The Future of Software Testing - How Will It Be?
With more and more IT companies adopting test-driven development (TDD) approach, the software testing services have become an integral part of product development life cycle. But to effectuate software testing, the QA professionals have to make and implement strategies by considering key factors like competitive pressured, shorter time to market, and constant changes in technology. Along with delivering a flawless software application, the testing strategy will also aim to beat competition by shortening time to market. However, the future of software testing will also be impacted by several emerging trends in testing and QA.
Emerging Trends that will Impact the Future of Software Testing
Test Automation: An enterprise can avail several benefits by automating its testing efforts. The test automation tools make it easier for QA engineers to repeatedly evaluate different aspects of the software. In addition to improving the quality of the software, the tools will further help businesses in quickly covering based throughout the development. Also, the test automation will help enterprises in beating competition by reducing both cost and time to market.
Emphasis on Security: Security is one of the key factors in both manual and automated software testing. But many reports have highlighted that the testing strategy of most companies focus primarily on performance and emphasis. The reports also highlighted that test strategies of more and more companies are now focusing on security. As the application needs to be accessible on various platforms and devices, it has become essential for business to protect it from hacking, cross scripting attacks and other cyber crimes.
Context-Driven Testing: The enterprises have realized that the same testing strategy will not meet the needs of different applications. So many companies, nowadays, opt for context-driven testing. The companies require QA engineers to develop an arsenal of skill for different contexts through formal training and on-the-job observations. The enhanced skills and expertise of testers will make it easier for them to make test strategies by evaluating and interpreting a particular situation effectively.
Growth of Mobile and Cloud Testing: A number of reports have highlighted a steady increase in the mobile and Cloud testing activities. With more and more businesses using mobile devices for operation transactions and customers, it has become essential for them to ensure mobile security. Likewise, many businesses opt for Cloud based testing to create and maintain the testing environment effectively without investing additional time, effort and funds. However, the companies will be required to address several data security and performance challenges to adopt cloud based environments successfully.
Agile Environment: With most software applications being developed in agile environment, the businesses have to use right test tools and methodology to complement the development. The agile development requires enterprises to test various aspects of the software continuously before the delivery phase. So the testers have to adopt testing in production approach to assess the software in an agile development environment.
Test Center of Excellence: Many IT companies will use Test Center of Excellence (TCOE) as the main criterion to choose independent software testing vendors. Several reports have highlighted that most companies, nowadays, prefer hiring vendors who have already fully operational TCOE’s. However, a software testing company needs 3 to 6 months for developing a TCOE. Also, it can avail the benefits of the TCOE only after 3 years. That is why; more software testing companies will build TCOE to impress clients.
Cost and Process Optimization: Many IT companies, nowadays, focus more on QA and testing activities than core product development. So the QA and testing activities will become more process-centric in future. Also, the businesses will adopt a collaborative testing model that will require the involvement of different stakeholders including client. The increased focus on software testing also make the businesses allocate more funds for QA activities. The optimization of testing process and cost will further make many companies hire independent software testing services.
Many experts even predict that more and more companies will invest in independent software testing services, open source test automation tools, and agile testing models. Likewise, many companies will switch to Cloud based testing to avail cost benefits along with higher flexibility and feasibility. When you hire testing software companies, you must ensure that the team has proven experience in handling medium and large sized testing projects over a long period.
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