Let’s get innovative! The top 10 software testing trends in 2022 // part 2
Gone are the days when software testing was merely about finding bugs in a product and
fixing it to improve the quality. Today, to stay competitive in a constantly evolving online
market, we believe that it is essential to adopt the latest trends in software testing.
As the global automation testing market size is expected to rise by USD 28.8 billion by 2024,
according to the reports from MarketsAndMarkets, weCan’s experts help you keep up with the
ever-changing landscape of testing trends.
In our previous article, we presented the first half of the most important software testing trends in
2022, and will help you discover the rest, exploring the innovative software testing approaches
you must look out (or avoid) in this and the following years!
Is robotic process automation the next big hit?
Robotic process automation (RPA) undoubtedly stood out among other platforms and was in
trend for 2022, with increased acceptance. This was reinforced by Gartner’s latest forecast, which
projects that global robotic process automation software end-user spending is going to reach $2.9
billion in 2022, an increase of 19.5% from 2021. Moreover, according to research and market
surveys, revenue from RPA is expected to be around 3.4 billion US dollars by 2027.
But can such predictions be believed? WeCan experts frequently remark that technologies such
as RPA are coming into vogue without any real data to back up their effectiveness. In many cases, we think that a true comparison among manual, RPA-based and classic IT digitization would be required. The comparison between the latter two is missing in many of the use cases.
But why is the idea of RPA technology so popular then? Because it presumably allows computer
robots to learn and perform repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable hours of work for workers. This 
could mean an annual increase of up to 28.2%, making RPA theoretically the first choice for automating tasks that do not require manual intervention.
In practice, however, the technology is not yet at a stage where it can produce reliable quality work without the need for programmers. Although Cathy Tornbohm, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said that “organisations are leveraging RPA to accelerate business process automation initiatives and digital transformation plans, linking their legacy nightmares to their digital dreams to improve operational efficiency”, we believe that the technology is not yet up to this level.
Industry forecasters voice the idea that by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, RPA would be able to execute multiple scenarios with the same actions on the screen, saving time and cost for companies by being automated. At weCan however, we believe that while organisations will probably increase their spending on RPA software solutions in the following years, as a starting point on the path to hyperautomation, this will not free up resources for more strategic work at the current stage of RPA’s development.
Scale testing for the Internet of Things
It is expected that by 2025, there will be approximately 27 billion connected IoT devices, with
several research suggesting that IoT is going to lead the market in the next few years. Internet of
Things (IoT) has been in demand since the introduction of 5G technology as it supports
processing connectivity speed and has also been highly popular in industries like healthcare and
automotive.
According to the Oracle.com, IoT is “the network of physical objects that are embedded with
sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with
other devices and systems over the internet. These devices range from ordinary household
objects to sophisticated industrial tools”. According to these beliefs, IoT has immense market
potential and rightfully expected to connect more than a billion devices in the upcoming few
years.
However, the massive expansion of IoT, and the complexity of these devices, represent the need
for an effective testing strategy. Since IoT is explicitly different from other devices, traditional
software testing does not always work for them. An IoT platform, which typically consists of
four elements – the data center, sensors, network communication and the application – require
unique testing procedures. Developers have to consider the testing of operating
systems,communication protocols, along with software and hardware of the IoT devices, in order
to create a comprehensive test strategy.
Most enterprises have already started identifying the need for an effective IoT testing strategy to
enable efficient and well-connected smart devices that are much needed for end-users. Therefore,
they need testers with in-depth domain knowledge, a reliable and secure network, as well as
standards and practices even in the early stages of the adoption, so they can ensure software
quality and successful development for the IoT. Many companies are ready to meet these
requirements, since they want to be skilled to establish clear standards for various devices and
sensors, define the data requirements, create a real-time dashboard showcasing various activities
and implement robust controls to ensure the security of all systems involved.
Achieve automation awesomeness with IaC
Infrastructure is a key element of the software development process, directly responsible for the
stable operation of software applications. However, the traditional approach of managing
infrastructure manually has become an unscalable solution to meet the needs of DevOps rapid
software development cycles. That is why weCan’s experts believe that IaC is going to become
the norm in 2022 and will continue to set trends in the next years for organisations seeking
automation and faster delivery.
Why is it worth the investment? Programmers can use the IaC method to define a configuration
model that represents a piece of the server environment. It also enables businesses to control
operations environment and configurations in a cloud environment more successfully, as well as
automate provisioning methods to scale the cloud efficiently. Moreover, IaC offers DevOps practices that enable developers and operations to work more closely on the deployment of virtual machines, the networks that are constructed around them and the application within.
Implementing it can save companies significant amounts of time and money, therefore we
recommend its IaC to all of weCan’s clients.
Time for active implementation of TCoE
Since software development companies have been producing increasingly complex solutions and
tech teams are always pressured to reduce time-to-delivery, they require more resources to be
released. This is why the testing community has long been calling for organizations to create a
Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE). It is a framework that standardizes processes and best
practices, centralizing the QA protocols and tools to maintain the quality of testing throughout
each project, while also allowing the implementation of unified tools, routines, metrics and
quality requirements for all testing teams and processes.
At weCan, we believe that both complex organizations and the software industry as a whole can
benefit from TCoE, and welcome the idea of the proliferation of such innovative centers! Our
experts are convinced that Testing Center of Excellence will become a widespread trend starting
this year, providing a holistic and unified approach to software testing.
Although such centers will be able to develop and integrate different strategies in the future,
providing high-quality standard testing in any organization, they will face unique challenges too.
The teams of TCoE have to be made up of devoted QA specialists who are able to ensure that
different testing projects are executed according to the same standards.It will also be their
responsibility to verify that best practices are recorded and maintained.
However, weCan specialists are convinced that the benefits of such a structure are worth the
effort invested. TCoE will enable new testers to be successfully deployed across teams and
projects, and the skills of quality assurance engineers to be strengthened through training,
continuous improvement of procedures and fostering innovations. Creating TCoEs is key for
technology companies with complex organisational structures to facilitate and accelerate the
development process, therefore we strongly recommend investing in them at weCan.
Faster execution or false promise: codeless test automation
It is safe to say that codeless automation testing was a buzz term in 2022. According to the
reports from Perfecto, 40% of software testing service companies have started using codeless
solutions in 2021, while Gartner reports that 65% of all software startups including automation
testing tools will be low code or codeless by 2024.
In theory, codeless automation testing tools facilitate QA testers to automate test cases without writing a single line of code and thus, increase the scalability of test automation. Its advocates promise that without any code, it also allows developers to write test scripts, so they can implement continuous testing faster, create test environments easily, integrate tracking tools and scale tests for new scenarios. Therefore a large number of easy-to-use, code-free test automation tools are being developed to help QA engineers in the testing process.
What promised to make codeless test automation really powerful is that although QA engineers can always step in, if code customisation is required, there is no need for a coder to run these tests. This hypothetically allows testers to focus more on creating the right tests and ensuring software quality, generating better results with less manual effort, while also speeding up the whole testing process.
In our professional opinion however, codeless automation testing is not well suited for solving complex challenges beyond a certain level, unless coding experts are involved. It is therefore more logical to adopt a traditional IT approach to the problem.
WeCan has always placed a high priority on ensuring that developers put their energy into learning tools and methods that are not only sound appealing, but also deliver excellent results. In our view, codeless test automation is not yet at a competitive level, but is a technological dead end that is not worth investing in by IT companies and experts, despite the hype surrounding it.
