Automation has taken the software testing industry by storm. It has significantly transformed testing processes, resulting in improved efficiency, high accuracy, and faster time-to-market. Automation was once among the most popular software testing trends. However, today, it serves as a foundation for emerging trends and techniques. 

In this ever-evolving technological era, new trends in the software testing landscape come to light. Hence, enterprises must stay atop emerging trends to refine their testing processes. 

As we head into 2024, we have curated a list of some of the most promising software testing trends. With these trends, enterprises can boost testing efficiency, enhance software quality, and reduce costs.   

Before delving into trends, let us first make you aware of some challenges enterprises face during software testing.

Challenges Enterprises Face in Software Testing in 2024

Enterprises strive to achieve maximum efficiency in the testing process. Well, identifying and understanding challenges is the first step towards efficiency. Some major challenges enterprises encounter while testing software solutions are: 

• Automation Maintenance

Test automation is among the major contributors to improved testing efficiency. However, the major challenge for enterprises is maintaining automated test scripts. Any modifications in an app’s functionality or UI require changes to automated scripts. Therefore, enterprises need a solid strategy to streamline updates to automated scripts. 

• Use of Multiple Real Devices

Using real devices for testing has emerged as an effective testing strategy. It helps understand the actual behavior of apps or websites in the real world. However, setting up, configuring, and managing multiple real devices is time-consuming, expensive, and intimidating. This is a real challenge for enterprises.

• Security Concerns 

Security is paramount in this technology-driven era. As cyber threats evolve day by day, staying ahead of potential cyber risks is challenging for enterprises. It becomes necessary for enterprises to conduct thorough security testing frequently to uncover security vulnerabilities and address them immediately to avoid breaches.  

• Complexity of Software Solutions 

Modern software solutions typically have complex and intricate architectures with several dependencies. Comprehensive test coverage is a crucial aspect of software testing. However, ensuring comprehensive test coverage for such software solutions is a major challenge for enterprises.

8 Latest Software Testing Trends in 2024 for Enterprises

The following trends in automated software testing enable enterprises to optimize resource utilization, improve efficiency, and quickly introduce new features. 

1. Scriptless Test Automation

Scriptless test automation, also known as codeless test automation, is the process of automating tests using tools. It eliminates the need to write test scripts manually using programming languages. 

Multiple scriptless test automation frameworks are available out there. They require minimal to no involvement of testers for creating test scripts. Instead of writing code, testers simply need to define test scenarios and steps to perform. These frameworks then convert those human-friendly steps into actual test scripts.   

The foremost benefit of embracing scriptless test automation is reduced dependency on scripting skills. It does not require coding experience and is easily accessible to people from non-technical backgrounds. More importantly, it saves time, allowing enterprises to accelerate time-to-market and take on more projects.  

2. AI and ML for Testing 

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has become the new normal. They have left no industry vertical untouched, including software testing. 

By integrating AI and ML in the testing process, enterprises can automate mundane, time-consuming testing-related tasks. This helps testers concentrate more on activities that require human intelligence. 

Well, automation is a basic application. Here is how AI and ML play a crucial role in the testing process: 

• Test Case Generation: ML models analyze patterns in existing test cases and automatically generate new test scripts.  
• Defect Prediction: AI and ML algorithms play a crucial role in uncovering potential bugs in code that human eyes cannot. This eventually leads to the delivery of high-quality, error-free software solutions.
• Test Case Prioritization: ML and AI algorithms first analyze historical data, usage patterns, and user input. Further, they prioritize test cases based on their likelihood of failure. This guarantees the evaluation of the most critical areas first.
• Test Data Generation: AI techniques, like generative adversarial networks (GANs), help generate realistic and diverse test data. With this data, testing teams can significantly improve test coverage. 
• Predictive Analytics: Predictive models analyze historical testing data and provide insights into potential future risks.  

3. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is yet another breakthrough technology application. It involves a software bot that simulates a user’s actions on a PC and performs them automatically. When a user performs any action using an RPA bot, it converts that user action into a task and performs it without the user’s intervention. 

RPA is powered by AI algorithms to perform the same actions for different scenarios. To understand the use of RPA, consider the data entry task. It requires you to enter data following the same actions but different data. This is achieved using RPA. 

According to Deloitte, 95% of organizations state that RPA has considerably improved their productivity, 93% observed an improvement in compliance, and 81% experienced a reduction in costs. 

