Top 4 QA Trends That Will Dominate In 2023

Emerging technologies enable organizations worldwide to digitize and progress more quickly, drive operational efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and strengthen their brand identity, all while meeting business objectives.

Take, for example, the metaverse. This technology improves businesses’ ability to interact with users from anywhere in the world, hold meetings or educational sessions with colleagues, and design impressive gaming areas. It’s no surprise that its global market revenue will increase 14 times to nearly $680 billion!

Another example would be genomics. It can analyze human DNA and its structure to detect future hidden diseases or potential disorders. Its enormous potential is demonstrated by the growing global market size, which is expected to reach nearly $6 billion by 2028.

However, because of their overall sophistication, the implementation and use of advanced technologies frequently complicate digitization journeys. Organizations can rely on thorough testing to make things easier, which helps prevent production environment issues, accelerate market time, and optimize QA budgets.

How can this process be made as efficient as possible? We recommend improving testing workflows by implementing the top four industry trends described in the article:

Trend 1: Ensure long-term quality engineering to reduce environmental harm

Open-minded companies tend to shift testing to the left to detect issues early in the SDLC, speed testing cycles, reduce costs, and improve cybersecurity. However, achieving long-term viability is another significant advantage of focusing on software quality. The more companies emphasize software security, the better they will be able to operate without negatively impacting the environment.

According to the World Quality Report 2022-23 (WQR), which surveyed 1,750 IT executives from various regions and sectors, organizations that adhere to sustainable quality engineering can increase brand value (47% of respondents), overall revenue (46%), and even employee recruitment and retention indicators (33%). Most importantly, executives believe sustainable IT will improve social and economic aspects such as energy efficiency.

Source: World Quality Report 2022-23

Unfortunately, only half of the companies achieve their set sustainability targets during software development. They are already making a difference by relying on the cloud, test optimization, test automation, customer journey verification, performance, and CX.

In addition to these measures, they can prioritize quality assurance, begin at the earliest stages of development, quantify environmental impact by configuring software performance monitoring solutions, and consider sustainability from the design stage.

Trend 2: Implement an automated-first strategy to achieve desired results faster

Test automation remains essential to continuous testing and Agile-driven workflows, contributing to faster testing cycles, lower costs, and improved testing coverage.

Nonetheless, the WQR interviewees struggled to achieve the expected test automation benefits:

• Only 55.1% implemented continuous integration and delivery.
• 53.4% reduced the size of their QA team.
• 53.4% increased test coverage.

Organizations frequently need help implementing automated workflows: poor planning and separation from the development process.

Companies can focus on the following to improve the situation and optimize QA efforts:

• Using test automation from the beginning of the requirements creation process
• Creating an accurate implementation strategy
• Tooling efficiency analysis
• Using highly skilled SDETs
• Developing a long-term product development strategy.

Trend 3. Consider developing a quality engineering strategy to support emerging technologies

Rapidly emerging technological innovations assist businesses in simplifying daily operations, delivering digital transformations of various sizes, scaling on demand, improving customer and employee experience, and remaining successful despite high market competition.

For example, the cloud already helps organizations improve cybersecurity, ensure data recovery opportunities, and increase overall flexibility; the internet of things (IoT) contributes to lower infrastructure costs and faster deployment; and AI/ML optimizes routine processes, forecasts failures, ensures personalized customer experience, and more.

This year, the WQR respondents stated that their current IT strategies rely a lot on such technologies as blockchain and Web 3.0 (85%), digital twins (78%), and the metaverse (69%).

Without a focus on software quality during their implementation, multiple business risks can arise, especially those related to cybersecurity, growth, and staying ahead of the competition.

To cope with them, organizations can:

• Attract seasoned QA experts who have in-demand skills, e.g., automated, cybersecurity testing, AI/ML
• Consider introducing DevSecOps to enable high software resistance to cyberattacks from the early development stages
• Design an effective strategy for smooth adoption.

Trend 4. Adopting Agile and DevOps to improve the development process

When an organization changes its culture to be more like Agile and DevOps, it can improve the quality of what it delivers, make releases faster and more often, speed up the feedback process, and make customers and employees happier.

The path to embracing agility is complicated and necessitates the assistance of experienced QA engineers knowledgeable about test automation and CI/CD toolkits, performance and cybersecurity testing. They can function as full-fledged members of cross-functional teams. According to the WQR, organizations need more professional quality engineers who can help organizations infuse and develop Agile workflows.

Companies can ease the transition by incorporating test automation alongside performance, cybersecurity, or integration testing, planning ahead of time for the toolkit, ensuring appropriate quality metrics, and relying on skilled people.

Closing

Businesses are increasingly turning to advanced technologies to improve organizational performance and keep up with the increasing market competition. However, their implementation and continued use are more complex.

QA and software testing can simplify it and contribute to accelerating QA activities and reducing expenses. To increase the efficiency of this process, organizations can consider industry QA trends to reach set objectives and ensure that end users are delighted with delivered IT solutions: test automation, Agile workflows, timely quality assurance for advanced technologies, and sustainable quality engineering.

To ensure the high quality of your software solutions, contact Bestarion‘s experts.