QA trends to adopt in 2023

The end of the year is just a couple of months away. It's too early to sum up, but it's time to think about the strategy for next year. I already wrote about QA trends in 2021, and they will definitely remain relevant, because Blockchain and Big Data testing is only gaining momentum. But the development of technology doesn’t stand still and new trends are emerging. These include Internet of Things testing, the Data Driven approach, Robotic Process Automation, and so forth. I have analyzed the information and am ready to present to you the most interesting and promising trends of 2023, which we are going to implement. Read my article to learn more about them!

1. JS-based tools using

The growing popularity of using JavaScript-based tools is associated with the growing popularity of JavaScript. This is caused not only by the increasing number of front-end projects, but also by the development of the Node.js platform. It is becoming more and more attractive for back-end development. The development of Node.js made it possible to implement more interesting testing solutions.

JS is famous because many consider it one of the easiest ways to learn programming. To each his own, but neither I nor the specialists from Cherish DEV think so and would not recommend it as a first language.

Most front-end development is done in JavaScript. Stereotypically, it is easier to test code in the language in which it is written.

Another argument in favor of JS is that new JavaScript testing tools were developed much later, which allowed their creators to take into account the disadvantages of other tools.

Since there are a lot of tools, they begin to compete with each other. This is the reason for their rapid and dynamic development. As a result, they offer a more convenient environment for developing tests than other tools.

Therefore, the number of JS test automation tools is now increasing. At Cherish DEV we use tools such as Cypress and Playwright.

2. IoT testing

The Internet of Things is the concept of a data network between devices. Inside the IoT, people can communicate with “things”, and “things” can communicate with each other. With the spread of "smart" houses, "smart" cities, etc. an issue of safety in this system of “things” became extremely relevant. In addition, networks are constantly changing. New network services are added and equipment/devices are upgraded. The network must be able to support these new services.

In order for the Internet of Things to function properly, you need to make sure that the network is ready through performance testing. "Things" in the network must be protected from cyber attacks and traffic anomalies. Assurance of network security requires a testing ecosystem sufficient to measure and improve the performance of networks and security devices.

The scalability of the network and the user experience during the scaling process will be critical to the global adoption and success of IoT.

3. QAOps

The desire to speed up the release without quality loss has formed a direction, which is a combination of QA and DevOps — QAOps. It is connected with practices of continuous integration and delivery. The main emphasis is on the constant interaction between software development and testing engineers throughout the entire cycle of creating an IT product.

4. Performance engineering?

Performance testing is not a new area. Most QA companies, including Cherish DEV, with no problems use this type of testing. But since the prosperity of the business now directly depends on the success of the software, performance now plays a key role. Performance testing has evolved into performance engineering. Its essence lies in the application of methods at all stages of the software development life cycle to ensure proper optimization. Performance engineering focuses on architecture design, improving UI/UX design, improving code structure, and understanding business use cases. It plays a preventive and improving role in the software development life cycle.

5.Robotic process automation

Robotic Process Automation is a business process automation technology. It is based on the use of many digital bots that imitate part of the user's actions. The specialist builds algorithms that formulate clear instructions for the robot and provide settings for performing the necessary tasks. Automation can include data processing, interaction between different digital systems, and more.?

For QA, this trend is significant, because, firstly, all robotization solutions must be thoroughly tested. Secondly, RPA can be successfully applied in test automation.

Conclusion

The world of QA is shifting with new trends that will shape the future of QA. In the next couple of years, companies will increase adoption of RPA and JS-based tools to improve QA process efficiency and meet business expectations. This?subsequently will lead to faster product releases and will increase the efficiency of your team. The impact of the Internet of Things on QA is immense, as more and more devices become connected and touch our lives. This trend has been widely accepted in the industry, and QA teams have to strategically plan for testing IoT devices. QAOps blurs the lines between development and QA, and QA teams need to adapt to the changes. QA teams should focus on the performance of software releases, and act as a gatekeeper to releasing new software.