Test Automation: Emerging Trends

The world of software testing is currently experiencing a major change that demands every Organization and Quality Assurance (QA) engineer to keep up and implement with the latest trends. There's no question that today's quality executives and engineers almost universally recognize that the Quality Assurance sector needs to accelerate its adoption of agile and DevOps. Yet the average rate still stands at about 16% across the board.

Just a few years ago, QA professionals were hired based on just their knowledge of market leading testing tools like Selenium, UFT, ALM. Now, the marketplace requires QAs to have specialized skills with applicable working know-how in the new trends and to be adaptable to any or all of the market leading tools. The reality is that initiatives like automation and test data management continue to see flat adoption rates. Experts warn that changes need to be made more swiftly if quality is to keep up with the pace of software engineering.

Here we examine 5 key trends that are transforming the IT industry specifically in the way testing needs to be planned and implemented – effectively and efficiently.

1. DevOps and Agile:

DevOps is about seamless collaboration across departments in software development and its operation. This will lead test automation developers moving into agile teams. Testing will now be conducted at every stage to verify requirements, develop automation frameworks (to support DevOps), and configure toolsets for integration and delivery. This trend suggests a shift towards quality engineering to achieve greater speeds of delivery and QA. Testing will also become more iterative, progressive, and integrated from the beginning of the development cycle.

Sogeti Ireland is currently implementing Agile for a leading international insurance company that has already sped up their releases, increased efficiency and reduced the time to market. 

2. Open Source Tools:

Companies are now using open source tools to achieve enhanced performance in terms of test automation with DevOps and Agile For many of our leading customers Sogeti has implemented open source tools and solutions to reduce costs and improve ROI. The increased dependence on open source tools will drive innovation and expansion of new tool’s. This phenomenon will help reduce development expenses and accelerate the product’s time to market. Testers will also need to adopt advanced programming skills to build libraries and automation frameworks to run their tests.

3. Internet of Things (IoT) and Security Testing:

With IoT growing in leaps and bounds, more and more customers rely on IoT Testing before using the products. If the products are not tested, their functionality, security, and effectiveness – all will come under scanner. As the adoption of IoT continues to grow, there will be an increasing demand to not only conduct extensive tests on its effectiveness and functionality but also security. The threat to IoT devices will be network-related and involve the user authentication process which will demand static and dynamic testing. As a result, we will see a rise in IoT QA testing teams to respond to potential vulnerabilities right from the start.

4. Big Data Testing:

We are sitting atop an explosive amount of Big Data today and need to have a very strong strategy around Big Data Testing. Every enterprise across industries attempts to leverage big data analytics to gain a competitive advantage, there will a huge demand for big data testing to help develop strong strategies. Testing datasets requires highly analytical tools, techniques, and frameworks, and is an area that is set to grow big. Big data QA teams will require advanced analytical tools and frameworks to engage in this activity.

5. Mobile Testing and Automation:

As almost every business on the planet goes through a period of digital transformation, we can expect to see a growing demand for extensive digital strategies to optimize functional testing across all channels.

 

As we race towards a mobile-first world, the need for extensive mobile test automation will be paramount. The good news is that we’re now seeing the emergence of mobile testing platforms and tools. Sogeti currently has inhouse devices, on-demand devices on cloud and mobile testing solutions that have enabled many clients with their mobile testing.

In conclusion, with most organizations making a foray in the digital world, the need for digital transformation will require a huge shift of focus towards digital testing. Robust strategies for digital assurance will be required for focusing on optimizing functional testing across channel’s. 

As detailed in the World Quality Report, its clear that moving to smarter, automated testing solutions will enable teams to release software faster without sacrificing quality to secure business outcomes. 

These emerging trends are already revolutionizing and changing the way businesses are running, and despite the low adoption rate  - it can be readily and successfully implemented with the right partner – like Sogeti!

To understand more about any of these trends or to implement/incorporate any of them please contact Sogeti.