Software development markets demand bigger, faster, and highly accurate software. Unfortunately, these three elements in several industries represent a zero-sum game, increasing one detract from the others. However, emerging trends allow for improvements in software across the board.
The novel approaches to development, along with modern quality assurance principles and advances in cloud infrastructure and technologies, are trending in a way that seemingly has no intention of diminishing on any of these fronts.
5 Most Interesting Software Quality Assurance Trends
Below are five of the most interesting QA trends for the coming years. These are provided based on areas currently in development and a trajectory to boost in the future.
1. Agile
While Agile as a methodology is set to benefit from all of the subsequent trends, the system itself is changing, and there are some trends within that relate to Quality Assurance (QA) that are worth focusing on.
Agile is set to shift even more toward cloud-based systems to maintain its lead. It rewards creative, adaptive thinking and feels like something that will benefit companies adopting cloud-based Agile systems in the future.
The continuous testing elements of agile development also increase in power. The success of continuous testing as part of an overall QA process has proven that it is an effective method, which looks set to continue.
For example, as Agile develops into more of a work ethic than a development methodology, aspects of it will be considered for use in other departments for complex tasks like marketing and human resources.
2. DevOps
DevOps is another methodology set to benefit from current QA trends. The market is projected to break the $20Bn mark by 2026. DevOps is continually evolving and adapting to new requirements, the same as Agile.
It is expected that the reliance on the ‘serverless’ architecture of the cloud will increase, providing more focus on development and testing. In addition, a movement to less centralized architecture like microservices is likely, letting applications be structured as a series of coupled services and helping isolate individual components from errors in other areas.
3. Test Automation
Test automation is increasing in popularity, and for a good reason. Several manual tests are being replaced with automation, bottlenecks in production are opening up, and the capacity for continuous testing raises.
The trends for automation suggest that regression testing will soon be almost entirely automated. While automated testing is becoming more familiar to teams, it is still under-utilized. With more experience, it is expected to take off quickly, along with more advanced automation tools being developed.
Automation for mobile apps is also on the rise. The pressure to unveil software faster has led to better automation practices and the integration between cloud-based device labs and automation tools.
4. Codeless Testing
One more step up from standard automation is codeless testing automation. Codeless testing may become more popular in the coming months and years.
Codeless testing provides several seemingly outlandish promises, but there are suggestions that the exponential growth of this testing method will increase at 15.5 CAGR for the next ten years.
5. AI and Machine Learning
The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still a primitive science, and many machine learning (ML) algorithms are still waiting for sufficient data to be trained.
As the applications and understanding of AI increase, it is expected to be implemented for various challenges of software testing; to generate better test cases, data, scripts, and reviews.
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to find the best possible times and methods of testing, predict faults before testing, and navigate tests by risk and speed. AI is already used to generate test cases based on user behavior and collect metrics from regression tests for monitoring.
The Benefits Of Quality Assurance Trends To Modern Software
Let us look at the benefits of Quality Assurance trends to modern software.
Agile Benefits
Agile developments translate to improved quality, decreased costs, and faster market time. But further improvements to moving to cloud architecture will also concentrate on improving the satisfaction ratings by freeing up more time to spend on user experience.
Continuous testing improvements will lead to faster feedback and bug detection. Additionally, adopting the Agile philosophy in other company areas will lead to intelligent breakdowns of other complex internal processes and iterative procedures that can be effectively monitored and boosted.
DevOps Benefits
In DevOps, adopting serverless computing will streamline the entire software lifecycle. It also decreased the workload for developers to concentrate on quality development rather than upkeep.
The microservices architecture permits decentralized innovations, where teams can control their part of the project and boost release times and resource allocation in general.
Test Automation Benefits
The same thing that has made test automation so valuable for development is the thing set to continue in the future: faster tests, more tests, and better outcomes.
Codeless Testing Benefits
Codeless testing comes with several immediate benefits. First, testing becomes so simple that even complex automation is accessible to inexperienced testers without prior testing or programming knowledge.
When it comes to testing, the availability of human resources gets a significant boost. It is valid for testing but also for reviewing feedback cycles. Testers can also execute immediately, and there is almost no learning curve, as opposed to the need for testing and coding protocols in older methods.
AI and Machine Learning Benefits
AI is set to continue improving software quality as automation has been up until now. Another hidden benefit of more usage of AI is likely from how data is gathered and arranged.
With more ML involvement, data storage and labeling will be done with the algorithms in mind. Hence, it should improve recorded data quality and further empower future algorithms.
Finally, the benefits from these Quality Assurance trends of the next generation of software will come from the improvements in time to market, accuracy, and production efficiency. The software would be getting faster, better, and highly complex all at the same time.
Conclusion
With several current practices still in their infancy and trends in every area looking positive, it is an exciting time for the future of software development.
