“No amount of testing can prove a software right, a single test can prove a software wrong.” -Amir Ghahrai
Most of the people in the software industry have this fear that Software Testing will be disappeared in the near future.
Software testing is always looking at a bright future. Technology will always find ways to create new things. Developers never stop to develop new devices and applications.
As long as developers will continue to develop new technology, testers will always have something to do. As a result, repair and maintenance of application software is never ending.
There will definitely be some changes in the modes of testing or the preference in the ways of testing. But with the pace that technology is going, hence software testing will never go out of date.
For example there will be automation. Many of them consider it as a difficult and complex process but the truth is that having the knowledge of using the right tool will make your working more interesting. Therefore one needs to learn the fundamentals of automation.
There are lots of exciting possibilities and opportunities for tomorrow’s testers. Let’s see how this profession can be expected to evolve in the upcoming decade and beyond.
Topic Overview
Skills:
While the development of software requires a firm grip on coding skills, software testing is a field that demands creativity and the ability to think like a user.
That doesn’t mean software testing is far away from coding. The present world owes to agility, and the work needs to be automated. Here’s where coded scripts make testing faster.
Progression:
“Some teams are still working as they did in the 90s,” says Lisa Crispin, co-author of Agile Testing Condensed and several other books on software testing, but that’s changing. “Now DevOps is being used in continuous integration,” she says.
But progress in testing won’t come without a cost. “You have to put real effort into test design,” Crispin says. “You have to have more robust test tools.
Our systems are so complex that we need those workflow tests to work with continuous development.”
One change in testing is adoption of tool-assisted testing and production. “This is very new,” Crispin says. It’s more common to test live production code so that it won’t affect customers. This requires a team-based testing environment where testers are an integral part of the development team.
Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning:
Numerous new technologies are splashing up in the product testing world, especially Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Despite the fact that the development of both is still somewhat far away, they certainly have a practical usage from a testing viewpoint, and they’re arriving sooner than we might suspect.
They are now affecting the software testing field by making it more entangled, and that effect will just keep on developing.
We’re starting to see AI and Machine Learning technologies engaged with more programs, and the potential for those advances to expand testing skills is stunning.
According to Lisa Crispin, co-author of Agile Testing Condensed and several other books on software testing, there’s a strong move to more AI and ML, and away from manual processes.
Lo Giudice (the founder of a San Francisco Digital Marketing and Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency) agrees. “Teams need to increase their use of automation” he says. And to do that, they must increase the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“They [testers] are using AI not just to increase the level of automation, but to do it smartly,” Lo Giudice says. Smart teams know that not everything involving testing needs to be automated.
“The whole development team should be involved. Teams need to know when it makes more sense to perform testing using a manual process versus when automated testing makes the most sense” he adds.
“AI is a core transformative way by which we’re rethinking how we’re doing everything” –Sundar Pichai
Coding:
Being a software developer means to have an ocean full of codes running into your mind. Developers can also test and verify the working of their product. However, being a software tester having considerable coding skills is an added advantage for one as well as the organization.
Specialism:
Not everyone can be a tester. Not even a developer can replace the specialized skills of a software tester. The ability to design specific frameworks for testing the software, making it fail and then analyzing its capability to recover is not an easy task. And so, the demand for authentic software testers is at peak.
Stimulating:
Challenges are neither new to developers nor testers. However, building logic and testing logic carry different meanings. One has to think a lot to test the logic behind every piece of code that works in the software. IT companies are still waiting for the real talent to dedicate themselves into the job.
Future:
Testers play a role where they can help the enterprise to produce a quality product to win the customer trust. Of course changes will keep coming but they are all just a tool for the human to use.
After a cake is baked, the chef certainly needs to do tasting before being served. So testing of course holds a stable future in the world.
