One Step Ahead: Software Testing Trends to Watch In 2021

Modern testing solutions are evolving and revolutionizing. QA is not just about finding bugs and errors anymore; it is a complex technical philosophy that also includes evaluation of a product idea, behavioral predictions, analysis of opportunities and threats, etc.

So can we use only traditional and well-known testing methods to achieve progressive results? Of course, they remain the cornerstone of the software testing process. However, if you want to become more competitive in the QA field, you should stay one step ahead of your competitors and continuously enhance your professional skills. For this, you should keep up with software testing challenges and trends. So what is the future of software testing in 2021? We’ll share several assumptions.

Top Testing Trends Driving the Industry in 2021

2021 promises to be a dynamic and ambitious year, so we expect some fascinating testing trends, models, and strategies to come to life. Here are some of the upcoming technologies in software testing you might want to implement soon.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Davos Economic Forum announced AI and ML as the trendiest approaches that will become the key drivers of the next industrial revolution. Speaking about software testing, AI and ML can revolutionize the way we use test data and improve bug detection algorithms. Many manual testing tasks are likely to be substituted with automation to allocate QA resources more efficiently.

Blockchain Testing

The most promising market technology works as a record-keeping database not only for the Bitcoin system. For example, global blockchain technology is used for supply chain management, food, shipping, and other industries. Its mission is to provide the highest security level for any economic transaction. Hence, the IT market desperately needs QA specialists with specific domain skills able to provide professional testing services.

Agile & DevOps

More companies start to notice the advantages of Agile and DevOps methodologies. These models allow tech teams to develop high-quality IT products, receive a quick evaluation, and enter the market faster. For sure, this tendency will stick during 2021.

QAOps

This solution is about the integration of quality assurance (QA) and IT operations (Ops) into the CI/CD chain. QA procedures should not be isolated from the whole end-to-end software development process. QAOps implies close communication and cooperation between team members that will eventually lead to developing a product of the highest quality, meeting the deadlines, adding new features in the shortest time possible, and so on.

The other progressive technique is combining QAOps and DevOps. Continuous testing together with a CI/CD operation chain and ongoing cooperation between developers and QA specialists is a strategy that promises to detect errors quicker and accelerate the product-to-market process.

Big Data Testing

Applications with underlying huge volumes of consumer data should be analyzed and tested frequently. Sectors like healthcare, finance, banking, retail, and telecommunication constantly deal with big data. Therefore, the demand for big data testing will keep increasing.

The specific feature of big data testing is checking of data processing success and accuracy, but not separate parts of the software product. QA engineers use commodity clusters and other specific supportive instruments to perform this task.

Internet Of Things (IoT) Testing

This powerful digital network is rapidly developing along with the 4G and 5G network standards spreading all over the world. QA engineers should be ready to test software developed for entirely new types of hardware for security, reliability, the convenience of usage, connection with other devices, etc.

IoT technologies are helpful for both individual users and corporations. Transportation and logistics, machinery manufacturing, and agriculture are among those exploiting the IoT advantages to the most extent.

Chatbot Testing

Bots will continue to conquer the world as a part of robotic process automation (RAP). Bots allow minimizing expenses on support while providing a better user experience. The smooth chatbot functioning requires careful testing.

Security Testing

Web users share lots of private information online. We login to websites and apps using Google, Apple, or Facebook accounts, enter the details of payment cards in various e-commerce sites, social security and tax numbers in online banking systems. The more technological society becomes, the more seriously they should treat sensitive data and user privacy. And QA professionals have a significant role to play in this process.

Shift-Left Testing

The traditional software development model implies that the testing procedures take place at the end of the product development cycle. You can explain the concept of shift-left testing literally: shifting the testing to the left on the process scale, that is earlier during the development process. And as the experience shows, the sooner you find bugs, the easier it is to fix them.

Combination of Automation and Manual Testing

There are numerous benefits to test automation, but it cannot replace manual checkups completely. That means that compromises are the best strategy: using a bit of each. Automation will deliver quick and accurate results, while manual testing will cover the aspects that require human input.

Scriptless Tools

Following up upon the test automation trends, scriptless tools will facilitate the creation of automated tests. Of course, you should still know how to code if you want to create complicated custom scripts, but smart tools will allow even beginners to automate the low-level tasks.

Selenium 4

Selenium is an openly accessible automated testing tool for web applications, one of the most popular due to its multifunctional features. The tool gives a technical opportunity to automatize and speed up the testing process. It sustains multiple programming languages, operating systems, various types of tests.

You can learn more about Selenium automation testing in one of our previous posts. The next stable version of Selenium 4 will be released soon, do not miss an opportunity to pass tutorials and free trials.

Customer Experience and Usability Testing

The global pandemic and its consequences have affected software testing, just like other tech spheres. In particular, it forced QA engineers to pay more attention to user experience. As the audience of software products grows, it becomes more diverse. More people start using new products for the first time, and it is essential to make sure that users with different levels of tech experience can figure out how this or that feature works.

To Sum Up: Stay Trendy!

Remember that Lewis Carroll quote? “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” It reminds the present-day fast-paced tech world, where QA specialists should keep up with the latest trends in software testing and continue studying all the time.