Every once in a while, we pause our hectic work schedules, take a step back, and reflect on what it is that we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we can improve. A big part of this process for us as software testers is identifying the most common issues our customers face, so we can better assess the steps we’re taking to solve their problems faster and more cost-effectively.
With half the year already behind us, now is a good time to take that pause. In doing so, I’ve identified the three top software testing trends of the year (so far): mobile testing and device farms, performance testing, and speed of testing relating to test automation.
1. Mobile testing and device farms.
What we’re seeing in the mobile application testing space at the moment is a growing need for device farms. Existing solutions, like Amazon’s device farms, are extremely expensive. As soon as you opt for using private devices, not only do the rates go up, but you don’t end up owning the devices. However, the need to test on as many devices as possible remains. One solution we’re currently investigating at DVT is creating our own private device labs that will be made exclusively available to our clients for a period of time, so they can do their testing on 100-plus devices and get as much coverage as possible all within the scope of their testing budget with us.
2. Performance testing.
Often included as an afterthought, performance testing is usually done at the end of a project or just-in-time before a major product release, or when something goes wrong in production. Fortunately, companies are starting to pay closer attention to performance testing earlier in the software development testing lifecycle. Some companies are also adding performance testing into continuous integration. There is also a range of new performance testing tools available on the market, which makes performance testing so much faster – and therefore more effective. Many companies aren’t there yet, so we’re working closely with our clients to take away the complexity that until now has prevented them from investing in the full-scale performance testing they need.
3. Speed of testing.
Most companies want their testing to be done faster, and many try to take on this task themselves with their own developers. However, as we know, testing requires some level of independence to be most effective. To solve this problem, we see widespread adoption of BDD (behaviour driven development), where the whole project team contributes to the process. This is a very positive development because teams are in effect forced to collaborate on testing from the start, to understand the acceptance criteria, and is also a valuable input into test automation. If you combine this with widescale enterprise reporting, you really can speed up your testing.
Do any of these trends resonate with your own business, or are you finding other issues more relevant to your own testing experience? If so, feel free to drop me a note at mmatthee@dvt.co.za
