The software testing market in the UK grew by £1.1 billion in 2022, which changed to £1.9 billion in the current financial year (2023-2024), and is still expected to grow by £2.3 billion. The days of manual approaches dominating software testing trends are long gone. This does not Now businesses are updating themselves with advanced testing techniques. So, this article will shed light on new software testing trends in 2023. Furthermore, how advanced and automated approaches can improve software’s working. Let’s check out the latest trends in automation testing.
Updated Trends in Software Automation Testing
Though many testing techniques are trending, we focus on the most recent and useful techniques.
- Mobile and IOT Testing
- Shift-Left Testing
- QAOps Testing Technique
- AI and ML in Automation Testing
- Performance and Security Testing
- Virtual Regression Testing
- Agile Automation Testing
Let us go over each trending testing technique in detail so you can choose the best one for you.
1. Mobile and IOT Testing
More than 80% of people in the UK use mobile phones. Therefore, automating the mobile application testing process is crucial for developers and testers. Mobile apps are tested for usability, functionality, performance, loading times, security, and other factors.
IOT automation is the most recent development in software testing as a result. New cutting-edge applications that offer a multitude of information on your health, education, diet, or anything else you desire with a single tap are developing as our smartphones develop into intelligent gadgets. In this situation, IOT testing by Quality Assurance is necessary to guarantee the functionality and security of IOT systems and devices.
Why Mobile and IOT Testing Trends
- Mobile phones are now smart devices, and the IoT lets you quickly solve almost any problem.
- Leading companies use IoT test automation tools to spot problems before they affect end users.
- Regardless of the device’s type, size, or shape, IoT testing covers the entire system. For instance, a smartwatch is capable of carrying out all operations, such as functioning as a mobile phone, a health detector, GPS navigation, and many other simple tasks.
2. Shift-Left Testing
This is one of the most popular software automation testing techniques nowadays. In this technique, testers are involved from day one of the software build, and their main job is to find and fix software bugs in the early stages of the Software Development Life cycle (SDLC).
Why is Shift-Left Testing Trending?
- Testing requirements and coding can be designed in the earlier phases of the software build.
- Provide assurance of delivering the project at the right or assigned time.
- A collaborative team (QA+ Developers) can provide a better output at the end of the project.
- Enough time is available to test the software on almost all parameters.
3. QAOps Testing Technique
As we know, the software market is enormous, so none of the organisations want to take any risk. Any failure in rigorous testing can have disastrous consequences. So the developers and QA collaborated to create a new term called QAOps.
QAOps means delivering the product by automating CI/CD with the development team throughout the software development lifecycle’s development, testing, production, and monitoring phases.
QA plays a crucial role in maintaining software quality. Usually, the developer fails to deliver the project on time due to customer needs, code not running, or testing needs to be done properly. Here, QA can play a vital role, work as a bridge between IT and the development teams, and wisely promote the QAOps concept.
Additionally, QAOps can take the lead in delivering high-quality software. They can reduce the communication gap between the QA and development teams.
Why QAOps Testing Trends
- Compared to current techniques, higher-quality software products can be delivered more quickly.
- A project can be delivered on time or within a defined time limit.
- There is less chance of a dispute between the testing and software development teams.
- CI/CD pipeline can run smoothly and help find and fix bugs at earlier stages.
4. AI and ML in Automation Testing
We witness the rise of artificial intelligence and its creativity level, which can take your testing to the next level without human support. AI and ML are the new technologies in software testing. In terms of its presence in the software testing field, it can create complex test scenarios and convert manual test cases to automated test cases.
In addition, it is highly capable of creating reusable codes that can integrate with CI/CD pipelines. Resultantly, it makes the task of manual testers easier and makes software testing more reliable and less error.
Why AI and ML in Automation Testing Trending
- Testing is more authentic and saves time when creating content test cases.
- Machine Learning can be designed for test case generation, test case execution, and test data management.
- Using AI and ML can increase the quality of test coverage.
- AI can assist you in making your software more valuable by writing more robust testing scripts that reduce test case failure.
5. Performance and Security Testing
Today, we use almost 400 different laptop and mobile phone models. But the real question is how much they can perform as per the users’ perspective and needs. The performance engineering methodology aligns with the agile and shift-left approaches to enhance performance at an earlier software testing stage.
Additionally, in the current environment, users are very concerned about the security of their data. So, QAs are writing their codes so that customers’ security should not be compromised at any cost. Therefore, organisations lay more emphasis on performance and security testing.
Why Performance and Security Testing Trends
- Security is the foremost factor in today’s scenario. Therefore, software development requires a clear understanding of both functional and non-functional requirements.
- It is a preventative measure to boost system capacity.
- Early and ongoing system performance monitoring is a crucial component of system engineering.
6. Visual Regression Testing
This testing technique requires testers to identify visual bugs. Nowadays, many applications offer customers the ability to search for their products using images.
Here, QA must ensure that the user can still see the visuals after the code changes and does not feel any hindrance in the software’s visual interface.
This testing works in collaboration with regression testing.
Why Visual Regression Testing is Trending
- This testing is mainly practised in the banking sector, protecting against many irrelevancies.
- In this testing, QA ensures that adding new features to the software will not affect users’ existing features.
- This testing works perfectly in an agile environment and ensures the current and previous releases of the business operations work perfectly.
- This testing identifies bugs in the SDLC’s initial stages.
- Testing is completed more quickly and over a shorter period of time with automated regression testing.
These are a few trending testing techniques that are being used nowadays. These techniques not only save your time but also deliver qualitative results on time.
7. Agile Automation Testing
A delay in updating the software can swipe you from the market. Therefore, the agile testing methodology is introduced by the testers. This method frequently uses iterative methods and updates software in small chunks. Agile automation testing aims to increase the software development process’s frequency while maintaining its quality, timeliness, and resource usage.
Why is Agile Automation the Latest Testing Trend?
- Agile test automation allows the testing team to keep up with fast-paced development by automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks like regression testing.
- This strategy can help companies retain customers currently using their software and prevent them from switching to a rival.
- This agile automation technology in software testing can save an application’s credibility by maintaining user trust by providing updated services.
So to re-cap, we explained:
As we move closer to 2023-24, staying ahead of the curve is important. Regarding testing trends, the trend gaining momentum is the use of AI, machine learning, and the above-defined technologies in testing processes. In addition, these technologies can help automate testing, making it faster and more efficient. By staying up to date with these testing trends, businesses can ensure they’re delivering high-quality software and systems that meet the needs of their customers.