In software testing, enterprises can leverage RPA bots to replace humans with a virtual workforce and get repetitive testing activities done quickly without manual errors. 

4. Cybersecurity Testing 

Cyberattacks have become prevalent in this era with evolving technological advancements. They leave organizations at a great loss both in terms of data and money. 

Did you know global cybercrime damage is expected to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025? 

Enterprises incorporate cybersecurity testing into their testing pipelines to avoid data and financial loss. This has evolved into an evergreen software testing trend. 

Cybersecurity testing involves penetrating a system to uncover potential security vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them. This helps enterprises safeguard their networks, systems, and products from data breaches and other cyber threats. 

According to Statista’s global survey report, 41% of companies across the globe have implemented a zero-trust strategy. Note: A Zero-Trust strategy ensures security by offering access to only authorized users.

5. QAOps

Another emerging trend in software testing is QAOps. This term combines Quality Assurance and Software Operations. The QA team works in coordination with operations and development teams to ensure the top-notch quality of software. Quality assurance professionals actively engage in the process of creating CI/CD pipelines. 

As the QA team works closely with the software delivery pipeline, identifying and fixing bugs and errors becomes easy. By identifying flaws early in the development process, enterprises can reduce the costs required to fix them later. Plus, the collaboration between QA, development, and IT teams reduces software’s time to market.  

6. Big Data Testing 

We live in an era where data is considered a new currency. Organizations are relying more heavily on data than ever before. 

The reason is that data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to acquire customers and 6 times more likely to retain them.

This has led to the inception of big data applications. These applications are equipped with features to process and analyze vast datasets and generate actionable insights. Enterprises leverage these insights to make informed decisions, driving business growth. 

As the use of big data applications has become prevalent, big data testing has emerged as a popular trend in 2024. It involves evaluating the functionalities of big data applications. Its primary objective is to ensure that big data applications function swiftly and error-free while maintaining security. 

7. IoT Testing 

According to Statista, the number of IoT devices connected worldwide is expected to reach 29 billion by 2030. Also, the IoT devices market is estimated to reach $336.64 billion in the next five years.

These numbers clearly state the prevalence of IoT devices, which, in turn, made IoT testing among the best software testing trends. 

IoT testing refers to assessing the functionality, security, and performance of IoT devices. Security plays a vital role as every IoT device transmits data over the Internet. Hence, enterprises primarily use penetration testing tools to discover defects before releasing devices to the market. 

8. Blockchain Testing 

Among the recent trends in software testing, blockchain testing is gaining traction. Blockchain testing involves evaluating different components of a blockchain network, such as smart contracts, transactions, wallets, blocks, etc. 

From healthcare, finance, and banking to cybersecurity and supply chain management, all major domains are using blockchain. High-grade security, transparency, smart contracts, immutable record-keeping, and decentralization are a few features responsible for blockchain’s wide adoption.  

The PwC “Time for Trust” report indicated that blockchain would boost global GDP by $1.76 trillion by 2030. 

The fact that blockchain is being widely adopted by various businesses highlights how crucial blockchain testing is. 

TestGrid – An End to End Test Automation Solution for Enterprises

TestGrid is an end-to-end cloud-based test automation solution that addresses the majority of challenges enterprises encounter. It is an AI-powered testing platform that streamlines testing processes, enabling enterprises to deliver exceptional digital experiences. 

The Real Device Testing feature offers a combination of devices and browsers, allowing you to test websites and apps on the cloud. This eliminates the need to set up and configure multiple devices and browsers for testing. 

Moreover, TestGrid’s Scriptless/Codeless Automation makes testing accessible even to non-technical users. It streamlines your testing workflow by automating test planning, authoring, and execution. 

With IoT testing, enterprises can eliminate 90 to 100% of manual effort or dependencies in hardware testing. So, be it cross-browser, API, network, or scriptless testing, TestGrid is a comprehensive solution enterprises can rely heavily on. 

Conclusion 

All these emerging software testing trends are meant to assist enterprises in delivering high-quality software solutions. Strategic planning is essential to integrate these trends into the testing pipeline to achieve efficiency. 

New software trends emerge frequently as we live in a technological era that brings unprecedented changes. Organizations must stay ahead of these trends to gain an edge over this highly competitive environment.