As businesses are embedded in the latest technologies because of which they strongly embrace digital transformation, the only way to stand out in the industry, is by delivering top notch quality products/software services to customers. For this reason, over the past decade, software testing has gained considerable momentum and a strategical area of importance in the SDLC process with the rise in innovative, complex products and software’s.

According to Gartner, the worldwide discrete software testing market spending will be increased by 14% CAGR with product testing growing at the rate of 9.1% and application testing at 15.3%. Market research firm, Nelson Hall also predicts that the software testing market size is going to be $34 billion by 2017.

With each passing year, the convergence of disruptive technologies has resulted in increased adoption of automation testing and other testing technologies. Keeping this in mind, we have come up with some of the top trends in the field of software testing that are shaping the IT industry at large.

1.Big Data & Analytics Testing To Become Mainstreams

It’s big data everywhere!

Big data and analytics have become an integral part of organizations because of their ability to offer potential insights on various business aspects. According to IDC, big data and business analytics market will grow to more than $203 billion in 2020. Huge investments are also pushing big data to become the mainstream where according to Gartner, 48% of companies have already invested in Big data in 2016.

With that said, big data testing will be a major challenge as organizations require strong strategies to test voluminous data from various sources and types. The integrity of data can be achieved only through rigorous testing and big data testing involves various schemas and frameworks. Hence big data testing is sure to take a huge leap this year.

2. Agile and Continuous Integration Will Continue to Rule the Pack

Following the agile development methodology, organizations are quickly adopting agile testing approach in order to promote transparency, flexibility, and accelerate interaction among various systems. Continuous Integration (CI) helps developers to automatically integrate their code multiple times into a shared repository. It also enables to detect bugs during the iteration because of which they can be rectified at the primary developmental stage to match customer requirements. This assures maximum code quality, increased productivity and rapid delivery.

3.DevOps Adoption to Soar

According to a research, 54% of companies have adopted DevOps and the numbers will continue to rise. This is because enterprises have realized the importance of practicing DevOps principles in order to tap the benefits of cross-functional skills. Therefore, with DevOps, the IT industry will notice extensive merge of developers, testers and other operational roles in future.

In the 2016 State of DevOps report, high performing DevOps organizations witness,

  • 200X more deployments
  • 24X faster recovery times
  • 3X lower change failure rates

DevOps is an extension of Agile that involves stronger coordination across various systems in SDLC and STLC. With the involvement of all stakeholders including the customer, the silos are no longer independent and discreet. Thus, DevOps provide a platform for continuous feedback that result in faster deployment.

4. Mobile & Cloud-based testing Will Make Huge Advancements

Mobile applications are the key reasons for the surge of smartphones in the market. According to Gartner, by 2017, over 268 billion downloads of mobile apps will generate cumulative revenue of $77 billion. With smartphone’s growth at exponential rates and the stringent app approval process, mobile testing will be an integral part of testing strategies. The demand for flawless user experience on mobile devices further pushes the vitality of mobile testing and its significance in the future.

Cloud computing will also take a profound leap in the coming years mainly because of its cost-efficient infrastructure that supports testing across multiple platforms. Gartner predicts that by 2020, the shift to the cloud will have affected business decisions worth about a trillion dollars. Cloud-based testing will witness many technological shifts as prominent testing practices like DevOps testing, mobile app testing etc. is migrating to cloud. Companies will also focus on container-based solutions that have gained more prominence than virtual machines.

5. More Focus on Security Testing

Digital transformation has resulted in an era of connected devices and increased leveraging of several technologies. With great power of technologies come great responsibilities to ensure that any system is highly guarded against all cyber threats and other malicious activities. According to a cybercrime report by Hackerpocalypse, cybercrime damages will hit $6 trillion annually with the global spending on cybersecurity products and services to exceed $1trillion by 2021. For this reason, security testing will become more prominent in strengthening and addressing various security threats. With MarketsandMarkets predicting, that the global security testing market will grow to $7.61 billion by 2021, security testing will become more crucial, critical and intense in the coming years.

As businesses are now more customer-centric, they are more inclined towards incorporating agile methodologies and are open to adopting the latest trends in keeping up to the current industry standards. In the coming years, these trends will definitely shape the testing field and the way businesses perceive ‘quality’.