Top 5 QA and software testing trends for 2021

Today IT innovation is impossible to keep up with. After all, every year the pace of its development is only increasing. Recent trends are also bringing significant changes to the sector of QA testing where progress and growth are being observed.

QA testing became a trend itself. Small and large enterprises around the world are striving to bring their bugless product to the market. And their priority is cost optimization. Therefore, they introduce testing at the initial stages of the software development life cycle.?

2021 set many QA tendencies. Not brand-new TestOps has gained immense popularity, proving its leadership in efficiency. IoT and RPA testings are now in great demand. And the creation of many new devices such as different wearables, sensors and alarms made Multi-devices testing indispensable.

Here are my top trends, which I would advise anyone who wants to thrive in the QA sphere to take a closer look.

1. Hyper-Automation: Automating the Automated

This is not the first time Gartner (one of the leading technology research and consulting companies) has named Hyper-Automation as the leading trend of the year. Machine learning, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics are the key notions of this concept.

For QA, Hyper-Automation means reaching a new level of automation, where all monotonous, repetitive tasks and some more sophisticated ones are performed without human intervention. AI will be able to provide enterprises with advanced analytics, which in turn will help improve productivity and save money. And this means that ROI will grow.

Forecast:? According to Sheer Analytics and Insights Hyper-Automation market will be growing — from $4.78 billion to $46.4 billion (2021 - 2031).??

2. Codeless Automated Testing: Improving Speed and Quality

IT-specialists from the field of development and testing seek to minimize human intervention during development and testing processes. Before testing was divided into manual, not requiring special technical skills, and automated, based on writing code. But they could not always provide the appropriate speed and quality. Therefore, now codeless automated testing is the best option for those who are connected to the product? (DevOps, QA specialists, CSMs, developers and managers).

Codeless testing implies numerous ways to deal with. As for me, most noticeable ones include recording manual tests and playing it back, and making organized test flows. The record and play approach is the most well known one at this moment. Symbol by symbol the tool records the tester's manual performance of a test. Then to automate the test, scripts are created. The tester can alter the script and the testing process to best suit their demands.

Providing parallel testing, CI/CD integration and auto-healing, codeless automation is cheap and easy to maintain.?

Forecast: Future Market Insights predicts increasing demand at 15.5% CAGR between 2021 and 2031.

3. Blockchain Testing: Delivering Modern Security

Reliable software is essential to running a modern business. Blockchain may become a helping hand in shaping clients’ trust and developing productivity. Blockchain testing is turning into an unquestionable requirement in the midst of organizations that are effectively utilizing this advancement, as it delivers upscale IT items and makes sure about their steady and appropriate operation.

A key role in mostly data-driven blockchain applications will play automated testing at the API layer. Selenium, as a traditional toolset, will be sufficient for UI. Brownie, Hardhat, Truffle, BitcoinJ, Eteruem Tester and some others are the frameworks aiding with Blockchain testing challenges. Yet, we still can speak about lack of professional expertise as the Blockchain itself is rather young.

Forecast: Due to Marketsandmarkets report, Blockchain Testing market is expected to grow — from $3.0 billion to $39.7 billion (2020 - 2025).?

4. Penetration Testing: Eliminating Vulnerabilities?

Nowadays the service sector occupies the leading position. And as I see it, Cybersecurity has become a priority for many enterprises all over the globe. The most reliable way for them to prevent data leakage and save money that could be stolen by cybercriminals is through proper ‘Pen testing”.

During penetration testing all security vulnerabilities are identified by introducing malware, that is, simulating a cyberattack. The process involves deliberate, authorized attacks on a system that can identify both its weakest areas and gaps in protection against third-party intrusions, and thereby improve security attributes. Escalation strategies are applied by pentesters to find out the worst scenarios for data of the company in case of attack.?

Forecast: Verified Market Research in the report says that we can wait Penetration Testing market to increase — from $1.39 billion to $7.79 billion (2021 - 2028)??

5. Big Data Testing: Bugs are not Allowed

The amount of data in the digital space is increasing every second, and according to IDC forecasts, by 2025 its volume will increase by 3.8 times (175 ZB). In the 2000s, as an alternative to traditional database management systems, came a phenomenon that denoted a variety of scalable data of huge volume — Big Data. Big Data deals with tools, methods and strategies to process huge volumes of diverse information (which is 90% unstructured due to Analytics Insight).? A distributed computing system, where during data processing not one high-performance machine, but a whole group of such machines united in a cluster are used, is at the core of testing approaches.?

So, qualified QA Engineers must be able to validate any type of data, optimize the test environment, deal with non-relational databases and perform non-functional testing, while Big Data Testing.

Forecast: Globenewswire states that market of Big Data Testing will be going up — from $138.9 billion to $229.4 billion (2021 - 2025)?

You never know what happens next in the development of Software testing. However, to meet all the clients’ expectations one should follow all the innovations of the IT-sphere.

Codeless Testing and Hyper-Automation reveal to us that human presence in testing is inevitably reduced. Blockchain testing can’t be unpopular given the unprecedented rapid development of the technology itself. In a world where the amount of information is slowly approaching infinity, Big Data testing is a must. And of course, information security is above all, so “Pen testing” will definitely not leave the testing arena in the near future.