Big Data Testing will become really BIG: We are sitting atop an explosive amount of data and need to have a very strong strategy around Big Data & Analytics Testing. Practically, every advancement happening relies on data and proper analytics. Testing datasets require highly analytical tools, techniques, and frameworks. This would emphasize the implementation of big data testing and proper analysis.
7. IoT: Heralding an era of Connected Devices: With IoT growing in leaps and bounds, more and more businesses will rely on IoT Testing before launching their products to the end customers. If the products are not tested, their functionality, security, and effectiveness – all will come under scanner. According to a HP study, 70 percent of devices in the Internet of Things are vulnerable to security problems.
8. DevOps will drive Quality Engineering: DevOps ideology is based on seamless collaboration and integration between different departments of an IT Organization – developers, quality professionals, and IT professionals. Testing plays a business-critical role as developers are involved not just in the correctness of their code, but also in the testing and overall quality engineering aspects. DevOps, thus, is propelling businesses towards greater speed of deployment and quality assurance, thus, helping them realize higher returns on investment and faster time-to-market in a cost-efficient manner.
9. Performance Engineering is replacing Performance Testing: Repeating a cliché – “A good user experience is the key to a successful product”. Consistent performance across diverse platforms, OSs, and devices defines how much of a market can a product really capture. The need to provide the best experience to users is making organizations change their software development strategy. They are now moving away from just doing performance tests to Performance engineering right from the beginning of the software development lifecycle.
10. The best news is that Software Testing Budgets will continue to grow: Testing has become more than just a need with the increasing demand for high-quality products and with major IT trends such as big data analytics, cloud technologies, mobility, and virtualization. This will push the organizations towards allocating a bigger chunk of their IT budget (around 40%) for software testing and QA.