The current Quality Assurance market is not static, it's changing rapidly. In order to adapt and adjust to these transformations and stay competitive, businesses need to be aware of and follow the latest industry trends. They can help your company meet your business demands and build connected, scalable, intelligent and fast digital solutions for your clients.

Latest Trends in Quality Assurance

Those who are able to predict the future of QA will become industry leaders. Thus, we have decided to take a look at the main QA trends that will shape the future over the next few years.

The Rise of Security Testing

Even though security has always been important, nowadays, its value has become paramount. Seeing the last years' hacker attacks on financial institutions and large corporations, we see the inherent vulnerability which needs immediate attention. Here are several examples of hacker attacks that happened in 2022.

• Crypto.com lost $18 million in bitcoin and $15 million in Ethereum due to the security breach of their crypto wallet.

• Red Cross experienced a hacker attack during which the personal sensitive information of 500,000 people was disclosed.

• Ronin reported a hacker attack where $540 million was stolen. The company had to reimburse its clients for the amount they lost. 

According to statistics, 30,000 websites are hacked every day. With such numbers, we can see that hacker attacks are not rare cases that happen only occasionally. They are an everyday reality for companies. All this evidence demonstrates that the demand for security testing will rise. It is expected that the market will react, making security testing the prominent QA trend for the forthcoming years.

Security testing is a very dynamic domain since the factors that influence it are constantly changing and evolving. It's expected that by 2023 cybersecurity will be shaped by the rise in IoT devices, integration of ML and AI, attacks against cloud services, and the increasing threat of deep fakes. Prepare for these challenges - partner with a reliable QA company that can safeguard your business's cybersecurity.  

QAOPS

QAOps is one of the latest QA trends. There's no official definition of this term in the dictionary, but this notion can be defined as a framework that mixes the principles of Quality Assurance with the principles of DevOps. QAOps is based on two key factors.

1. QA operations are integrated into the CI/CD pipeline.

2. QAs work closely with all the specialists involved in the CI/CD pipeline.

Today, this QA trend brings the following benefits to businesses that have decided to take advantage of it.

• Quicker Software Development Cycles. Thanks to eliminating ambiguities in the processes and improved coordination between teams brought by QAOps, it's now possible to detect problems within the project quicker. The fail-fast approach consequently leads to a decrease in the time needed to release the project.

• Improved Quality. Thanks to continuous testing within the CI/CD pipeline, it's possible to achieve more accurate results, which is crucial for ensuring the reliability and security of the quality assurance procedures. 

• Possibility of Cost Savings. The earlier the bug is detected, the cheaper and easier it is to correct it. QAOps helps to detect bugs faster thanks to effective collaboration between QAs, developers and other specialists. By putting these professionals in effective cooperation and rooting out bugs earlier, you save both on cost and time.

• Improved Customer Experience. The improvements in the coordinated processes and procedures brought by the QAOps to the project can lead to better customer satisfaction with the QA processes.

The main goal of QAOps is to increase the overall quality of testing and improve collaboration processes within the team itself. A successful combination of the CI/CD pipeline with test automation offered by QAOps could spark a real revolution in the Quality Assurance spectrum going forward. Overall, QAOps is no longer just used only by elites. Instead, it's become a best practice 'norm' for the industry. Thus, companies that are lagging behind need to catch up in order to stay competitive in the market.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The usage of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is one of the most prominent QA trends of the last few years. Taking advantage of it can provide a lot of benefits for the successful realization of Quality Assurance processes for your business.

• More Accuracy. People can make random mistakes while performing QA testing. But machines (if programmed correctly) don't make human errors and therefore demonstrate better performance.   

• Saving Time. Instead of checking thousands lines of code, AI can scan the code, identify changes within it, and detect bugs within seconds. If AI and ML are utilized correctly, they can help to complete the testing of tasks faster.

• Better Test Cases. Thanks to AI QA automation tools, the specialists can create test cases that are easy to regulate and faster to operate. At the same time, ML allows for improving the projects based on the behavior of the users.

• Better Regression Tests. AI can help to complete complex regression tests that are otherwise difficult to realize. At the same time, ML can be used to create the necessary test scripts for these regression tests. 

• Improvement in API Testing. Artificial intelligence transforms manual UI tests into automated API tests, which allows complex tasks to be completed more efficiently.

