While thorough testing and quality assurance checks have always been important steps in the software release and updating processes, they’re taking on a new and higher significance in an ever-more-digital world. And it’s not just a question of ensuring everything works as expected and any bugs are squashed (as important as that is).
New and emerging trends in software testing and quality assurance are focused on everything from a rapidly evolving cybersecurity environment to sustainability to a tighter focus on end users’ needs. Below, 20 industry leaders from Forbes Technology Council detail some of the latest trends in software testing that are being adopted by development teams and QA engineers and how these steps can help ensure a smooth rollout.
The shift toward AI-driven testing will revolutionize software quality assurance. AI can intelligently predict potential failures, adapt to changes and optimize testing processes, ensuring that products are not only reliable, but also innovative. This approach allows us to focus on creating user experiences that are intuitive and delightful. – Roshan Pinto, Tavant
As AI software development is increasing, it’s crucial to implement guardrails to ensure trust, transparency and reliability. With AI still at an early stage, software testing must include human oversight, ensuring risks can be mitigated as effectively as possible. Zooming out, organizations must distinguish between demo-able and deployable AI software to avoid costly errors before introducing new products to the market. – Eoin Hinchy, Tines
AI-driven test automation has been the trend that almost every client of ours has been asking for in the past year. Combining advanced self-healing test scripts and visual testing methodologies has proven to improve software quality. This process also reduces the time to market by helping break down complex tasks. – Shiboo Varughese, CirrusLabs.io
The rise of generative AI has revolutionized software development, with faster code generation being a primary advantage. GenAI’s usage is growing and has amazingly huge potential. However, this advancement also introduces new vulnerabilities. Proactive measures, including GenAI-based testing and flaw remediation, have become increasingly important to mitigate potential software security issues. – Chris Wysopal, Veracode
With many new applications relying heavily on third-party APIs or software libraries, rigorous security auditing and testing of these services is crucial to avoid supply chain attacks against critical services. The tech industry narrowly avoided this scenario during the xz Utils backdoor incident, and these kinds of attacks will likely become more popular in the future. – Matthias Pfau, Tuta
I think automated testing has become a norm. More importantly, quality assurance professionals should also think about the end game—that is, what is the value-add of testing, and how does it impact the business in general? QA professionals need to have sufficient knowledge about the business, its operating model, and its products and services and apply that knowledge to their testing strategy. – Vishal Patel, Webster Bank
As artificial intelligence and machine learning models are integrated into more applications, ensuring these systems behave ethically and without bias is a priority. Testing strategies will increasingly focus on detecting and mitigating bias in AI models and ensuring that these systems align with ethical guidelines. This requires new methods beyond traditional functional testing, including fairness and transparency checks. – Cristian Randieri, Intellisystem Technologies
One trend that will become increasingly important is shift-left security testing. As software development accelerates, security risks are growing. Integrating security testing into the early stages of development—shifting left—enables teams to identify vulnerabilities earlier, reduce remediation costs and ensure secure coding practices, ultimately leading to more secure software releases. – Sarah Choudhary, Ice Innovations
One emerging trend in software testing is the integration of AI for predictive analytics. This approach anticipates potential errors and system failures before they occur by analyzing historical data and testing patterns. As software systems grow more complex, leveraging AI will become crucial for proactive quality assurance, significantly enhancing efficiency and reducing the time to market. – Craig Davies, Gathid
One growing trend in software testing is chaos engineering for the purpose of resilience testing. By introducing controlled failures, teams can evaluate how the system responds under stress. This helps teams identify vulnerabilities early, ensuring reliability and robustness in complex distributed systems. It’s crucial for maintaining stability in today’s interconnected technology landscape. – Roman Vinogradov, Improvado
Accessibility testing is gaining traction. The tech industry’s growing emphasis on inclusive design is making accessibility a priority. Also, legal mandates in the EU, U.K. and U.S. (including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are forcing companies to comply or face legal consequences. Finally, corporate social responsibility initiatives and consumer pressure further motivate organizations to create accessible products. – Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk
One of the things you’re going to want to do before you launch your software is come up with a detailed security plan. Hackers can crack passwords more easily than ever before. Make sure you have options to keep your business and your customers safe. Multifactor authentication, for example, is a must, so someone can’t log in to an account from a new device without verifying their identity. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
Test-driven development will become increasingly important. In TDD, developers write test cases before coding to ensure the software meets specifications. By generating comprehensive test scenarios with robust coverage, TDD helps reduce bugs and leads to a more reliable codebase, particularly as systems grow in complexity. – Suman Sharma, Procyon Inc.
With a growing emphasis on sustainability, testing software for energy efficiency and minimizing its carbon footprint will become a key trend. This involves ensuring that applications use minimal resources without compromising performance. This trend is gaining traction as organizations align their operations with global sustainability goals. – Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech
Customers expect new functionality to be rapidly delivered to them directly through a software as a service model. Because of that, testing is more important than ever before. I think that automated regression testing will grow in popularity, as developers will need to make sure new functionality doesn’t break existing functionality. – Josh Dunham, Reveel
I know testing in production sounds scary, but it’s the only way to build real confidence in your code. Staging can’t do that; at best, it can show that your code is probably logically correct. Testing in production, amid the chaos and concurrency, is the only way to verify that your code is doing what it’s supposed to do and the only way to truly see your users’ experience. – Charity Majors, Honeycomb.io
AI-augmented observability is emerging as a transformative trend in software testing. By integrating AI with observability tools, testers can gain deep insights into system performance and user interactions in real time. This convergence enables proactive bug detection and performance optimization, significantly enhancing the efficiency and reliability of the software development life cycle. – Rohit Anabheri, Sakesh Solutions LLC
Investing in specialized training for QA engineers is becoming crucial. As software grows more complex and is used on diverse devices, QA teams must deeply understand both the technology and user context. Enhanced training ensures they can create comprehensive test cases, boosting software reliability and user satisfaction. – Rodion Telpizov, SmartJobBoard
One trend in software quality testing that we see gaining importance is leveraging digital twins. These virtual replicas of real-world systems enable QA teams to simulate diverse, real-world conditions, identifying issues early and ensuring software reliability. By testing in complex, dynamic scenarios, digital twins enhance quality assurance by accurately reflecting operational environments. – Jabin Geevarghese George, Tata Consultancy Services
Continuous testing will be tightly integrated into continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, enabling real-time feedback and rapid deployment cycles without compromising quality. In a hyper-competitive market, the ability to release stable, feature-rich software quickly is a significant differentiator. – Vamsi Krishna Dhakshinadhi, GrabAgile Inc.