Software Test Trends for 2015

[Ronan Healy]

I see that Pradeep Govindasamy who is CTO of Cigniti Technologies came up with a list of the top testing trends for 2015. I’m not quite sure how he came up with the list but here it is below:

10. Infrastructure Testing
9. Mobile Testing
8. Service Virtualisation
7. DevOps
6. IoT Testing
5. Digital Commerce Testing
4. Telematics Testing
3. Big Data Testing
2. Cloud Testing
1. Security Testing

What do you think? Security does seem to be a very popular discussion area lately, one even non-testers are talking about. I think that it might be early for the IoT but it’s one that could dominate testing in the future.

He elaborates more on the reasons for picking these ten here.

[Kim]

I have yet to read his reasons but I think it is a good lost as any. Of course these predictions are always context dependent.
I still see and hear about products being developed and tested the waterfall way and companies are still trying to use agile methodologies to their advantage, so predictions are always just that. An idea of a trend.
What I see in my current role for the next two years is this sort of focus:
My Top 5
1. Infrastructure Testing
2. Service Virtualisation
3. Security Testing
4. Mobile Testing
5. DevOps – more of a concept for now but we are starting discussions around this now.

But it is always hard to isolate these testing strands. If I am testing the infrastructure I will also test that it is secure and stable. 🙂

[Ronan Healy]

I came across more suggestions for 2015 trends from Software Testing Help. I thought I would add them in.
They suggested:

1. Scriptless Testing – The next big thing in functional test automation, code less automation?

2. Internet of Things – Mentioned already but when you think about thermostats, fridges, etc being controlled mainly through mobile devices, the possibilities are endless.

3. Pair Testing – The guys suggest that pair testing will come back into focus and this will mean the death of dev/tester conflict??

4. Programming languages – This ole chestnut. This was raised a lot in blogs last year. The guys suggest though that rather than learning JAVA, learn Apple’s Swift or Google’s Go.

5. Data – Again already mentioned. They seem to suggest that there might be areas for testers in areas apart from cloud and big data that have yet to be fully realised.

This would be a great thread to look in on in a year’s time and see how things turned out!

[Stephen]

In the context of trends, I don’t think these lists really work. They are all context driven. i.e. In my world for 2015 I’m going to focus on Acceptance Testing, and SaaS testing (from a vendors perspective). Unless I change jobs, then I’ll focus on something else.

To be of value you have to take context out and look at what your talking about.

Things to test: IoT and Mobile will gain ground and be pervasive where ever you are, just in different degrees.
Who tests: There is a drive to spread the testing beyond the traditional ring fenced testers. I think testers will become more like the SME’s and help to guide everyone to test. Of course we will not see the complete demise of the test department across the board in 2015, but more and more companies will integrate testing into cross-functional teams.
How to test: That’s very contextual and depends on many factors. Including Developement methods, Company philosophy and capability, the influence of various certifications, money spent on testing and test improvement in a company. Where you sit in a SDLC. e.g. I work in the UAT for large enterprise System of Sytems combining to be a service offering. I can’t be agile as I have to wait for many agile project to deliver and combine. Also the delivery organisation wants to deliver the whole contract, not small parts, and clients want a complete service, not piecemeal. So I have to be waterfall. But the teams feeding me are agile.

We have many tools to work with and it’s only going to grow. What you do in 2015 and beyond is purely up to you and where you want to work.

[Author]

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