• The Opportunity of Predictive Analysis. AI automation and spidering allow comparing different versions of the digital solution to ensure that a downgrade doesn't happen. Besides, it allows for the possibility to evaluate the existing customers' data to find out how users' needs and browsing practices evolve. Still, predictive analysis is not fully automatic, and it still needs a human touch to ensure the correctness of the obtained data.

Thanks to these benefits, businesses can cut the number of test cases, reduce execution time, and therefore minimize costs necessary for the realization of their projects. Overall, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning help to prevent and correct problems before they happen.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a rising trend in the QA industry. It's actively used to establish functional and secure infrastructures as well as to ensure traceability and verification of the applications. 

It's predicted that the blockchain industry will reach $69 billion by 2030. It's becoming possible thanks to the numerous benefits of blockchain technology:

• Improvement in Trust and Transparency of Business Dealings

• Decrease in the Time it Takes to Process Transactions

• Security of Data and its Protection from Illicit Modification or Unauthorized Access

• Creation of an Immutable Transactions Record

Many world-renowned companies and medium-sized businesses are already successfully using blockchain technologies. Some notable examples are Amazon, BMW, Google, General Electric, IBM, Mastercard, Microsoft, Nestle, and Samsung. Hundreds of other companies can also be mentioned in this list. Many QA businesses choose blockchain to realize their digital projects since it provides many benefits which create significant competitive advantages in the market.

The main tools of blockchain testing are Truffle, Embark Framework, Manticore, Populus, BitcoinJ, Exonum Testkit, Hyperledger Composer and Ethereum Tester. Your choice of tool will depend on the specific needs and requirements of your project. 

Codeless Test Automation

Codeless test automation is one of the hottest QA trends. It allows the creation of the script automatically by the specific low-code testing tools, even by people with limited knowledge of scripting. Sounds amazing, isn't it?

According to statistics presented in the report by Gartner, by 2024,  80% of software will be developed with low-code technologies by professionals outside of IT. This trend demonstrates us that the barrier to becoming a technology producer is becoming significantly lower, and no wonder since codeless test automation can bring a lot of advantages.

• Using Less Time and Resources. QA specialists won't need to learn programming languages to do the testing of digital products. This speeds up the process, and the time and resources saved can be allocated to other tasks. 

• Quicker Feedback Cycle. It will be easier to review the test cases since they will become understandable and readable even for non-technical stakeholders.

• Larger Test Efficiency. The creation of tests will be faster and more reliable. This can be achieved thanks to the streamlining of QA processes and procedures.

Considering the benefits we have mentioned above, we expect an increase in the popularity of codeless test automation for testers, developers, and organizations alike. This QA trend is disrupting the market, providing small businesses with opportunities for fast and effective test automation. 

Currently, the most popular tools for codeless test automation are TestComplete, Ghost Inspector, Ranorex, tests.ai, TOSCA, and Testigma. Still, as this sphere evolves, a lot of new tools are coming to the market.

The Usage of Smart Open-Source Testing Tools

Can you imagine Quality Assurance without open-source testing tools like Selenium, Katalan Studio, Cucumber and many others? We can't since they make the life of QA specialists so much simpler and efficient. Thus, we believe that using open-source testing tools will remain a QA trend in 2023.

Still, keep in mind that open-source testing tools might not always cover all the needed functionality of your project. Sometimes, it will be best to invest so you can get quick and efficient results in quality assurance. For example, the automation testing tool Zebrunner offers unique functionality in terms of visualization, analytics and integrations that are not available in the free tools. Check your requirements to understand which testing tools will meet your needs the best. 

Conclusion: Winning the Future

We don't have a magic crystal ball to see the future, but we think that these trends will shape the destiny of QA in the following decade.

• QAOps

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

• Codeless Test Automation

• The Rise of Security Testing

• The Usage of Smart Open-Source Testing Tools 

To succeed in the QA business, it is crucial for companies to consider the latest QA trends that will shape the market. They will not just help QA specialists to stay up to date, but they will also help businesses to become industry leaders. 

You don't need to follow all of the trends mentioned within this article all at once. We recommend analyzing the context of your situation and choosing the solution that fits your business the best. Don't forget to identify the gaps in know-how and make sure to predict the associated difficulties before committing, addressing and going forward with these trends.