Software Testing Trends in 2019

Every year the field of software testing undergoes transformations. Quite interesting is the fact that this industry is now operating in more complicated conditions than before. This is due to the fact that trends are changing very rapidly. And there is not so much time for the usual tasks, as it was before. However, despite this, the industry manages to adapt and meet the challenges of the times. Modern system approaches give their results, and specialists are not lazy to expand and improve their qualifications.

Complicating the software testing

Among those factors that have complicated the conditions in software testing, it is worth noting the following:

- The use of artificial intelligence in many directions. The use of AI has become quite controversial, and forecasts in this direction are vague. Many companies are busy creating pilot versions of AI for solving highly specialized tasks. However, other studies show how imperfectly such tools can work at the moment. In general, there is a huge field of work for professionals involved in testing.

- Test automation; lack of time to complete this process. Experts by the naked eye see that now testing is not as thorough as it was before. In many ways, the negative consequences of this tendency are compensated by automation, but it would be short-sighted to ignore the problem.

- The increasing complexity of testing. In principle, the phenomenon is natural. Software becomes more complex every year.

Up to date, the sphere operates in conflicting conditions. At the same time, it is not possible to radically change anything. The demand for the highest quality software is enormous. Herewith there is an obvious request for it to be created in the shortest time, which is not so simple. In such conditions, testing outgrows the role of just a stage in the development.

A high-quality software product cannot be released to the world until it passes the test, providing for the correction of all the bugs. Therefore, the industry faces serious challenges and many challenges. Apparently, at the moment, specialists can manage with this.

Process automation

Automation is an undeniable trend that can be traced in software testing. The emergence of new tools, templates and methods provide efficiency and more features.

If automation were not used so actively, the whole process of introducing new software could have stalled. It is needed for such two basic tasks as:
- Increase of process consistency level.
- Increase of speed.

Automatic testing of mobile applications makes it possible to more effectively evaluate them for many important parameters.

This segment of testing requires more advanced approaches because it is more complicated than traditional desktop testing. Even in software development projects, the level of automation is low. And talking about testing mobile applications things are even worse.

The problem becomes obvious - the lack of tools that would help in the application testing industry. And the number of mobile gadgets used in the world is steadily increasing every year. As a result, testers are hardly able to assess the relevance of applications for these gadgets.



Source of data Statista

The accessory side of this phenomenon does not keep to wait long. Many applications are not only useless but also frankly harmful. For example, this applies to software for mobile gadgets, which is related to health topics. There are applications with diagnostic and other tips that are not based on actual scientific evidence. As a result, gullible people sometimes miss the opportunity to timely consult a doctor for a real diagnosis, calming down with the advice of a mobile application. This is not the only such example showing that testing must be thorough and comprehensive. It should include not only the technical side but design trends also. And here the work of specialists will not lose relevance.

The wider use of automation could help in this, thereby promoting the rational use of human analytical work where it is needed. Auto testing of the technical side of the process will free up more time for specialists to analyze application content. This will help reduce the proportion of low-quality IT-products in this segment.

Automation is no less important when it comes to testing application programming interfaces. Today, most of the processes in this direction are manual. It would be superfluous to talk about how much time is wasted in the absence of an adequate level of automation. Accordingly, it slows down the delivery of the finished software product to the IT market. The solution to this problem is one of the priorities. Not only the release time of ready and tested software depends on this, but also the quality of the developed programs.

Active implementation of Agile & DevOps

The modern era considers testing as one of the key stages before software enters the IT market. Without it, the entire development process would be incomplete. Industry analysis and recent expert reports testify that “agile testing” will be very popular in the near future. Btw, you can compare Scrum and Agile here.

Also, special attention should be paid to DevOps, which remains one of the key tools in this area. Its popularity, again, is justified by the need for the most harmonious balance of such principles as “high quality” and “high speed”. Developers and testers have to say goodbye to the familiar principle that “fast results aren’t qualitative”. Modern IT-market requires efficiency and steady compliance with the high standards that are put forward to it.

In addition to DevOps, one of the dominant approaches will be Agile, that's the reason why frameworks like Angular and Vue. This is a flexible methodology that is among the top modern strategies in software development. The universality and effectiveness of this approach allow to integrate it into other areas of activity. For example, among them are various segments of project management. As for the involvement of the methodology in the industry for which it was created (software development or graphic design), here it allows you to achieve:
- shorten production cycle;
- distribution of responsibility for the quality of the finished IT product among all participants who were engaged in its development.

Such a systematic approach allows you to get tangible results and contribute to the fact that the field of software testing could confidently accept the challenges that the IT market puts before it.

As for DevOps, it is a set of practices whose main goal is to reduce the time that passes from the start of development (Dev) to operation (Ops). It is the high quality of testing that ensures that a ready software IT product will meet all the requirements that are put forward to it, and final stage put fresh logo for 2020.

Over the past few years, the DevOps technique has received massive interest. Probably, in the future, its popularity will only increase due to the demonstrated effectiveness. It is predicted that automation should be implemented at all levels of testing. "Agile testing", as well as DevOps-practices will provide an opportunity to increase the level of productivity in web development. Thus, the focus is on the successful combination of Agile- and DevOps-techniques.

Understanding testing trends are key to success

You need to understand the current industry trends, so that software testers could be able to adapt their professional activities to the demands of the times. It is important to acquire those specialized skills that will give the opportunity to market high-quality software. The finished IT product must be properly tested and adjusted before it reaches its consumer.

It is also worth noting that the profession of software testing engineer is not new. It requires much more knowledge and skills than working as an ordinary tester like JS frameworks and libraries. Considering that the automation processes will actually take away the work of many testers in the future, it will be appropriate for them to expand their knowledge and retrain into software testing engineers. So there will be an opportunity to stay afloat in the chosen industry.

Accelerating the work cycle will provide an opportunity to receive user feedback more quickly. And the use of Agile-approach will contribute to the transformation of the sphere. Many testers will start learning the basics of development in order to better understand the process. Professions aimed at creating software will now be even more interconnected. Probably the sphere will only benefit from this.